FAIRBORN — Parking in front of community mailboxes throughout the City of Fairborn is now prohibited after council passed such ordinance Aug. 7. A community mailbox is a “cluster” of four or more boxes in one location and are sometimes found near apartments or densely-populated areas.
If caught, motorists will first be warned. However, if parking in front of the community mailboxes becomes a regular occurrence — they will be fined.
“The post office will not deliver mail, or is not required to deliver mail, if the mailbox is blocked by a parked car,” City Engineer Don O’Connor said as he presented the ordinance to council. “We don’t currently have a law in Fairborn to prevent people from parking in front of these mailboxes.”
Apartment building owners who have properties along Forest Lane near Wright State University listed their complaints to city officials. Residents were not receiving their mail due to cars being parked in front of the boxes. The city opted to reach out to the postal service to ask how the ordinance could be worded to best serve the mail carriers. They responded that cars should be at least five feet in front or behind the mailboxes, which is specified in the ordinance. Although it is a specific area of the community that is impacted more often by the parking issues, the ordinance will impact the entire City of Fairborn.
“There’s a high demand for parking along those streets,” O’Connor said in reference to Forest Lane. “It is a relatively narrow street. On the north side, we restricted parking to ‘no parking allowed’ for years now, so that makes the demand for parking more valuable. If someone sees parking in front of the mailbox, they’re more likely to take it.”
City officials discussed how to notify citizens about the new ordinance, which is how they decided that it would be more fair to first give motorists a warning before issuing a fine. It has not yet been decided if the city will paint the curbs yellow along the community mailboxes.
“I’m glad we’re doing it city-wide,” Council member Marilyn McCauley said. “It is my understanding that the post office is going to require community mailboxes in all new developments. I think we are ahead of the game by putting something in place, but I also think painting the curbs yellow would be a good idea that way it would be very obvious not to park there.”
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
