Public Input_Adam SchwendingerKevin Firnstahl - "Contact Us" inquiry from City of Dubuque website
Contact Us
Name: Adam Schwendinger
Phone: 5635838349
Email: kaylea.schwendinger@gmail.com
City Department: City Council
Message: These were our notes from 7/6/15 public input. My brother, Adam, was unable to share all the information. Please
contacts us back at kaylea.schwendinger@gmail.com or ASchwendinger.Senior@gmail.com. You may also call us at (563)
583-8349 (home)...our address is 1845 Bennett Street, Dubuque, IA 52001. Thank you!
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From:"Citizen Support Center" <dubuqueia@mycusthelp.net>
To:<kfirnsta@cityofdubuque.org>
Date:7/6/2015 8:14 PM
Subject:"Contact Us" inquiry from City of Dubuque website
Attachments:To_Council.docx
Page 1 of 1
7/7/2015file:///C:/Users/kfirnsta/AppData/Local/Temp/XPgrpwise/559AE1BBDBQ_...
(7/7/2015) Kevin Firnstahl - To_Council.docx Page 3
-The residents of Bennett Street do not want to pay for residential
city parking permits.
-*On Grace Street, there are residential parking permit signs from the
city that were installed approximately 20 years ago, which to this day
are still a challenge to enforce. Students are still parking there, even
though there is a parking lot nearby. Even neighbors on Grace Street
are frustrated.
-Back lot of Westminister is available but students do not want to park
there; security guard Judy has told one of neighbors this.
Our Concern and Questions:
Our concern is for a solution to come about before the upcoming school
year.
Our neighborhood inquires why our street’s request for signs was
rejected, since we are in the middle of all of the no parking signs put
up around us.
What more can the neighbors do on their part to resolve this
situation? We have made numerous attempts to contact the UD and
having no one return calls or willing to meet with us, we would like to
know if the city has a mediator available to work with the neighborhood
in resolving this issue?
Mr. Oliverius, who had worked at the UD, told a neighbor it was the
city’s responsibility to take care of this. Is this true?
This is where I’ve lived my entire life and where I’ve grown up. I’ve
seen a lot of changes over the years, and it seems as though whenever
there are concerns regarding the UD’s future plans of expansion and
(7/7/2015) Kevin Firnstahl - To_Council.docx Page 4
parking, the solution always seems to be more parking lots, but that
doesn’t solve the problems. The parking lots are located on the wrong
side of campus, and many students really don’t like taking a shuttle
service.
I remember a quote that said, “If you are not a part of the solution,
you are a part of the problem.” The UD claims to work with the
neighbors, but we see no evidence of this. We wish for a more concrete
resolution, and to be more unified as a community.
As members of our city government, is there any guidance you can give
us to resolve this problem?
We respect the University of Dubuque’s expansions, but we expect the
same respect back as neighbors.
Do you have any questions for us?
Thank you!
Objective: We as a community/neighborhood of Bennett Street
request “UD No Parking for staff and students” signs to be put up, and
for the University of Dubuque to be responsible for enforcing them.
The council has approved for the University of Dubuque to erect a new
building for their physician assistant program, which is occurring during
this time. This was approved in December of 2014. At that time, the
Bennett Street neighborhood came to council expressing our concerns
regarding problems with parking on Bennett Street and the escalation
of this problem, due to a parking lot being removed in the area. Since
that time, the engineering department of Dubuque has requested “No
UD parking” signs to be placed on Bennett Street. The University of
Dubuque has followed up just last month. An e-mail was sent to the
engineering department of Dubuque via Mr. Steiner saying that they
will not be expanding signs on Bennett Street. We are still seeking a
resolution for our stressful situation.
Some things you should know/reasons why we request signs:
-Bennett Street is one-sided parking
-There are residents without a driveway, and need to park on the
street
-Residents have had to put four way flashers on and park in the street,
just to bring their groceries in the house or elderly family members in
their homes, etc.
-On December 8, 2014…25 residents signed a petition for “NO
University of Dubuque” parking signs for students and staff. 20
households signed out of 27 houses surveyed...the 6 that did not sign,
were not home at the time, and 1 was vacant. That’s about 80 percent
of our neighborhood, excluding the vacant home.
-The address that I live at on Bennett is 5-600 feet from the nearest
UD property. The furthest sign from the UD being nearly 1,000 feet
from their property, if not more, located on Finley and University
streets.
-There are “NO UD staff or student parking” on the following
residential streets: West 3rd, Grace, Ida, Auburn, Algona, Pearl, Finley,
West, McCormick, Mineral Street, Gilliam, O’Hagen, and North Algona
(the street map that the city provided us indicates these streets that
have UD signs, but does not encompass all of them)
-We are centrally located within all of these streets and have
requested signs, but were denied by the University of Dubuque.
-Finley construction workers park on the East portion of Bennett
Street all the way down to the 1800 block of Bennett. UD students
also park up and down Bennett Street, resulting in no parking for
residents.
-This past year, students have had street storage on Bennett Street,
in which numerous times the police had to be called. For several weeks,
numerous vehicles have remained parked on our street, sometimes in a
way where others could not park around them.
-We have been told by students and staff that the reason why
students and staff park here is because they do not want to pay the
high price charge for a parking permit and Bennett Street is more
convenient for them to get to their classes and work, than the parking
that is provided.
-The residents of Bennett Street do not want to pay for residential
city parking permits.
-*On Grace Street, there are residential parking permit signs from the
city that were installed approximately 20 years ago, which to this day
are still a challenge to enforce. Students are still parking there, even
though there is a parking lot nearby. Even neighbors on Grace Street
are frustrated.
-Back lot of Westminister is available but students do not want to park
there; security guard Judy has told one of neighbors this.
Our Concern and Questions:
Our concern is for a solution to come about before the upcoming school
year.
Our neighborhood inquires why our street’s request for signs was
rejected, since we are in the middle of all of the no parking signs put
up around us.
What more can the neighbors do on their part to resolve this
situation? We have made numerous attempts to contact the UD and
having no one return calls or willing to meet with us, we would like to
know if the city has a mediator available to work with the neighborhood
in resolving this issue?
Mr. Oliverius, who had worked at the UD, told a neighbor it was the
city’s responsibility to take care of this. Is this true?
This is where I’ve lived my entire life and where I’ve grown up. I’ve
seen a lot of changes over the years, and it seems as though whenever
there are concerns regarding the UD’s future plans of expansion and
parking, the solution always seems to be more parking lots, but that
doesn’t solve the problems. The parking lots are located on the wrong
side of campus, and many students really don’t like taking a shuttle
service.
I remember a quote that said, “If you are not a part of the solution,
you are a part of the problem.” The UD claims to work with the
neighbors, but we see no evidence of this. We wish for a more concrete
resolution, and to be more unified as a community.
As members of our city government, is there any guidance you can give
us to resolve this problem?
We respect the University of Dubuque’s expansions, but we expect the
same respect back as neighbors.
Do you have any questions for us?
Thank you!