Residents and business owners along Bridge Street have appealed to City Council to restrict parking in order to deter a dangerous situation on a narrow street overrun by commuter parking.

In an April 26 letter to City Council, residents and business owners requested relief from what they described as “an accident waiting to happen” that also makes it difficult to operate their businesses or even exit their own properties.

“Bridge Street is only two blocks long and significantly narrower than a normal city street,” according to a letter from Matt Sloves of AC Mechanical Design on Essex Street. “The issue my neighbors and I have is people park there daily from Clarkson Street to Essex Street along the railroad track side and walk to the train station, creating a situation where we cannot safely navigate our business vehicles on and off our properties.”

A visit to Bridge Street on late Wednesday afternoon showed that both sides of the street were filled with parked cars for most of the length from Essex Street to Clarkson Place. Three other Essex Street businesses also impact the parking situation because of the heavy equipment and vehicles required to navigate the street and driveways: Sandro Construction, Johnny’s Garage and Auto Body, and Dock Door Rail Welding.

In a brief interview after Wednesday’s Redevelopment Agency meeting, City Administrator Cherron Rountree said she was hopeful that a solution would be found to restrict parking, possibly as soon this month’s City Council meeting — scheduled for tonight — or at some point this summer.

In his letter to City Council, Sloves and other residents offered three suggestions for parking restrictions along Bridge Street:

• “No Parking” on the railroad side of the street;
• “Two-hour parking only” on the railroad side of the street; and,
• “No parking from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.” on the railroad track side from the gate at 1697 Bridge St. to Essex Street.

UPDATED, JUNE 12: City Council introduced an ordinance (O-9-18) that would prohibit parking at all times on the west side of Bridge Street from East Grand Avenue to Clarkson Place. The measure to amend Chapter 401 of the Code of the City of Rahway (Vehicles and Traffic) is scheduled to come up for a public hearing and final approval at the July 9 meeting.

There don’t seem to be any parking regulations currently on Bridge Street but neighboring Essex Street has a four-hour limit between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. in addition to residential permit parking. City Council has in the past restricted parking in response to resident complaints about commuters parking along streets several blocks from the train station.

A concept plan presented to the Redevelopment Agency last year proposed 174 units among two buildings that would take up much of the block from Clarkson Place to Essex Street. To move forward, the project would require a Flood Hazard Area (FHA) permit waiver from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Tesla Development, LLC, which proposed the Bridgeview project, filed for the hardship exception in March. DEP typically takes four to six months to review applications.