Pittsfield Moves Toward Alternate-Side Snow Emergency Parking

We usually start to see winter parking ban notifications coming in to our studios in early to late November, sometimes earlier. This year, however, the notice from the City of Pittsfield may be looking a bit different. Many cities have an alternate-side parking plan when it comes to snow emergencies, and now it looks like Pittsfield may go in that direction.

The Berkshire Eagle reports, in its Wednesday edition, that in a change from long-standing policy, the city is moving to allow people to park their cars on city streets during snow emergencies. That practice has long been banned in Pittsfield so that plow trucks can get through, but the City Council agreed by a 10-1 vote Tuesday, to allow people anywhere in the city to park their vehicles on one side of a street during declared snow emergencies.

According to the article, the change will still need additional approval from another panel, but the goal would be to get the change fully authorized before the first major snowstorms of the winter hits.

This is how the policy would work:

• On odd days, vehicles would park on the sides of streets with the odd-numbered addresses.
• On even days, parking would be allowed on streets with even-numbered addresses.

With those rules, residents of the city, in a multiday emergency, would need to move their vehicles at least every 24 hours.

Although it looks like this will ultimately be the policy going forward, not every city council member thinks it’s a good idea. The Eagle reports that Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi, who voted against the change, says he worries that it could be hard to notify residents about the change.