Games on hold indefinitely
As St. Charles Parish moves forward with planning the third phase of upgrades to Rathborne Park in Luling, youth baseball games at the park have been put on hold due to problems stemming from a lack of parking at the facility.
Expanding the parking area at the site is one of the major focuses of the Stage III park upgrades planned. There are currently 28 regular parking spots with three more ADA compliant (access for those with disabilities) spots. The most recent Phase III drawings detail a plan to add 30 more spots, according to the parish. Other Phase III additions currently planned include a restroom, concession and storage building and new lighting for the park’s walking path.
But in the meantime, complaints that people attending games at Rathborne received tickets while parking in nearby areas compelled the parish’s recreation department to move remaining games this youth baseball season from Rathborne to other sites.
Nicole Popp of Luling was leaving her son’s final game of the day on May 11 when she noted an unwelcome sight on the windshield of her car – a citation for parking on the curb.
“I saw the ticket and just said, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Popp said. “I was just parked in front of someone’s house, as if I were visiting someone … parked on the curb of the street like you see every day.”
Popp said there weren’t any “No Parking” signs in view and that she was not blocking traffic or a driveway.
“We looked up the statute for the violation, and the only thing it seems to pertain to is double parking, which I hadn’t done,” Popp said. “My dad suggested setting up a meeting with the DA, but it’s frustrating I have to take the time out of my schedule to do that for something like this.”
She said when she arrived for the game, she heard one of the team’s coaches saying they had to move their car because he heard there were vehicles being ticketed for parking on the corner. Popp didn’t think she had an issue, believing she had not broken any laws as her car was not on a corner.
Popp also said she did not attempt to park in what appeared to be a full lot, noting when she had done so for her son’s first game earlier that day, it was a “nightmare” to get out.
“It was like a funnel, one car in and one car out … we were all sitting there for a good while,” she said.
She said that two days later, the coach of her son’s team sent out an e-mail that remaining games set to be at Rathborne had been rescheduled as there would be no more games there for the time being.
“I guess enough people said something to them and it was a big enough deal to cancel all baseball games at that field. It’s a shame, though,” Popp said. “It’s a brand-spanking new field, one of two actually that are among the best we have in the parish, but we can’t utilize it because there’s not enough parking.”
According to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, Popp was cited for the part of the statute in question that addresses parking “on the roadway side of any vehicle stopped or parked at the edge or curb of a street.”
Sheriff’s Office spokesman Cpl. James Grimaldi said the reasoning for deputies’ presence there was due to a resident’s complaint, and that once on the scene, the officers noted a number of violations including vehicles parked on sidewalks and too close to curbs and intersections, creating a traffic hazard.
St. Charles Parish Parks and Recreation Director Duane Foret noted he had heard about the citations and said the parish hopes to address and correct the issue through the Phase III project, but added that to date, grant funding for the project has not yet been awarded.
“When we became aware of the ticketing we rescheduled games to other sites,” Foret said. “Rathborne Park is a neighborhood park and we hope that people nearby could walk, jog or bike to it to alleviate some of the issues as well.”
Grimaldi advised that when parking in crowded areas, particularly in neighborhoods, people must consider public safety as the top priority. He said cars blocking sidewalks divert those walking onto the roadway, that vehicles lining curbs along the roadway prevents drivers from seeing children who could potentially run out into the road and that vehicles parked near intersections prevents commuters from making safe and unrestricted turns and causes blind spots.
He added vehicles parked across from driveways often create an added obstacle for those backing into a roadway.
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