By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

ANDERSON TWP. - Trustees late Thursday put the brakes on new street parking restrictions aimed at improved public safety.

A resolution is under consideration that would prohibit street parking in cul-de-sacs and on the side of a street where fire hydrants are located. The measure would take effect on any particular street only after a "no parking" sign was erected. Violators would be ticketed, fined $60 and could be towed.

But several residents urged township leaders to delay adopting the rule, saying they wanted more time to study it. And, they stressed, it should target only trouble areas, not the entire township.

"There have to be exceptions to every rule," Jack O'Brien, 68, told trustees.

Trustees agreed to hold off, but they appeared determined that some action be taken. The parking issue has worried leaders in this eastern Hamilton County suburb as its population has grown to more than 43,000 residents living on many narrow streets, some in homes with single-vehicle garages and driveways.

A major concern is for school buses, snowplows, firetrucks and other vehicles trying to move down packed streets during emergencies.

Several residents backed the proposed restrictions, saying that they are long overdue.

"If there were a fire at our house, a firetruck couldn't get down our street," said Bernadette Long, 51, who brought photos of vehicles parked around her driveway.

The Anderson Township proposal is similar to efforts in Colerain Township. There, however, streets are reviewed for no-parking lanes on a case-by-case basis, Administrator David Foglesong said.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.