Irmo petition says kill parking law. Mayor says no

Will Irmo Town Council back off or at least change its controversial parking law?

On Tuesday, the council is scheduled to discuss two competing items, both related to the new parking ordinance: one proposing the ordinance be amended to exempt people with handicap plates or stickers, and one proposing to repeal the ordinance altogether.

For more than a week, some Irmo residents collected signatures on a petition opposing the ordinance. The new law, which limits where Irmo residents and visitors can park on private property, was passed in January and enforced as of Aug. 1.

Even before the law took effect, Irmo citizens aired their concerns and complaints on the Citizens of the Town of Irmo Facebook group and at town council meetings. Once warning notices and tickets were being issued in August, those feelings intensified for some local residents.

Two complaints about the system involve visitors and the cost to comply. While visitors are exempted, some reported being ticketed because Irmo has no official badge or visitor permit system. Other residents complain about the cost of buying supplies to build an approved parking pad or to pay for an exemption.

The town’s most recent parking ordinance also does not include an exemption for people with physical disabilities. Still, some officers were lenient when issuing notices to people with disabilities or the officers referred residents’ cases to Town Administrator Robert Brown. Brown did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails from The State.

Homeowners said the law was government “overreaching,” dictating what they can and cannot do on their own land, which they never agreed to do when they moved into Irmo.

“Our right to peaceful and quiet enjoyment has been grievously challenged by the Irmo Town Council,” petition organizers Brandi Clarkson and Gloria Jordan wrote in an open letter.

Irmo Mayor Hardy King has stood by the ordinance, saying he was fulfilling the wishes of his constituents, who wanted more attractive neighborhoods and higher property values.

King said Monday he doesn’t expect the organizers to meet their goal of about 1,000 signatures because there aren’t a thousand people against the law. But even if there were, he said it wouldn’t change his mind. Plus, all of Irmo is expected to, at this rate, be in compliance with the law by the end of the month, he said.

Councilman Barry Walker, an opponent of King’s leadership, added the ordinance repeal to the agenda over the weekend. Does he expect to be successful in the repeal? No, he wrote in an email.

But by adding the item to the agenda, citizens can speak at the beginning of the meeting. And if the council denies the repeal, the citizens can submit their petition, he said. The organizers say they plan to present the petition to the council at the meeting, even if they haven’t met their signature goal.

“We’re going to keep getting signatures. Everybody’s pretty positive about it,” said New Friarsgate resident Michelle Carpenter, who had planned to go door to door in her neighborhood collecting signatures before Hurricane Florence ruined those plans.

As of Monday, the petition had more than 100 signatures, Carpenter said.

According to South Carolina law, citizens can petition a municipal government to pass or repeal an ordinance. The number of signatures must equal 15 percent of the number of registered voters who participated in the last regular municipal election.

All signers must be registered voters who live in the Town of Irmo.

Once the petition is submitted to council and verified, if the 15 percent goal is met, the council would have a decision to make: repeal the ordinance or open it to a public vote in a referendum, which would need to take place within a year.

Even so, these kinds of citizen-initiated petitions are uncommon, said South Carolina Election Commission spokesperson Chris Whitmire.

Though the petition itself does not cause an ordinance to be passed or repealed, Whitmire said, it sends a clear message to town council. That’s exactly what these citizens wanted, organizers said.

“Our concerns were ignored, and now we are seeing them played out,” Clarkson and Jordan wrote in the letter. “We believe there is no other recourse except to file a formal petition to force a council vote.”

The controversy and intercouncil bickering is “all politics,” King said, and has to do with Walker’s run for mayor in 2019.

The next Irmo Town Council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 18 at the Irmo Municipal Building (7300 Woodrow St.)

This story was originally published September 17, 2018 at 6:34 PM.