Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 12, 1995 TAG: 9504120026
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Mike McClanahan used to be able to park on the street all day without getting a ticket while he worked at his job in downtown Roanoke. But no more.
McClanahan could get away with street parking because he's disabled. He has to watch the clock now because state law has changed.
Previously, cars with handicap tags or license plates bearing the universal wheelchair symbol could be left in any parking zone - even one for 15-minute parking - indefinitely. They still can go over the posted time limit, but only for four hours.
Under the new law, unlimited parking is permitted only in zones for the handicapped.
McClanahan, a salesman at Ewald-Clark on Church Avenue, got his first ticket after he parked on Church Avenue for four hours and seven minutes. That's seven minutes past the time allowed under the new law.
McClanahan, who has had diabetes since he was 5, had kidney and spleen transplant surgery about a year and a half ago. Despite the successful transplant, the bones in his right foot are crumbling.
He said the law is fine, but with the change should have come more designated parking downtown for the disabled.
There are no handicap spaces on Church Avenue, for example. In fact, he said the one closest to his workplace is about six blocks away.
``I'm supposed to stay off my foot as much as possible,'' he said, explaining that he still parks on the street but moves his car at lunchtime.
Although the law went into effect last summer, Roanoke police did not start writing tickets until March to allow time for people to learn about the change.
Lt. Ramey Bower Sr. of the traffic bureau said police spent the first seven months talking to people on the street who might be affected by the law. No notices were sent out by the state Department of Motor Vehicles to people with tags for the handicapped.
The goal of the new law is to create an equitable rotation of the parking spaces, Bower said. He noted that metered parking downtown never was intended for downtown employees.
``We want to treat our downtown disabled workers fairly, but we need to balance that with the needs of citizens who come to downtown to conduct business and need a place to park,'' he said.
Bower had no figures on the number of tickets issued to cars with tags for the disabled.
As of January, 77,721 tags for the disabled were in use in Virginia, according Jeanne Chenault, spokeswoman for the Department of Motor Vehicles. Figures on the number of tags issued in Roanoke were not available.
``There was no warning'' of the city's recent decision to begin enforcing the law, said Jim Clem, a disabled veteran who is a national service officer for the Disabled American Veterans.
Clem got three tickets when he parked on a street near the Poff Building as usual.
``I got two tickets before I knew of the change'' in enforcement, he said.
Clem, who has a disability that limits the raising and lowering of his foot, said he knew about the change in the law because of his job. He also knew local police had not been enforcing it.
``I've got mixed emotions [about the new law]; obviously there is some leeway in enforcement.''
``It's a bad law,'' said Bill Martin, who works in the Poff Building as national service officer for the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
Martin said limiting the time disabled people can park is ``a disservice,'' especially to those using wheelchairs.
``The solution is to more aggressively enforce the law'' defining who can use handicapped-parking privileges, Martin said.
Some business owners say they see abuse of parking by the handicapped on a daily basis.
Richard Mardian, who was co-owner of Parlor Days, at 331 Day Ave. S.W., said people abusing the handicap tags caused huge problems for his restaurant.
Parlor Days, which now is closed, had limited on-street parking in front of the restaurant two years ago. Those spaces seemed perpetually filled with cars bearing handicap placards, Mardian said
He asked police to investigate three drivers whose cars appeared often and were parked all day. One belonged to a lawyer who was in court three times a week at the Poff Building, just a block away.
Police discovered the drivers were not handicapped and that their handicap tags belonged to disabled relatives, Mardian said. The fine for this can be up to $100.
``It's such a problem, there's so many who need it and it's being abused,'' Mardian said.
Mardian said that after several calls to the city, parking in front of the restaurant was changed to a loading zone - the only designation in which handicapped motorists could not park indefinitely. The same thing was done in front of Malcolm Blue Print & Supply, on the other side of the Poff Building at 632 Second St.
But parking problems for customers continued, according to Mardian and an employee at Malcolm, because customers were not aware they could park in the loading zone to conduct their business.
Downtown Roanoke Inc.'s Ashley Waldvogel, a marketing manager, said the on-street parking spaces are extremely valuable to downtown businesses. Estimates of potential income from shoppers using those spaces is $427.70 a day, based on gross sales in 1991.
Much of the abuse of parking privileges for the handicapped comes from the ease with which one could get a permit.
Chenault said the DMV is tightening the application process for handicap tags and placards. New forms require not only a doctor's signature testifying that the applicant has a disability that ``limits or impairs the ability to walk,'' but also must include the doctor's medical license number and its expiration date.
Disabled people who allow able-bodied friends or relatives to use their tags will face not just a fine, but permanent loss of their disabled tag or placard, Chenault said.
by CNB