Lancaster city's street-cleaning signs specify no parking during a 31-w-hour time period on specific days, regardless of when the street sweeper actually arrives.

The city, however, has a longstanding but informal policy that residents are allowed to move their cars back onto the cleaned side of the street once the street sweeper has done its work, Mayor Rick Gray told City Council Tuesday night.

Gray, however, said the city believes tickets should be issued based on the times designated on the signs, not the location of the street sweepers.

"What we're looking at doing is just enforcing what the law is," he said. "When it's posted street cleaning, 'no parking' means 'no parking.'"ˆ"

Moving cars back onto the street after the sweeper makes its pass but before the time period expires is not only technically illegal, the mayor said, but it also causes a host of other problems for law enforcement personnel and employees of the city's public works department.

Under the current system, the ticketing officer has to be within sight of the street sweeper to determine whether cars are illegally parked.

This slows down the sweeper's progress and sometimes means the driver is unable to complete all of his or her routes, said Capt. Donald Palmer, the interim police chief.

Under the new policy, enforcement of the no parking signs can be done independently of the sweepers.

Freeing the enforcement officer from following the street sweeper also will allow that officer more time to perform his or her other duties, Palmer said.

More confusion is created when street sweepers sometimes go over the same street two or three times and people have prematurely moved their cars back onto the street, he said.

Enforcement of the informal policy also can be somewhat arbitrary, Gray said.

People have called the city to claim they received a ticket even though the sweeper already cleaned the street.

"There's no way to check that unless we were right there with the cleaner when they went by," Gray said.

Besides difficulties with enforcement, Gray said the city often plans to trim trees, clean sewers or fill potholes on the cleared sides of streets under the assumption no cars will be parked there.

City officials plan to start putting notices on cars this spring, warning residents of the impending change in policy, Gray said.

He said he will announce the date when the new ticketing system will begin.

"When it's posted street cleaning, 'no parking' means 'no parking.' "

Rick Gray

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