Battle Over No Parking Signs Near TCU Campus

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FORT WORTH (CBS11) - The City of Fort Worth is trying to figure out how to make a neighborhood safe from traffic after residents tried to regulate a public street on their own.

The neighborhood sits across from TCU on Berry Street.

The university lost parking on it's side when a construction project started. Rather than park on the other side of campus, many students found the one street in the neighborhood across the street that didn't have parking regulations.

"A lot of the cars were here for days because they didn't want to lose their spot," said Texas Appellate Judge Larry Meyer who lives in the neighborhood.

"So all the kids just parked here," he said. "You know, just stacked deep with big trucks and SUVs for whole semester. It was just a nightmare!"

When the city didn't regulate parking on the street, some of the homeowners took matters into their own hands and put up signs reading, "Resident Parking Only" and "No Parking Any Time" with a threat of towing.

These weren't official signs -- there is no city ordinance saying you can't park in this public street -- but the signs looked official.

"We are not trying to be rogue neighbors or anything," Meyer said. "We are just doing it for safety."

"You can't put signs in the public right of way," said Fort Worth Council Member Ann Zadeh who lives in the neighborhood and represents it on council. "My understanding is the signs are coming down."

Zadeh says by ordinance the unofficial signs have to come down. She says the city asked residents to take the signs off the poles while the city studied the problem.  The signs were removed but so reappeared.

Tuesday, city crews used hammers to free the poles from the ground to completely remove the signs.

"We were not trying to break the law by any means," Meyer said. "We were just trying to give the TCU kids notice to, you know, park where TCU has told you to park."

But because of the concerns raised by the residents, official signs will likely go up soon.

"And we're working through the proper channels to have the staff look at that and figure out a solution whether that's being one side of the street parking or limiting the hours that people can park there," Zadeh said.

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