Fayetteville City Council Feb. 7 will hear the second reading and potentially vote on a proposed amendment to the city’s Loading Zone Ordinance.

Police Chief Steve Heaton proposed the changes to clarify the language and forestall confusion over the ordinance’s intent.

Several residents in recent months had expressed concern over being cited for fines related to what they said was an appropriate use of the loading zone at Lowe’s home improvement center and felt that the ordinance had been interpreted unfairly.

Heaton said the police department had spoken with several citizens who had received citations for parking in loading zones. Some expressed the concern that they were unfairly cited. Heaton said one of the issues of concern is that the signs posted at the businesses do not reflect the same verbiage as defined in the ordinance.

“The current ordinance outlines that the signs must say ‘loading only’ or ‘passenger loading only.’ The signs at the businesses indicate ‘loading zone only’ and ‘no parking,’” Heaton said.

“Another issue has been over the term ‘expeditiously loading’ in the (loading zone ordinance). ‘Expeditiously loading’ means the act of loading. After consulting with the city attorney, the proposed changes were made to strengthen our ordinance.”

Heaton subsequently recommended that the usage of the terms “loading only“ and “passenger loading only” be replaced with “having a sign erected giving notice that parking is for loading only.”

Specified in the ordinance section referencing loading zones and standing time, Heaton recommended removal of the sentence, “In no case shall the stop for loading and unloading of materials exceed 30 minutes, or for loading and unloading of passengers exceed five minutes.”

Remaining in the section was the requirement that no person should stop, stand or park a vehicle for any purpose other than for the expeditious unloading and delivery or pick up and loading of passengers or materials in a loading zone.

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