OSKALOOSA —
The Oskaloosa City Council approved Monday the first reading of an ordinance to allow people to park golf carts on city streets.
According to Oskaloosa city code, people may drive golf carts on city streets from sunrise to sunset, but they cannot park on streets.
The proposed amendment to the city ordinance would allow people to park golf carts on any city street, subject to the same terms and conditions as automobiles and other vehicles. The only restriction would be where they are prohibited by state law.
Most council members were open to allowing golf carts to park on city streets, but it will take some work to clean up the city code.
“I’m for it,” Council member Jason Van Zetten said. “It’s a city code cleanup. There’s a lot of convoluted code that needs to be cleaned up.”
“It’s a really messed up deal,” Council member Tom Walling said.
Council member Doug Yates asked Police Chief John “Jake” McGee if there are any safety considerations the council is overlooking.
“I can’t see anything,” McGee said.
McGee said the issue of golf carts seems to come up every year, and he agrees with City Manager Michael Schrock Jr. that city officials should see just what they want to put in the ordinance so the issue does not reemerge at a later date.
Council member Aaron VerSteeg favored voting on the ordinance at the meeting and then having a city committee work on the issue.
“It is a political question so far as to what do you want in there,” City Attorney Dave Dixon said.
VerSteeg said there should not be two codes for golf carts — one for the recreation trail and one for city streets.
The issue is being forwarded to the Public Safety Committee.
The first reading of the ordinance passed on a 5-2 vote with Walling and Council member Tom Jimenez voting “no.”
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