The narrow streets of Greek Row are making it difficult for plans for new street parking to take off.

In order to build more street parking, the streets need to have a minimum width of 32 feet. Both Kimberly and Edgebrook Drives are 28 feet wide, which poses a problem for parking in the area.

Rick Monas, DeKalb public works director, presented a map of the Greek Row neighborhood Thursday night at the Greek Row Neighborhood Task Force meeting to explain why new parking would be a hard task to complete.

Widening streets for parking will be a problem because the process would eliminate walkways and street lights, Monas said.

“The streets were designed to code in the 1960s,” said Sue Guio, DeKalb’s community services planner. At the time, not as many students had cars as they do now.

Ashley Kent, a representative from the Alpha Delta Pi sorority, brought up her house’s concerns about people speeding by Ridge and Blackhawk Roads and then getting into accidents.

Kent suggested putting speed humps on Blackhawk Road to prevent people from speeding.

The girls of the Alpha Delta Pi house, where the meeting was held, have noticed three major accidents in the past five years. They still worry about the sharp turns motorists make while turning onto Blackhawk Road, Kent said.

About halfway through the meeting, the discussion was moved outside.

Improvements on lighting were discussed while the representatives took a walk down Greek Row.

Guio pointed out the 40 new street lights that were installed in the parking lots between buildings.

The new lights cost approximately $18,000 to install and cost $1,000 to illuminate. This cost is divided up between property owners.

New lights are scheduled to be installed next week on Greenbrier Road.

No final decisions were made on what to do about parking or speeding. Plans will be made at a future meeting, which has yet to be scheduled.