Students are just one vote away from being able to park on Garden Road.

After a motion passed 4-3 in favor of parking on Garden Road last week, just one more reading with a similar result will bring cars back to the road.

“I’ve spent a lot of time over there and I changed my mind and supported it. It makes sense with the amount of students,” 4th Ward Alderman Mike Knowlton said.

With striped parking slots and no U-turns, parking on Garden Road seemed permissible, Knowlton said.

Garden Road resident Renie Adams was not as easily convinced because of safety concerns.

Even when parking was allowed on Garden Road, before the opening of Barsema Hall, the road was full of cars from commuter students, Adams said.

“It never bothered us at all, but the reason we’re concerned now is because the street has changed,” Adams said.

She implied that because of the addition of huge amounts of pedestrians to the area, parking along the streets was a recipe for disaster.

“Parking was always there. Business students don’t understand this, all those spaces will fill up like they used to before the business building existed and the students will be driving around looking for parking,” Adams said.

Second Ward Alderman Kris Povlsen said he was disappointed with the entire process of considering parking on Garden Road.

“The process bothers me. Whenever we’ve looked at changing parking in the past, we’ve met with property owners, and at this point, we’ve had no meetings with property owners,” Povlsen said.

Povlsen wants to listen to first-hand information from residents.

“I’m getting a strong message from police and residents that it is a safety concern,” Povlsen said.

Third Ward Alderman Steve Kapitan was optimistic about residents’ safety concerns.

“Barsema will not turn into Normal [Road] because there is not a sidewalk on both sides of the street,” Kapitan said.

Allowing parking will not make the street any more dangerous than Lincoln Highway’s parking situation in downtown DeKalb, Kapitan said.

“We need to sit down and find a safe and logical plan, and the university needs to take part,” 5th Ward Alderman Pat Conboy said.

The next city council meeting and the decision on the Garden Road issue will happen Dec. 9.