Business students affected by Garden Road parking soon will have the option again of parking near Barsema and on the east side of the road.

A motion passed 4 to 3 in favor of amending the municipal code that will allow students to park between 9 a.m. and 2 a.m. Monday through Friday.

With the almost evenly split decision, debate was heated and extensive, with safety being the primary issue tossed back and forth. Second Ward Alderman Kris Povlsen was opposed to the amendment, and said permitting students to park on Garden Road comes down to two topics.

“It’s convenience versus safety, and I’ll always put safety first,” Povlsen said.

First Ward Alderman Andy Small said that a major concern with the parking is the dangerous S-curve that generally is a blind spot for drivers when it’s dark and there are no lights.

Fifth Ward Alderman Patrick Conboy said although he was encouraged with how discussions regarding this topic have progressed, his stance on opposing the plan remained the same.

DeKalb resident Renie Adams, who resides on Garden Road, said she feared the greatest risk with bringing back parking would be creating another messy situation as the one seen on Lucinda Avenue.

“Lucinda is such a mess that I’m surprised nobody’s been killed there,” Adams said. “[This plan] would turn the street into another Lucinda nightmare.”

Sixth Ward Alderman David Baker, who favored the amendment, had DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen confirm the fact that with the additional parking on Garden Road, there have been no accidents reported.

“I would suggest a friendly amendment to try to satisfy everyone with no U-turns on Garden Road,” Baker said. “But I’m asking for at this point to put parking back on and have up to 140 spaces for students if the parking is striped, 119 if not.”

Seventh Ward Alderman Joseph Sosnowski said allowing parking back on Garden Road could accommodate 300 to 400 people during the course of an average school day. He said as long as the council would implement a no U-turn law for Garden Road, he would be a proponent of the amendment.

Three NIU students, all business majors who have class at Barsema Hall, said the need for them to have parking is going to increase next semester when another 200 accounting students, whose classes were located in other buildings, would make the transition to Barsema. They said the size of shuttle buses would only worsen the situation with winter approaching and therefore would need easier methods to alleviate the long walking.

The council approved initially to have no U-turns on Garden Road which was followed by the 4-3 vote to have the amendment rectified by allowing limited parking on Garden Road. The council would, however, not take immediate action on this and will allow those opposed of Garden Road parking to present arguments at the Dec. 9 meeting.

City Council unanimously approved the first reading to levy taxes for corporate purposes and have better alternatives presented at the Dec. 9 meeting. Taxes for police and fire pensions, airport levies and debt services were three of the six areas where the city would allocate taxes.

“This will give us time so people will call and let us know what they want,” Povlsen said.

Small said he was concerned over further taxing DeKalb residents because of many aspects already increasing taxes for residents, including the inevitability of a school referendum eventually passing.

“If we can go anywhere else besides property taxes, I’d like to look at it.”