The Hammond Board of Public Works and Safety approved posting residential-parking-only signs on a half-block of 160 Seventh (between Alabama and the west alley east of Kennedy) after a complaint filed through the Go Hammond website about vehicle parking near an auto dealership.

Felix Gonzalez, director of Hammond Public Works, submitted the request after staff and a complainant described heavy on-street parking near a nearby auto dealership at Kennedy and 160 Seventh. Gonzalez told the board the recommendation was to post residential-only parking signs in the half-block to address overflow parking that residents said was caused by the dealership.

Why it matters: changing a residential-parking designation requires notification under the city ordinance, board members said, and the city engineer’s recommendation supports the change. A board member suggested the city could post the restriction as a 90-day temporary measure while monitoring the effects, or move forward with a permanent seven-day notice process per the ordinance; the board directed staff to provide notice to council members and add the change to the traffic schedule.

The board approved the motion with the requirement that legal notice be provided to affected parties and that city staff add the change to the traffic schedule. The board recorded the affected block as the half-block of 160 Seventh between Alabama and the alley east of Kennedy (block number referenced in discussion as 2800 block).