Public Works eliminating 16 parking spaces from Deer Park neighborhood

The house fire on the 1800 block of Stevens Avenue last November may be extinguished (LC: Wednesday before Thanksgiving), but a spark from that fire may have lit another.

Seven people rescued from the fire, many with help from neighbors Randall and Gaia Bohannon before Louisville Fire and Rescue arrived, were taken to the hospital. One victim, Benjamin Rau, 88, died two weeks later.

Mistakes may have been made.

"No trucks" sign on 1900 block of Steven's Av

On their way to the fire, Louisville Fire and Rescue chose to ignore the posted "no trucks" sign on Stevens, thus scraping the right front corner of an unoccupied car parked on the corner of Stevens and Fernwood.

At least some of the ambulances responding to the fire that morning were perhaps overly intimidated by the "no trucks" sign, choosing instead to park in the Gate's Automotive parking lot, and wheeling victims of the fire an entire block.

The delay Louisville Fire and Rescue experienced by scraping the car or by the ambulances parking a block from the scene is unknown.

Also unknown, is why emergency vehicle drivers did not take advantage of access to the 1800 block where the fire was located directly from Norris Place.

While emergency vehicles they would have needed to travel down a way down a one way street for a few hundred feet, it was about 6 AM. There likely was no traffic.

No one would ever find fault with the route chosen by the driver of an emergency vehicle. Emergency responders must choose routes quickly, under unimaginable stress.

But in what happens next, this author sides with the Deer Park neighborhood.

On January 11, 2012, Ashley T. Sells, a Traffic Engineer with the Department of Public Works, sent a letter only to the 10-12 homes closest to the intersection Fernwood Avenue and Stevens Avenue. The letter starts:

"This mailing is being sent to inform you of a parking change on Stevens Avenue."

Specifically, Sells was notifying residents they were losing what appears to be, from a graphic she provided, 16 parking spaces. The sacrifice is for fire lanes. 

Approximately 8 parking spaces will be taken from the 1900 block of Stevens.

Approximately 8 parking spaces will be taken from the 1800 block of Stevens.

The parking changes are needed, Sells claimed in the letter, because:

"...the fire apparatus cannot make the turn if vehicles are parked along this section of the roadway. The change (see attachment) would be to install NO PARKING ANYTIME FIRE LANE in these areas."

Any of the 10-12 residents who received Sells letter, had until January 25 to contact her, "if they had any questions." There was no offer for Public Works to consider public input from the community, or even to notify all the affected parties in the community before the change.

Area residents, especially on Stevens, are already scrambling for parking as a result of the recently remodeled Seviche-A Latin Restaurant's success. Stevens is parallel to Maplewood Place, where some homes actually have no parking spaces at all. Those residents typically park on Fernwood, Stevens, Bardstown Rd, or Bonnycastle Avenue. Like the Seviche customers often do.

After one of the alerted parties notified the rest of the neighborhood of the change, including Seviche, emails were exchanged, and Councilman Tom Owen was asked to intervene.

Sells email to Councilman Owen

Sells responded to Owen's intervention in an email where she illustrated just how little influence Owen had in the matter:

"The Fire companies want the fire lane as marked to remain the same with no changes."

Sells did offer to notify all the residents of Stevens Avenue, "if need be," she wrote.

In a previous email to concerned Deer Park residents, Owen wrote, "We need the wisdom of Solomon." 

Multiple residents have pointed out there are countless intersections in Louisville with even more narrower passages than the one being targeted.

"There needs to be some kind of compromise, because taking both sides of both blocks seems extreme." says Marilyn Belak, a Stevens Avenue resident.

An aerial view of the effected intersection:


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