The Covington City Council is considering a text amendment to the city parking ordinance which would significantly weaken the ordinance and undermine its purpose of permitting and encouraging walkability and pleasing aesthetics in future commercial development. This ordinance has been in effect since 2008; McDonald’s, IHOP, Kaufman Tire, Covington Ford, Waffle House have willingly complied with it.

Much effort has been made by the city to update zoning regulations to both ensure and attract good and sustainable development. This text amendment would undermine those efforts.

When potential developers and companies consider Covington, they need to know that we have good, clean, “up to date” ordinances, that we enforce them and are consistent with them. Without this reassurance, good developers will lack the confidence that Covington will protect their investments. They need to know that we don’t simply rewrite ordinances on a whim.

We encourage the Covington City Council to maintain the current parking ordinance unchanged and we encourage Covington citizens to contact their representatives and ask them to reject the text amendment.

We are both so proud of Covington and Newton County for the forward thinking that produced the Leadership Collaborative and the 2050 Plan, initiatives that will be a gift to future generations – the parking ordinance is a small piece of those initiatives — let’s keep it as written.

Betsy and Sandy
Morehouse