ELKINS — Elkins City Council has approved the first reading of an ordinance that clarifies within the Code of the City of Elkins which of the downtown alleys upon which parking is prohibited.

During council’s March 5 meeting, the eight present council members voted in favor of Ordinance 351, which would amend and reenact 71.53 of the Code of the City of Elkins. Second Ward representative Lisa Severino and Third Ward representative Christopher Lowther were absent from the Thursday meeting.

A final decision will be made with a vote on the second and last reading of the proposed ordinance during the council’s next meeting on April 9.

According to Ordinance 351, 71.53 currently prohibits parking within certain downtown alleys by reference to a map attached to Ordinance 298. However, also according to Ordinance 351, “the City’s online code platform cannot easily display or embed mapped exhibits, creating practical limitations for public access and clarity when a provision relies upon a map reference.”

If passed, the amended and reenacted 71.53 of the city code would state, “no person shall park a vehicle within any alley located within the area bounded and enclosed by Railroad Avenue, Randolph Avenue, John Street, Center Street and Lohr Lane, except when actually loading or unloading goods, wares or merchandise and then for a period not to exceed 30 minutes.”

Before council voted, Fourth Ward representative Andrew Carroll explained “the way that this was initially communicated as to where these parking boundaries are supposed to be was a map, and you can’t have a map in the online code. So this just takes what is said in the map and puts it into words that can then be codified and viewed online through the program that has all the city code.”

Fifth Ward representative Cody Thompson asked Carroll if this ordinance changes anything from the original map in 71.53, to which Carroll replied “nothing has changed.”

The Elkins City Council will meet again on April 9 at 7 p.m. at the Phil Gainer Community Center.