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

During council’s March 19 meeting, the six present council members voted in favor of Ordinance 351, which will amend and reenact 71.53 of the Code of the City of Elkins.

Third Ward Council member Christopher Lowther and Fifth Ward Council member Cody Thompson arrived at the meeting after the vote for the ordinance took place. First Ward representative Cody Kerns and Second Ward representative Michael Hinchman were absent.

According to Ordinance 351, 71.53 previously prohibited 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.”

The amended and reenacted 71.53 of the city code will now 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 on the first reading of the ordinance during the March 5 meeting, 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 would change anything from the original map in 71.53, to which Carroll replied, “Nothing has changed.”

Elkins City Council will meet Thursday, April 9 at 7 p.m. at the Phil Gainer Community Center.