The Jamestown City Council discusses the request from Larry Barmore, Chautauqua County clerk, about eliminating the metered parking spaces in front of the Jamestown Department of Motor Vehicles, located at 512 W. Third St. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

A request by the Chautauqua County clerk to eliminate parking meters in front of the Jamestown Department of Motor Vehicles to designate the spaces for the facility most likely won’t be acted on.

Last Monday, Larry Barmore, Chautauqua County clerk, requested that city officials provide free on-street parking spaces, which would be designated for the county DMV.

On Monday, Sam Teresi, Jamestown mayor, said this isn’t the first time city officials have received a request to eliminate metered parking in front of a facility. He said hundreds of businesses have made similar requests.

Peter Larson, city corporation counsel, gave a report on the research he did into the legality of fulfilling Barmore’s request. He said the council can vote to approve pulling the meters for free parking for a limited amount of time. However, he said there are some legal issues on whether the parking spaces could be designated just for the DMV.

Anthony Dolce, Ward 2 council, said he wants to work with county officials to find a solution because he doesn’t want the DMV to leave the downtown. However, he said it would be unenforceable to designate the parking spaces just for the DMV because there is no way of knowing if the vehicles belong to customers using the facility.

Brent Sheldon, Ward 1, said city officials could eliminate the parking meters and making the spaces free short-term parking.

Teresi said he will talk to county officials about what the possible options are for the council regarding the parking spaces.

County officials moved the DMV to Third Street in 2015. The DMV was previously located along Pine Street at the South County Office Building, located at 110 E. Fourth Street.

In other business, the council Housing Committee discussed the revamped rental registration that city officials asked landlords to fill out in April. To date, Vince DeJoy, city development director, said 2,500 properties have been registered. He said the information acquired from the rental registrations has been very useful, especially in acquiring email addresses of owners and property managers. He added that they have received returned forms in the mail and that it’s a tedious task to try and find the correct address for some rental property owners or property managers.