Gary’s Common Council approved an ordinance Tuesday meant to make it legal for residents to operate golf cars for personal transportation in the city.
Council members voted 7-2 in favor of an ordinance by Councilman Herb Smith, D-At large, that calls for the Gary Police to issue annual permits to allow residents to own and use golf carts on side streets in the city.
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They would be prohibited on major streets such as Broadway, Grant Street, Fourth and Fifth avenues, Cline Avenue, Dunes Highway, Clay Street, Airport Road, Industrial Highway and portions of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive – except at intersections with side streets where a person is driving the golf cart across the major street.
An annual fee of $100 for a golf cart permit will be charged by the city, and people found by police to be in violation of the ordinance can be fined up to $2,500 – with the city also having the authority to refuse to renew the permit for future year use.
Smith said he crafted the ordinance at the request of local residents and found that Indiana law permits municipalities to regulate golf cart use.
He said most of the instances of Gary residents using golf carts for transportation involve people who live in the Miller section near Lake Michigan.
Councilwoman LaVetta Sparks-Wade, D-6th, said she is aware of one resident in the area around King Drive and Ridge Road using a cart to scoot around the neighborhood.
Smith said he thinks Gary ought to encourage the golf cart use because he thinks it can help but upgrade the city’s image. He said people will associate golf carts with upper-income people.
“Affluent people tend to think of using things like this,” he said. “It could help change the way people think about Gary.”
The two council members opposing the measure were Sparks-Wade and Councilwoman Ragen Hatcher, D-At large.
Sparks-Wade said she had concerns about charging people a $100 fee to operate a golf cart. “I think it’s a little steep,” she said, even though Smith said the fee is intended to cover the cost of the police having to check the carts to ensure they’re safe to operate on public roads.
Hatcher said she didn’t like the idea of giving police officers another reason to regulate Gary residents.
“Do we really want to give police more reasons to pull people over,” she said.
Gary Police Deputy Chief Brian Evans said police are not viewing the new ordinance as a means of issuing more citations. “We will be advising people using the carts if they’re in a condition that might be unsafe,” he said.
Evans also said the Gary ordinance was crafted with similar ordinances in Munster, Merrillville and Lake Station in mind.
The ordinance technically takes effect once Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson gives it final approval, and she said Tuesday she will sign it into law “right away.”
She admits the measure will require some other alterations to municipal law, and those will take some time to implement. Freeman-Wilson said those changes could be in place, along with the golf cart ordinance, by Aug. 1.
In other business, Gary Common Council officials rescheduled their next full meeting from Aug. 7 at City Hall to Aug. 8.
The change in dates is to accommodate the National Night Out event rally Gary plans to hold as part of a string of national events meant to give people a chance to stand up against crime and violence within the community.
Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.