Dust-covered cars are taking up limited spaces in Homewood City Hall’s underground parking garage. Residents say something needs to be done.

Homewood officials are working to improve access to parking across the city, including maintenance to existing lots and analyzing where frequent traffic congestion can be relieved.

But some residents say there are other pressing problems that need to be addressed.

“Cars have been abandoned there for way more than 24 hours without any action being taken. Some have been parked in the same spots for years without being moved. People complain about parking in Homewood and here is something where action could be taken to free up space,” Robert O’Neal Holloway, a Homewood resident, said in a recent Facebook post.

“Also the trash that has not been cleaned up for months (sometimes years) in the city hall parking garage should be an embarrassment for Homewood.”

Meanwhile, maintenance above the city hall parking deck, which began on April 22 and is expected to last for another month, has caused disruptions in parking for drivers, causing them to use the garage more frequently.

Parking in Homewood has been a persistent problem that officials have long seen the need to improve, according to the city’s 2018 master plan.

“Visitors to downtown businesses routinely complain that they cannot find convenient parking during daytime lunch hours. Business owners complain that they must police their lots so that their patrons and employees can use them,” the master plan states.

Glen Adams, Homewood’s city manager, said that fixing parking is not a simple process but he is working with the city on making improvements.

In response to the social media complaints, Adams said he and other Homewood officials have called tow trucks when complaints are made, picked up trash every day, worked with contractors to speed up the scheduled lot maintenance and discussed increased parking enforcement around city hall.

“You have a requirement to maintain your facilities when you’re a municipality, and as such, our city council has been on it to make sure that we maintain our grounds throughout the community,” Glen Adams, Homewood’s city manager, told AL.com in early May.

This is a promise that, he said, he intends to keep.

“Parking is a sensitive issue. It remains a sensitive issue,” Adams said in a recent interview. “We pay attention to it.”