Go Around Rosemont Gates, Risk a Ticket

Fairlawn City Council gave police the go-ahead Monday to start citing drivers who go around or through the gates at Rosemont Boulevard.

Council added a section to the city's traffic code that specifically addresses motorists who go through a gated road or slip around the barriers.

"We've never blocked off streets in the past, so we didn't have any tools for the police to enforce it," Council President Russ Sharnsky said.

For now, the new law will apply to the gates on Rosemont, but could eventually also be used to enforce barriers at Rothrock Road, if the judge rules in Fairlawn's favor in an ongoing court battle.

Mayor William Roth has said people have already tried to drive around the concrete barricades and gates at Rosemont Boulevard.

"People try to drive around the gates, drive through lawns and in between the trees on Rosemont," Roth said last month. "Rosemont is not part of the (Rothrock) litigation, so we can enforce it there now."

The new measure addresses traveling on or around a closed roadway.

Sharnsky said the gates are needed to protect the residential integrity of the area, which contains about 10 percent of Fairlawn's housing stock, when new retail opens on Rothrock, leading to more traffic on main roads and a temptation for motorists to cut through neighborhoods.