Flurry of new ideas, perspectives on Washington parking codes

WASHINGTON — Last week’s Washington city council meeting featured a familiar spotlight on proposed street and parking ordinances, as residents returned to voice complaints about possible street parking changes.

Like previous meetings, the bulk of complaints focused on the city’s pitch to limit parking on portions of East Main Street and East Second Street, as well as broader limits on Highland Avenue.

The meeting was the third since a committee of city officials recommended a series of parking ordinance changes that range from a non-controversial stop sign on a two-house street to school no-parking zones to more heavily criticized ideas mentioned above. While the city has not yet moved to a first reading for any ordinance changes, officials said they would do so at their next meeting.

Residents say city hasn’t thought out trade offs

Residents of areas up for possible changes said parking limits would have unforeseen consequences not yet addressed by the council.

Don Bayliss, who owns property on East Main Street, said one-sided parking would jeopardize access for residents with mobility challenges.

“I’ve got older people who live in those (rentals) that are handicapped,” he said. “We have no parking out back, there’s not an option, they’ve got to park out front … and I haven’t seen any handicapped spaces allotted for those people, but something would have to be done if you take away the north side.”

Don Hughes, another Main Street resident, said one-sided parking would create other problems across the street where cars would park.

“I already have cars that crowd my driveway, I already have issues getting my garbage out to the curb and hoping it gets picked up,” he said. “If it’s a situation where we really feel like it has to go to one-sided parking, I would request that it alternates so I can play Russian roulette, so then maybe I can get my garbage out this week, get my snow cleared this week, maybe I don’t.”

Jennifer Durst is a resident of North Marion Avenue, another street with one-sided parking on the table for a narrow stretch of the road. She said council members should more carefully think out the plans.

“The information in tonight’s board packet does not contain information to address issues that will arise because of the proposed changes,” Durst said. “I am asking the council to please have strategic, proactive discussions on some of the fallout of the decisions being proposed before moving forward.”

Flurry of new solutions pitched

Last week’s council meeting brought with it a number of new proposals from city council members not discussed previously.

Council Member Steve Gault pitched a sweeping change: citywide alternating parking for every street. Under his proposal, cars could park on the side of the street with odd-numbered addresses on odd-numbered days of the month, or the opposite on even-numbered days.

“It works in Iowa City, it works in University Heights, it works everyplace,” he said. “It doesn’t make it so one person has to be the recipient of all the stuff that’s going on … if you’re going to make it so we have all these parking regulations and stuff, make it odd and evens through the whole town, so the whole town knows.”

Gault said the plan would solve more than just parking issues, and be easier to enforce than patchwork ordinances.

“Our police chief and his officers know who is moving their cars because they have to do it, you can’t have a piece of junk sitting on the curb for a week,” he said. “Unless we do something like this, we’re going to have people that don’t get their garbage picked up, people that don’t move their cars and we’ll have snow sitting when streets are plowed.”

While other council members were skeptical, Gault said there would be no universally popular solutions to the city’s parking concerns.

“We can go over it and settle it, and six months from now, we’re going to have a half-dozen people in here complaining about parking,” he said. “It doesn’t make a bit of difference, we’re not going to have anybody happy.”

Mayor Jaron Rosien said the cost of signage for such a move would be high.

“We would need to probably get a quote on what it would cost for street signs across the entire city,” he said. “Probably a quarter-million dollars.”

Council Member Elaine Moore floated a plan to implement paid street parking passes.

“If you’re going to have an excess of cars, whether it be rental or residential, and you don’t have enough room to park in your driveway, you can get a parking pass to park in the street,” she said. “We could use the income as a city … It is my responsibility to have a place to park for my car, it is not (the city’s) responsibility.”

Council Member Bethany Glinsmann said the city should consult experts with more experience than its own streets committee.

“There is research out there, there are city planners that do this for a living,” she said. “It feels to me that this whole set of parking recommendations has very good intentions, but it feels a bit uninformed. We don’t have evidence, really, supporting these recommendations.”

City separates out “low-hanging fruit”

City officials have sorted ordinance changes into three categories: those that are widely agreed upon, those that they’ll revisit, and those that are widely unpopular.

One ordinance proposal did pass a first reading: Chapter 70, which deals with enforcement of parking, not the restrictions themselves. Those changes include spelled out methods and timelines for the city to collect on unpaid parking violations, and allows the city to enforce its junk vehicle ordinance.

“With parking violations, vehicle impounding for those issues, is not really a contentious issue,” Mayor Rosien said. “This is not related to anything that anyone has spoke about.”

Rosien said the council would move forward on less controversial options as early as next meeting. The move matches plans made at last meeting, but which didn’t move forward due to a miscommunication.

“I’d like to do exactly what we mentioned and go back through and pull the ones that make sense, and leave the ones, for now, that have remaining issues to be resolved where we’re not on the same page,” he said.

The list of changes city officials called “low hanging-fruit” includes a handful of items, all lined up for a first reading at the next city council meeting.

Some of those items may see slight rewords when brought back for first readings. Rosien said he was OK with that, as long as the number was limited.

“I can handle one or two with some discussion, a vote on amendment or non-amendment,” he said. “But having them all like this, I would lose my mind … but if there’s a couple that are contentious, I could sort through that.”

Other changes may be reworked

A second group of proposals has been pushed off as the city plans to adjust details. That list includes three items.

Plans to put a stop sign on Old Highway 1, where the road meets North Marion Avenue, are first on that list. While most council members said they would approve the new sign, consensus was not unanimous.

“I agree that this is not low-hanging fruit and deserves additional consideration,” Glinsmann said of the sign.

On Highland Avenue, the city has heard numerous comments from residents, saying two-sided parking bans would push them to street parking on higher-traffic roads further from their doors.

City officials said they were still worried about parking along the curve, with concerns for emergency response vehicles that can be difficult to navigate, but said they’d check with responders themselves to verify those concerns.

“I would defer to our ambulance drivers … fire trucks, whatever,” Glinsmann said. “If they think that curve needs to have no parking on both sides so they can get through, that seems to make sense. If they’re not concerned, it sounds like residents don’t think there’s visibility issues.”

Council Members Stigers and Gault said they would oppose a parking ban along that curve.

“This is not an old street, this is a new street, it’s wider,” Gault said.

On West Van Buren Street, the city council has not yet heard complaints about plans to institute one-sided parking from South D Avenue to South Iowa Avenue. Council Member Fran Stigers said he would consult with residents on those blocks before bringing the issue back for discussion.

Heavily-criticized items have uncertain futures

More controversial items are in limbo, with their eventual returns to the city council agenda unclear or unlikely. That list was at some points in the meeting called the “absolute ‘no’ pile.”

“The no pile is, ‘No for now, and we’ll continue to consider more options,’” Rosien said.

That list includes proposals for one-sided parking on stretches East Main Street, East Second Street, North Marion Avenue and North Iowa Avenue.

The items have taken the bulk of complaints in recent public comment periods. Both were removed from the list of items for discussion at next meeting with minimal discussion.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com