City revises parking rules

SANDPOINT — Complaints over parallel parking spots in downtown Sandpoint have prompted city officials to make changes.

According to Sandpoint Police Chief Corey Coon, the department has received reports from several individuals who felt they were unfairly ticketed for minor parallel parking infractions, such as being very slightly out of the parking lines. In response, council members favored repainting the downtown parallel parking lines as a single, solid stripe between the parking and driving areas. This will replace the specifically-designated space markings that currently exist.

The main question at the Wednesday council meeting was whether or not to remove the parallel parking marks indicating spaces, known primarily as “L” and “T” marks. These markings form boxes meant to contain individual parking spots. The problem is that many individuals who drive very large trucks find fitting their vehicles within the allotted space very difficult. One person, for instance, reported that he received a ticket after barely edging his vehicle over the line and leaving to do five minutes of shopping.

“I feel passionately about this issue as a truck owner,” Councilman Shelby Rognstad said to laughs. “I’ve tried to park my truck downtown and it simply doesn’t fit.”

In response to complaints, Coon worked with the Marcy Timblin of the Downtown Sandpoint Business Association to gauge business owners’ preference over the parking configuration. Timblin sent out a survey to which just over two dozen individuals responded. The majority of those people favored switching from designated parking boxes to a single white line, according to comments from unnamed business owners included in the DSBA report.    

“My vote would be to eliminate the current Ls and Ts for the parallel parking spaces and paint one solid line separating the parking area from the roadway,” one individual responded. “I’m guessing this wasn’t enforced often when the city was monitoring the parking downtown and is probably something many people aren’t even aware is an offense.”

On the other hand, some business owners preferred to see the L and T markings in place. They feared that the lack of guidance could create its own share of problems.

“Eliminate (them) and you will have a problem with people parking too close and not allowing your vehicle to get out, or the other problem of having too much space between vehicles and a shortage of parking,” another respondent said. “If they don’t want to be ticketed park between the lines — it’s that simple.”

While council members agreed with the majority of business owners that a solid white line was the way to go, the real question was how to do it affordably. Blasting the paint off with high-pressure water cannons is one option, but that costs about 50 cents per foot of removed paint. Members eventually agreed that simply painting a wider line over the current markings should be sufficient.