City floats no-parking zone

A no parking zone is to be enforced on one block of a city street – the Sundance City Council’s response to an issue with a driver who is said to be blocking his neighbor’s drive.

Mayor Paul Brooks described the situation as a person who parks on the driving lane on the block of E. Sewell Street behind the high school.

The neighbors, he said, are having issues backing out of their driveway due to the presence of this vehicle on a narrow stretch of road.

The vehicle’s owner is unwilling to move it elsewhere, said Brooks. He told the council that he visited with the resident and asked if he would be willing to move his vehicle further off the roadway if the city filled in the lip of the road so that there was no dip.

Though the resident originally agreed, Brooks said he later changed his mind and would prefer to maintain his existing parking spot.

Brooks asked Sheriff Jeff Hodge to visit the street and determine firstly whether a problem does exist, and secondly what his recommendation would be to solve it.

Hodge reported that he believes the “simplest option” would be to mark out a no parking zone, which City Attorney Mark Hughes said could be done by ordinance.

In response to the question of whether it would be within the council’s purview to do this, Council Member Brad Marchant commented, “If you’ve got a problem zone, it’s our jurisdiction to solve that problem.”

Brooks asked Public Works Director what snow removal is like on that stretch of street, to which he replied, “Miserable.”

Brooks also noted that egress would likely be difficult for fire response vehicles. Hodge agreed, stating that it would not be surprising if a fire vehicle found it in a situation where it had to back out of the street.

“So we have more than one reason to do this,” said the mayor.

Hodge suggested that the council could offer the resident two options: the parking spot that was originally offered or no parking on the street.

Brooks, however, was of the opinion that the parking spot offer had already been made and refused.

Hughes was asked to pen an ordinance to prevent parking on the block in question. Hodge suggested that, in the meantime, the city consider elaborating on its definition of “in the lane of travel”.