Waldport city council takes first step in cleaning up codes regulating vehicle parking, drops garage requirement

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

WALDPORT – The city of Waldport thinks the town has some parking issues. Such as:

• Cars or other vehicles parked all over some front yards, or on the street right-of-way in front of the property;
• Signs outside businesses that incorrectly say parking spots are reserved for customers only;
• Or, just the opposite – large parking lots downtown where the property owner has no control over people who park their car for hours or days; and
• What are garages for really? Are they for cars, or are they for storage or to be converted to living areas? Does the city need to require them in order to help get vehicles off the front lawn or street?

The city council voted 4-1 Thursday, Dec. 8 to proceed with a new ordinance making four changes in Waldport’s parking rules. Councilor Susan Woodruff cast the “no” vote, mostly worried about the city dropping a requirement that garages or carports be included on all new houses.

The council’s initial vote and a final vote scheduled in January – when two new members join the council – comes after it earlier this year asked the Planning Commission to look at some parking issues and recommend possible changes.

The commission discussed it over several meetings, mailed notices to residents and held a public hearing on parking. No one commented and no one attended the hearing.

The Planning Commission proposed:

• Eliminating a city requirement that all new single-family homes have a garage or carport;
• All on-street parking be open to anyone — but owners of off-street parking areas be able to designate specific spaces for their business or renters;
• In residential areas, vehicles will be restricted to parking in a garage or carport, and have to be parked 20 feet from the front or side property lines except if they are in a designated driveway; and
• Each new dwelling – single-family home or apartment – has to provide two off-street parking spaces. Currently, single-family homes are required to have one parking space, and multi-family dwellings and mobile home parks required to have two.

Final vote in January

City planner Jaime White told the council that Waldport has adequate parking in the downtown core and along Highway 34.

“In many ways this is re-establishing property rights to owners of parking areas,” he said.

The changes – if formally adopted in January – will make it legal for businesses to designate parking spots in front of their establishments. Even though many already do that, it’s not technically legal.

The change will also allow businesses such as Hi-School Pharmacy — if it wants — to restrict parking by the general public in its large lot along Highway 101. Currently owners of parking lots in Waldport have no legal authority to do that.

The council spent more time discussing the garage requirement and requiring homeowners to park off their front or side yards.

White said the Planning Commission’s intention was to get vehicles and trailers out of the street right-of-way and farther out of sight, an especially acute problem in Waldport’s Old Town.

The commission also recommended removing the requirement that new single-family homes have a garage or carport because most new construction includes them. Woodruff objected, saying it could lead to a slow, continued degradation of Waldport’s neighborhoods.

City manager Dann Cutter said the next step in the process will be to change the city’s nuisance codes so they match the revised development codes, giving the city a clearer enforcement tool.

“What this really does is stop this problem from occurring in the future,” he said. “Then we can address the current issue in the nuisance code.”