[OMS_MANAGERS] Fwd: Re: Fwd: Parking/Crosswalk Statute

Fri Jan 5 08:08:26 PST 2018

Sarah,  Dan is part of the Planning Department.  Ontario has been 
working on parking issues for over a year.  Some were implemented this 
summer.  ADA Van parking was added to the downtown side streets, 
alternating every other block.  We re-striped our large parking lots 
behind on Main Street this year, adding more ADA parking there.  Next 
summer will finish up on Main Street. Ontario has only eight blocks in 
our historic district, so it will be a major impact for retail 
merchant.  We will lose sixteen parking spots all together on Main 
Street.  In my travels around the state have notice that there are a lot 
of small towns that are facing a rejigger of their Main Street.  We are 
working on trying to get employees of the downtown businesses to 
voluntarily park in the lots that are available off of Main Street.  We 
find that there is a  lot of resistance.  If anyone has some suggestion 
which do not make it mandatory let me know.   Charlotte

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	Re: Fwd: [OMS_MANAGERS] Parking/Crosswalk Statute
Date: 	Thu, 04 Jan 2018 17:34:50 -0700
From: 	Dan Cummings <Dan.Cummings at ontariooregon.org>
To: 	Charlotte Fugate <charfugate at fmtc.com>

Charlotte,
No the downtown area on Oregon Street is not in compliance at this 
moment (the rest of the town is more or less in compliance), but the 
City Council has already approved this to be fixed next summer by taking 
out the mid-block sidewalks (which gains one stall back) and removing 
the two end ones to meet this safety requirement.
It has been determined by staff and City Council that it is a safety 
issue and we need to meet these requirements, as it is very dangerous 
for the pedestrians trying to cross when the cars are blocking both the 
pedestrian's view and the cars coming down the street view of the 
pedestrian.
We have had many complaints about this issue and the city is fixing the 
problem before someone is killed and the city is sued due to the 
non-compliant safety issue.
It would be my guess that the Highway Safety Commission (ODOT) will not 
remove this standard due to the safety issues and the law suits that 
would probable follow. But again that is just my opinion and its based 
on the fact that many years ago I proposed a shorter distance to the 
commission thru my other business and they wouldn't even consider 
reducing the distance, stating pedestrian safety vision clearance. And 
that was a long time ago when there wasn't near the kind of law 
suits like now days. Look what just happened to ODOT with the Pedestrian 
ramps and the millions of dollars being spent to replace and meet 
standards due to ODOT losing the law suit by the ADA requirements. Which 
most existing ADA ramps do not meet the tolerance set in the court case. 
Cities want to be very careful when fighting one standard and not cost 
them a lot more money by having to upgrade all the ADA ramps at the 
intersection too because they were brought to everyone's attention. That 
is another reason we decided to remove the stalls near the crosswalks as 
we didn't want the ADA law suit to also come into play.
Anyways we are fixing the problem this spring as they were going to do 
it this fall, but decided not to get started on it just in case we had a 
winter like last year and end up in a mess down town.
By the way the rule doesn't just apply to a painted crosswalk as all 
intersections are considered to be a pedestrian crossing even if it 
doesn't have a painted cross walk and the vision clearance rules apply 
and no car or any other object over 30" high can be in that vision 
clearance. In other words its not just as simple as removing the one 
statue about parking stalls from 20 feet from the sidewalk.
Hope this answers your question.

*Dan K. Cummings*
Community Development Director
City of Ontario
444 SW 4th Street
541-881-3222

>>> Charlotte Fugate  <charfugate at fmtc.com> 1/4/2018 4:33 PM >>>
>
FYI - Are we in compliance?

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	[OMS_MANAGERS] Parking/Crosswalk Statute
Date: 	Thu, 4 Jan 2018 22:28:08 +0000
From: 	Sarah Lu Heath <sarah at astoriadowntown.com>
Reply-To: 	Oregon Main Street program managers 
<oms_managers at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>
To: 	Oregon Main Street program managers 
<oms_managers at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>

Hello Friends and Colleagues,

The City of Astoria has been made aware of an Oregon State statute requiring that there are ZERO parking spaces within 20 feet of a crosswalk. Astoria is not currently in compliance with this statute, nor is any other municipality that we can find.

Coming into compliance would cost us about 10% of our downtown parking, as well as $80-$100k to restripe etc.

What we want to know is:
Does your city follow this ordinance?
Would you rather come into compliance or have the statute removed from the books?
Anything else you'd like to add?

We've waited several months before sending this out to the list, as we did not want to be responsible for serving notice to communities about this faulty statute. For ADHDA, we've taken that stance that we'd like to remove the statute over compliance. However, the City has asked me to reach out to my colleagues about this situation, and here I am.

Your feedback is much appreciated,

Sarah Lu Heath
Executive Director
Astoria Downtown Historic District Association
No.1-12th Street, Suite 114
PO Box 261
Astoria, OR 97103
503.791.7940
www.AstoriaDowntown.com

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