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HomeMy WebLinkAboutA002 - Letter from Ames School District on proposed parking prohibitions Aug-21 -00 08: 08A ACSD Maintenance 515 239 3810 P _ 02 , A Y scy,.. Facilities Planning & Management Maintenance Building 1621 Wilson Avenue w Ames, IA 50010-5365 • "' Phone: (515) 239-3795 FAX-- (515) 239-3810 E . DATE: August 18, 2000 TO: Scott Logan City Traffic Engineer Pubiic Works Department City of Ames 'C FROM: Steve Carter Director of Facilities Planning & Management Ames Community School District RE: Parking Prohibitions at 1612 and 1620 Wilson Avenue Scott, I appreciate the opportunity to respond to you in writing concerning the parking situation in front of our building at 1621 Wilson. The week before the start of school is extremely busy and hence my tardiness in responding to you. The voice message that you left for me indicated that this item would go before the City Council in September, however, it appears from your fax dated August 15th, that it is scheduled to be seen by them on August 22"d. This time frame only gave the School District a week to review your fax with all concerned parties and to do so during what-for-us is the very busiest time of the entire year. The School District, of course, has informally discussed the issue it has been transpiring, however, your August 151h fax is the first formal document that we've seen concerning the matter. Again, we appreciate the opportunity to discuss the issue with you, however, in the future we would appreciate a little more time to adequately prepare our comments. As your write-up suggests, the crux of Mr- Johnson's argument is two fold: 1- Sight distance as it relates to backing out of his driveway and 2- Truck maneuvering. It is my opinion that neither of these two thoughts is very well founded. An Equal Opportunity Employer Page I Aug-21 -00 08= 09A ACSD Maintenance SIB 239 3810 P - 03 I can not deny that we have had two or three vehicles parked on the street in front of 1612 and 1620 Wilson for about 2 months during the summer. I am, however, hard pressed to believe that this constitutes a problem. We are located in a residential neighborhood that currently allows parking to occur freely along both sides of the street. I would not have guessed that parking a couple of personal vehicles in this area would be in violation of either the letter or spirit of the law intended by the City for this area. The extension of such logic proves its' foolishness. If a few vehicles parking along two residences is considered a problem, you are suggesting that the entire length of Wilson will have to be painted between 16th and 20th Streets. One only has to look down the street to easily see that that there are many cars sprinkled all along this route. This alleged "problem" exists along the entire length of the street, not just in front of Mr. Johnson's house_ In some areas, parking is certainly more dense than 2-3 cars per any pair of residences- Painting the curb for Mr. Johnson makes no more sense than painting the curb for the entire neighborhood. It is not warranted and doing so would give preferential treatment to him. It would also do no more than to push his share of the neighborhood parking a few feet down the street, increasing the density of parking in that area. Parking along the street in residential neighborhoods is something that is normal and expected and volume of parking that we are talking about is far from excessive. Mr. Johnson is under no undue burden in this particular situation- think it is also very important to note that conditions that were reported by your staff, while completely true, are indeed, temporary. We hired more than twice our normal staff (24 additional people) to accomplish our seasonal work this year making our parking needs more than 3 times what they normally are. I assigned every available parking stall in our lot to our employees and we were able to accommodate all but a few. The month that your staff spent observing the situation was definitely within the heart of our peak employee time, but clearly does not represent our typical circumstances- Our seasonal help was finished last week and I would like to point out that there has been no on-street parking what-so-ever by any of my staff during the past week. We have been here for many years and parking has never been an issue. To me, painting the curb for the temporary conditions that occurred for a few weeks during one year seems impulsive and irrational. In light Mr. Johnson's argument of visibility, I am also hard pressed not to notice the tree that has been planted in Mr. Johnson's yard between the sidewalk and street. It is located to the north of his driveway and immediately beside the vehicles that he considers to be a problem. I would estimate the tree to be about 15 feet tall with full foliage extending down to about 4112 feet off the ground, making it a sphere about 10 feet in diameter. An ERual`Oppartunity Employer Page 2 -- Aug-21 -nO O8: O9A ACSO Maintenance 515 239 3810 P _ O4 desire to create headache or heartache for anyone around us or for the City. I am fearful that accommodating Mr. Johnson's request would be seen by the rest of the neighborhood as favoritism toward the School District because it would appear as though we are the ones that would be receiving the benefit of the proposed action_ want to make it perfectly clear that we do not support the proposed action in any degree. It is not wanted or needed by the School District in any form. It is my opinion that Mr_ Johnson's proposal will do more harm than good for our neighborhood, and I would urge the members of the City Council to deny his request_ The solution to the problem is not a painted curb. The real solution to the problem is time. indeed, as I pointed out earlier, enough time has already lapsed that the problem has been solved. It no longer exists. There no longer is parking occurring in the referenced area and therefore is no need to proceed with action on Mr. Johnson's proposal. Scott, although I would very much like to be there to represent the School District, short notice and previous commitments that can not be rescheduled prevent me from being present at the Council meeting on the 22"d. I would appreciate it if you would make copies of this letter, distribute those copies to each member of the Council, and then see that this letter is read out loud during the Council's meeting. I appreciate the opportunity to have our side of the story presented to them before they make their decision. Thanks for all of your help on this entire matter, and I am looking forward to working with you again in the future. Sincerely, �r Steve Carter Cc: W. Ray Richardson An Equa Opportunity Employer Page _ 4