Moses Lake adds new parking surface

MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake City Council eased restrictions on where residents can park their vehicles.

The council passed an amendment to the city's residential vehicle storage ordinance on the second reading. The change allows people living in residential areas to use gravel on their side yard next to their driveway for parking.

A second proposed change, requiring vehicles to be five feet away from the sidewalk or activity trail or the side yard setback, drew comments from councilmembers and residents. It was not approved.

City Manager Joe Gavinski explained previously gravel wasn't allowed on the side yard next to the driveway. 

He pointed out the change won't apply to people using areas not connected to the driveway for parking. He showed the councilmembers a photo of a house with a graveled parking area on the other side of the house.

"It does not solve that problem because that's not adjacent to the driveway. The driveway is over here," Gavinski said. "There are several instances where this does occur. A separate parking surface has been created away from the driveway, not adjacent to the driveway and not between the driveway and the lot line."

A photo showing an RV parked in the side yard of a house drew questions from Councilmember Karen Liebrecht. Gavinski pointed out if the RV was a building it couldn't be within five feet of the property line, but it was allowed in the present ordinance. 

"This RV is probably bigger than any building that would have been built there," he said. 

Liebrecht asked if the RV could still be parked next to the house if they passed the proposed amendment. Gavinski said it couldn't.

"It gets kind of tricky trying to address all of the issues that come up, and all of the desires and all of the complaints," he said. "We've had complaints with this sort of thing, meaning that those vehicles are too close to my side yard, but there's nothing that we could do about that."

Councilmember David Curnel asked how the city would enforce the change.

"Say somebody is four feet and 10 inches away from the sidewalk, how do you measure that, and all of the intricacies?" he asked. "It seems to me that enforcement will be a nightmare."

Community Development Director Gilbert Alvarado answered any enforcement can be a nightmare, but they would work with people.

"The reality is that we would enforce, and we have two full-time staffers, one additional staffer that the council budgets for during the summer for nine months, and we could handle that enforcement."

Curnel also asked about special permitting. The ordinance allows people with special circumstances to receive a permit from the council if they can't comply with the ordinance.

Alvarado explained the section came about because of people in the Knolls Vista area of the city who didn't have access to their backyard to park their RV.

"The idea was they would simply write a letter to the council and ask the council to consider that request," he said. 

Curnel said if the city restricted parking to more than five feet away from the sidewalk, the council would likely receive a lot of requests.

"There are a number of vehicles parked literally within a foot or maybe even six inches of the sidewalk in people's front yard," he said. 

Gavinski said the city doesn't usually enforce the code unless people complain or if the violation is obvious.

"We don't have enough people in order to do that neighborhood by neighborhood or lot by lot," he said. "Usually (enforcement) would be by way of a complaint or looking at some egregious violations that just couldn't be overlooked."

Moses Lake residents Ralph Dillon and Joe Cassiano disagreed with the five-foot requirement as well.

"If you go in Knolls Vista, from the sidewalk, most of those cars' bumpers are going to be right to that sidewalk," he said. "So you're going to force those people to park their cars on the street."

Cassiano said he's been trying to comply with the city's requirements by adding concrete, but requiring him to park his vehicles more than five feet away from the sidewalk will force him to sell some of them.

"I've been here too long, and I've invested too much in my house and when I first started, I was told, 'Nothing goes on the street.' I've done everything the city is telling me, but now, all of the sudden, I'm seeing rules start to make me sell my vehicles."

Mayor Jon Lane said the city is considering all options, and the intention is to keep the community and neighborhoods clean.

"We're trying to accommodate what this community is about," he said. "We're also trying to maintain good standards."

Liebrecht suggested removing the five-foot requirement, saying the intention of the amendment is to add gravel as a parking surface.

The council agreed unanimously to the ordinance, removing the five-foot requirement. Several councilmembers suggested if people had additional issues, such as parking on the other side of the house, they could request a special permit.