City considers prohibiting parking on Coulter Avenue

Posted 12/8/16

“It’s definitely a safety hazard with people stepping out of their cars with oncoming traffic,” said Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt.

On Monday, the Powell City Council moved forward with a measure to create a no parking zone on Coulter …

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City considers prohibiting parking on Coulter Avenue

Posted

It may soon be illegal to park on Powell’s busiest street.

Few vehicles currently park along Coulter Avenue and now City of Powell leaders are looking to ban parking altogether on the four-lane road.

“It’s definitely a safety hazard with people stepping out of their cars with oncoming traffic,” said Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt.

On Monday, the Powell City Council moved forward with a measure to create a no parking zone on Coulter Avenue/U.S. Highway 14-A within city limits. If approved for a final time on Dec. 19, the new ordinance will take effect in early January, said Gary Butts, city director of public works.

There are only four or five parking spots along Coulter Avenue in front of Chinatown and Skyline Cafe, he said.

“These spots have been a constant source of vehicular damage incidents as well as a hazard to citizens exiting and entering their vehicles along this area,” Butts told the council last month.

In coming months, Coulter Avenue will undergo major renovations to remove the medians, making it necessary to prohibit parking on the road, Butts said.

“It’s purely a safety concern and has been for quite some time,” Eckerdt said. “Now with the medians coming out, it just brings the focus back to it.”

The road construction project may begin as early as February, depending on the weather, but it likely will be more toward March or April, Butts said. The project is slated for completion in October 2017.

Once medians are removed, there will be a full turning lane to go into Bent Street, Butts said.

“The road is going to be theoretically wider, but you’re going to have that turn lane and no barrier to keep them from crunching over a little farther to the north,” Eckerdt said.

As traffic moves to the north on Coulter, “it’s going to put them right in the middle of those parked cars,” he said.

It’s better for people to get used to the no parking zone before the medians are removed, Butts said.

“My hope is to educate people before the construction begins and then after the construction, it will just continue that way,” he said.

Chief Eckerdt said there are a few other places on Coulter Avenue where drivers sometimes park, but the main issue is the spots near Skyline and Chinatown.

“There between Absaroka and Bent, we’ve lost a lot of mirrors over the years,” Eckerdt said. “We’ve had doors hit a few times — not very many, not as many as you would think.”

Butts said he has worried a child could crawl out of a parked vehicle into traffic on Coulter Avenue before a parent could reach them.

With blind spots for someone turning off Bent and onto Coulter, “there’s so many opportunities for something really bad to happen … we’ve been very fortunate,” Eckerdt said.

“It’s been on my wish list for a long time to make that no parking,” he said.

Over the years, there have been times when a car door pops open and an oncoming driver isn’t paying attention and tries to move over into the other lane — but there’s already a car in that lane.

“From October through February when the beet trucks are running, that gets pretty narrow down through there,” he said.

Southbound drivers on Absaroka Street turning onto Coulter Avenue can have a difficult time seeing cars coming down the street because of the parked vehicles, Eckerdt said. The no parking zone also will free up the line of sight for drivers using the parking lot west of Skyline, Butts added.

Butts sent letters to the property owners, who said they understood the need to eliminate the parking area for public safety and had no further concerns.

Once the new ordinance takes effect, Butts said barrels will be placed in the area to notify drivers they can no longer park there. When the weather warms up, the curbs will be painted and signs will be installed on each end of Coulter Avenue at city limits.

Eckerdt said it will be up to the court to determine fines for drivers who park on Coulter.

“There will be a period of time that’s just education,” Eckerdt said. “There’s a lot of history there, parking on Coulter Avenue, and it’s going to take some time to get past it.”

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