Montana Area Residents Win Street Parking Battle

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

March 10 -- Calling it an "imperfect solution" to a difficult problem, City Council members Tuesday favored residents over merchants when they expanded residential parking near Montana Avenue.

Over the objection of Montana merchants, council members voted 5 to 1 to extend the preferential parking on 5th, 6th and 7th Streets between Wilshire and Montana; Montana and California Avenues between 4th and 7th Street, and Idaho and Washington avenues between 4th and Lincoln Boulevard.

For now, the change will only affect the 900 block of 5th street and the 500 block of Idaho, since block residents gathered the necessary signatures to qualify for the change.

Though most council members backed the resolution, several admitted the solution is not perfect.

"I live in this neighborhood,” said Council member Bobby Shriver, a north of Montana resident. “Everyone is in a rock and a hard place here. It's a no win situation for everybody."

Though Shriver and other council members lamented that employees only have short-term parking in the area and that the vote may make matters worse, Shriver said he felt the resident's plight should take precedence.

"I vote for this with great fear, because I do see several people here who work in my neighborhood," said Shriver. "Yet I also feel for the needs of the residents who have to drive around all night and single women who will walk four blocks to the home at night."

Jane Walker, chair of the Montana Avenue Merchants Association, spoke out against preferential parking, requesting a moratorium on increased residential parking until the employee parking issue was addressed.

"We beg you to consider our livelihood and the welfare of our families before choosing a course of action," said Walker, who contended that increased residential parking may cause "a domino effect in adjacent preferential parking areas."

Though all on the council said they would be in favor of further studying ways to lessen Montana employees’ parking woes, only Council member Herb Katz voted against the change.

"Parking permits never solved anything but create more preferential parking,” Katz said. “There's no way I'm going to support this."