Property owners creating fake 'no-parking' zones
SEATTLE -- Here's a Seattle parking riddle for you:
Q. When is a no-parking zone, not really a no-parking zone?
A. When it's homemade.
Neighbors who live along a section of Bellevue Avenue have been wondering for months about a section of curb painted red seemingly overnight. No one saw a city crew, and no 'no-parking' sign was ever installed.
Curious, one resident finally asked a parking enforcement officer about why that section of curb was off-limits.
"She told me its perfectly legal to park there; you won't get a ticket," explained that resident.
Turns out, it was a homemade no-parking zone and it happens across the city on a regular basis.
"Every other month we'll receive a complaint from a nearby business or resident that a no parking restriction has been created overnight and no one understands why," said Rick Sheridan with Seattle's Department of Transportation.
SDOT crews have seen all sorts of impromptu no-parking areas, including repurposed temporary signs as well as curbs painted red and yellow.
"In fact there was a situation once in Ballard where a developer painted the entire block's curb yellow," said Sheridan.
Jen Seaman-Miller, who lives in parking-challenged Fremont, says she got a ticket for parking along a homemade red curb near her home.
Seaman-Miller says she's fighting her ticket.
"Because it says 'red curb tow away zone,' and I'm definitely not in a real legitimate red curb. So I feel I don't have to pay it," she said.
Once SDOT receives a complaint, someone investigates and determines the validity of the no-parking zone. Typically, Sheridan says, they work with the property owners once they've found an illegal no-parking zone and most just agree to paint the offending yellow or red curb gray again.
However in rare cases the city can fine property owners if they aren't responsive.
People who construct the illegal no-parking zones do it for a number of reasons. Neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, Ballard, and West Seattle are densely populated and reliable street parking can be difficult to find.
In some cases the extra curb space allows residents to leave trash cans where they can be removed more easily by garbage collection trucks.
"I was renting a home in West Seattle, and there was a cement pad out front I was told to park on. There was just one problem...there was a solid curb, and no driveway," one man told KOMO News. "People kept blocking me in, so I didn't think there would be any harm in painting a yellow stripe across a small portion."
Eventually someone did come by and paint a gray stripe over the yellow curb.
"I assume it was the city, so I never repainted the stripe," he said. "I didn't see the harm at first, but since realize it probably wasn't legal."
Sheridan said painting a curb is legal in one instance: "You are allowed to use traffic yellow paint in order to paint on each side of your driveway for five feet."
He says some of the things that might tip someone off regarding an illegal no-parking zone are that no driveways are there, no signs are there, and it's just marked yellow or red without any other reason or indication.
In every case, Sheridan promises, SDOT will respond to neighbor complaints made to the (206) 684-ROAD hotline.
However, just because a neighbor complains and SDOT responds that doesn't mean the problem goes away for good. Tuesday, SDOT crews grayed over the red paint on that illegal no-parking zone on Bellevue Ave.
By Thursday the red paint was back.
Q. When is a no-parking zone, not really a no-parking zone?
A. When it's homemade.
Neighbors who live along a section of Bellevue Avenue have been wondering for months about a section of curb painted red seemingly overnight. No one saw a city crew, and no 'no-parking' sign was ever installed.
Curious, one resident finally asked a parking enforcement officer about why that section of curb was off-limits.
"She told me its perfectly legal to park there; you won't get a ticket," explained that resident.
Turns out, it was a homemade no-parking zone and it happens across the city on a regular basis.
"Every other month we'll receive a complaint from a nearby business or resident that a no parking restriction has been created overnight and no one understands why," said Rick Sheridan with Seattle's Department of Transportation.
SDOT crews have seen all sorts of impromptu no-parking areas, including repurposed temporary signs as well as curbs painted red and yellow.
"In fact there was a situation once in Ballard where a developer painted the entire block's curb yellow," said Sheridan.
Jen Seaman-Miller, who lives in parking-challenged Fremont, says she got a ticket for parking along a homemade red curb near her home.
Seaman-Miller says she's fighting her ticket.
"Because it says 'red curb tow away zone,' and I'm definitely not in a real legitimate red curb. So I feel I don't have to pay it," she said.
Once SDOT receives a complaint, someone investigates and determines the validity of the no-parking zone. Typically, Sheridan says, they work with the property owners once they've found an illegal no-parking zone and most just agree to paint the offending yellow or red curb gray again.
However in rare cases the city can fine property owners if they aren't responsive.
People who construct the illegal no-parking zones do it for a number of reasons. Neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, Ballard, and West Seattle are densely populated and reliable street parking can be difficult to find.
In some cases the extra curb space allows residents to leave trash cans where they can be removed more easily by garbage collection trucks.
"I was renting a home in West Seattle, and there was a cement pad out front I was told to park on. There was just one problem...there was a solid curb, and no driveway," one man told KOMO News. "People kept blocking me in, so I didn't think there would be any harm in painting a yellow stripe across a small portion."
Eventually someone did come by and paint a gray stripe over the yellow curb.
"I assume it was the city, so I never repainted the stripe," he said. "I didn't see the harm at first, but since realize it probably wasn't legal."
Sheridan said painting a curb is legal in one instance: "You are allowed to use traffic yellow paint in order to paint on each side of your driveway for five feet."
He says some of the things that might tip someone off regarding an illegal no-parking zone are that no driveways are there, no signs are there, and it's just marked yellow or red without any other reason or indication.
In every case, Sheridan promises, SDOT will respond to neighbor complaints made to the (206) 684-ROAD hotline.
However, just because a neighbor complains and SDOT responds that doesn't mean the problem goes away for good. Tuesday, SDOT crews grayed over the red paint on that illegal no-parking zone on Bellevue Ave.
By Thursday the red paint was back.