Parking shortages, booted cars, over-occupancy among woes from Vineyard’s ‘growing pains’

Vineyard is rife with high-density communities, from condos and apartment complexes to townhomes and single-family homes packed close together. With around 22,000 residents in approximately 6.5 square miles, residents are feeling the squish.

“Nobody is living on top of each other because it’s fun, it’s because it’s expensive,” resident Kimberly Olsen said during a recent City Council meeting.

Olsen lives in the Lakefront community in Vineyard, where she says she can’t even have visitors over because there is nowhere to park.

“I expected when I bought my home to be able to have visitors, and I thought that was a reasonable expectation,” she said.

Olsen says over-occupancy is contributing to the issue from homes that are rented to multiple single adults. With only two garage-parking spaces and so many homes so close together on a narrow street, the limited street parking does little to help.

“I got my tax increase, my health insurance went down the toilet, my bills are compounding, and I am a single mother,” Olsen said while getting emotional. “And I think I have to rent out my home to pay my bills, but I don’t want to be one of the landlords causing the problems.”

A citywide problem

The Vineyard City Council held a special work session Wednesday to discuss the issue of parking, asking residents to share their experiences and potential solutions. Dozens of residents including Olsen spoke up, voicing frustrations on narrow streets, lack of parking, over-occupied housing and safety.

“We really just want to strategize together,” Mayor Julie Fullmer said. “There are so many growing pains that we’re all facing.”

The mayor said solving issues in one community has made it topple into other communities as parking just moves to another area. The meeting was held to allow residents to air problems and try to find the best opportunities for this issue, she said.

The city partnered with Avenue Consultants, a local transportation consulting firm, to study the parking situation in the city. Consultant Thomas McMurtry presented data in Wednesday’s meeting, detailing the places people were parking legally and illegally to analyze parking density and determine what areas need more parking.

The communities of Lakefront and La Cheminant stood out as problem areas, he said. Near Lakefront, almost 90 cars were being consistently parked on 300 West, an area where overnight parking was restricted.

In Le Cheminant, safety is a major concern as people are parking too close to stop signs and fire hydrants, obstructing intersections and driveways, limiting sight distance and making potentially dangerous situations, McMurtry said. Dozens of police reports have been filed for people crashing into parked cars in the area too, he added.

“We were trying to see if there was a way to make that parking available to people who clearly wanted to park there, but also, you know, try to do it in the fairest, best way we can,” McMurtry said.

In August, the city announced a permit parking program aimed at alleviating the congestion. Residents can purchase permits for $5 a month to park on 300 West and Vineyard Loop Road.

McMurtry said 77 of 82 permits have been bought and new signs have gone up on the road to detail parking restrictions. Enforcement on the new parking rules started in October. The Lakefront HOA also made clubhouse spots available for parking, which has helped, McMurtry said.

“We feel like this is really working, that the behavioral change we wanted to see is happening and that people are taking advantage of the permit program, can park on the street and be good. And those who don’t have permits are then now knowing that they need to park where they’re supposed to be,” McMurtry said.

But between HOA rules and city regulations, residents feel the parking restrictions aren’t clear enough. Olsen said she has seen people misunderstand which passes work where and she thinks the permits need to be better labeled.

“People are getting booted, and it’s just a mistake. They’re trying, and they’re doing their best,” she said.

While McMurtry’s data mainly focused on the Lakefront and Le Cheminant communities, residents from communities across the city chimed in on their own areas.

Carter Mix said everything happening in Le Cheminant is happening in Bridgeport, where he lives. Because of the high occupancy of his neighbors, there are 10 cars on the street at all times, and Mix is seeing near-accidents almost daily.

“The idea that this is located only in these two areas is crazy. It’s a citywide problem for sure,” Mix said.

Vineyard is nextdoor to cities with two major universities, resulting in a plethora of college students and recent grads searching for places to live. Although renter laws require no more than four unrelated individuals in a home, residents are seeing more than that in their neighborhoods.

“The renters are just looking for places to live. The problem really is with the landlords that are renting to more people than what they should,” said Morgan Brim, Vineyard community development director.

If the city can address and enforce parking, that typically tends to drop occupancy as well, city officials said. McMurtry suggested the city look into conducting a “good landlord program,” where all landlords are required to attend a training on rules and regulations such as one he researched in Salt Lake City.

Multiple residents also expressed concern for future developments such as Utah City and how that might exacerbate the problems they are already facing.

Searching for solutions

City planner Cache Hancey explained in the meeting the council changed city code for developers with downtown parking to require an independent third-party study to take place at 500 units, 1,500 units, 3,000 units and 5,000 units to examine parking demand.

“So if they are under-parked for 500 units … before we allow anybody else to move into those neighborhoods, we require them to build up to the additional parking,” he said.

Vineyard was upgraded from a town to a city in 2016, and with a such a fast build-out, there have been some mistakes, Councilwoman Sara Cameron said.

“There weren’t things in place four years ago that are in place now, so we don’t keep repeating the problem,” she said.

City officials made a list of ideas look into to help with parking. This included improving transit and active transportation options, creating safer bike lanes and crosswalks, enforcing occupancy, building parking garages, looking into land near neighborhoods, limiting the number of street parking stalls per household, revisiting city code on parking requirements for housing and recognizing certain HOA parking passes in the permit programs.

Councilwoman Mardi Sifuentes said the city can look at improving parking for certain complexes, but she wants to ensure that the tax dollars are used for the benefit of the public as a whole and not just one complex.

“It’s this balance of we’re trying to fix it, and we’re trying to make it fair,” she said.

The mayor also suggested increasing education on legislation surrounding occupancy and parking so regulations are more easily understood and working with the HOAs to consolidate and streamline information.

“Our staff does an excellent job of they immediately take things and go to work. They’re not going to let this sit,” the mayor said.

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