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Downtown parking still restricted every night after council vote
Parking prohibited from 2-6 a.m. every day on three blocks of Route 66

Williams Councilman Frank McNelly holds a no overnight parking sign during the council’s Aug. 8 meeting. Marissa Freireich/WGCN

Williams Councilman Frank McNelly holds a no overnight parking sign during the council’s Aug. 8 meeting. Marissa Freireich/WGCN

Overnight parking on Route 66 is now restricted along three blocks instead of one, after the Williams City Council approved a new traffic and parking ordinance at its Aug. 8 meeting.

The new ordinance, Ordinance 935, still restricts parking daily from 2 to 6 a.m. but redefines the downtown parking district as, "That area consisting of the following streets, including all adjacent sidewalks to the City right of way line: Route 66 Eastbound, between Fourth Street and First Street."

The council adopted the previous ordinance, Ordinance 922, in July 2011. That ordinance contained the same daily 2 to 6 a.m. parking restriction, but defined the downtown parking district as, "That area consisting of the property contained within the boundary of the following streets, including all adjacent sidewalks to the City right of way line: Railroad Avenue, Route 66, Grand Canyon Boulevard, and First Street between Route 66 and Grant Street."

The city adopted the parking ordinance to allow for street sweeping and snow removal. Mayor John Moore said the intent of Ordinance 922 was to include the "major downtown area," but because of a language change from the former ordinance some areas were left out.

Besides the new definition of the downtown parking district, Ordinance 935 contains another change. It states, "Every person in whose name a vehicle is registered or licensed shall be prima facie responsible for any parking of the vehicle in violation of any provision of this chapter."

City Attorney Kellie Peterson explained that portion of the ordinance will "clarify that the owner of the vehicle is responsible" for any violation.

After three readings of the ordinance, the council unanimously approved the new ordinance. Councilman Craig Fritsinger was absent.

Prior to the vote, Williams resident and business owner Buck Williams said Ordinance 922 should remain in effect.

"We are a tourist town," he said. "It is for the benefit of all businesses downtown that the street be cleaned regularly and snow removed."

Williams said he had called the police in response to Grand Canyon Hotel patrons parking on Route 66 for several days and obstructing the street sweeper and plows.

According to Williams, when the tourists received tickets, the owner of the Grand Canyon Hotel would leave a note on their windshields with contact information for council members, the newspaper editor and the chamber president, along with instructions about how to appeal the ticket. The note also named Williams as the business owner who called the police about the parking violations, and listed his contact information.

Grand Canyon Hotel owner Amy Fredrickson said a parking ordinance should be in effect for the city, not for personal reasons. She acknowledged that the city should sweep the streets and clear the snow.

"To come out and ticket only one square block of the city when the whole city needs to be swept is something I want you to consider," she said. "Once a week down one side, the next day down the other side is what most cities consider."

Peterson explained why the council adopted the daily parking restrictions in Ordinance 922.

"When we discussed this last time, the reason we rejected the every other day concept was because if we put too much on those signs it would discourage tourists from parking there when they were reasonably allowed, because what they would see first is 'no parking,'" she said. "We wanted signs that clearly said 'public parking except for this time.' And in order to get that user-friendly sign, that was why we said all year round every day."

Fredrickson called the current signs deceiving, because they say "public parking" in large print and "no parking 2 a.m. to 6 a.m." in smaller letters.

"Put more signs, enforce it...do whatever you want, but don't mislead (the tourists)," she said.

The council members said they adopted the current signs for the business owners because the signs encourage tourists to park along Route 66.

Councilman Jim Wurgler said the wording of the signs wasn't the issue.

"That sign is crystal clear. There's no question about what it says," he said. "If the only issue is whether or not a reasonable person would see it and if we don't have enough signs, we'll put the damn signs up until they're a foot apart if we have to."

Justice Rob Krombeen said not counting an incident a few weeks ago, the city issued about eight or nine parking tickets in the last four months.

Councilman Don Dent called claims that the ordinance discourages tourists "frustrating."

"I believe the number for the two city parking lots was well over a half a million dollars the city spent so that the downtown businesses would benefit to have parking, because we realize there is a limited amount of parking," he said. "And for the city to be criticized that somehow we're trying to pick on the tourists, hell we're trying to attract them."

Dent added that more parking would be available if business owners were not parking on Route 66. Before the meeting, Dent said he saw four business owners parked in front of other businesses on the street, and he only counted two available parking spots in the area.

"Those other four parking spots that business owners are in, that's just the ones that I know, could have been filled by a car with a California plate on it instead of an Arizona one," he said.

Councilman Frank McNelly said the court has more important issues to deal with than parking tickets.

"Hopefully people will decide this is the way it is and adapt themselves to what it is instead of trying to find a way out of it," he said. "If everybody can understand and do that then we won't be back here doing this again."


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