Downtown parking ordinance back under review

Williams hotel owner arrested after removing tickets from guests' cars, ordinance likely to go before city council in August

In the past two years, Grand Canyon Hotel owner Amy Fredrickson said the city has issued 46 tickets on her block.

The hotel, at 145 W. Route 66, is located within the one-block downtown parking district where parking is prohibited every day from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m.

On July 12, five of the hotel's guests who parked overnight on the 100 block of Route 66 received parking tickets.

"So my husband walked out and took their tickets so we can pay them, because we offer them free parking," Fredrickson said. "The response was the police came and arrested him, and not only arrested him, cuffed him."

In Fredrickson's opinion, enforcement of the overnight parking restrictions should not be limited to one block.

"This is not the only block that gets dirty," she said. "It needs to include all of Route 66."

The incident has brought attention to the city's parking ordinance, although city officials and the Williams Police Department both declined to comment on the arrest.

Because of a subtle language change from "on" in the former ordinance to "bounded by" in the current ordinance, the definition of the restricted parking area changed.

Ordinance 918, adopted in April 2011, stated "It shall be unlawful to park any vehicle on Railroad Avenue, Route 66, Grand Canyon Boulevard, and First Street between Route 66 and Grant Ave. between the hours of 2:00 am and 6:00 am."

Ordinance 922, adopted in July 2011, contains the same daily 2 to 6 a.m. parking restriction, but defines 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."

City Attorney Kellie Peterson summed up the language change by explaining, "It limits it instead of being the full length of those streets to just being that one block."

When the current ordinance went into effect, the city put up new signs that were easier to read. However, the signs went up in the larger area laid out by the outdated ordinance, rather than the one-block area described in the current ordinance.

Mayor John Moore said the current ordinance was meant to cover the same area as the former ordinance. When city officials found out about the language discrepancy between the two ordinances last week, city staff removed several parking signs that were outside of the current ordinance area along Route 66. As of July 19, six signs remained along both sides of Route 66 between First and Third streets.

Moore said the city adopted the no overnight parking ordinance for street sweeping and snow removal. With limited city staff working on striping, painting and pothole repairs around town, the street sweeper is currently not on a regular schedule. As of last week, City Manager Brandon Buchanan said the city had not run the street sweeper for a couple of weeks, but that it would return to running every couple of days once those summer jobs are finished.

Moore expects the parking issue to be on the city council agenda at the first meeting in August.

"It's a difficult situation," Moore said. "But it's not that difficult. At least we've got cars looking for parking."

Buchanan said downtown parking is a challenge all cities face.

"By the nature of a downtown area, parking is limited," Buchanan said. "It's a complicated issue that no matter what the city does, I don't think it's going to make everybody happy, it's just trying to come to that compromise that we try to make everybody at least a little bit happy on it."

Fredrickson called parking an ongoing issue for guests of her 27-room hotel, adding that she advises guests to park in the city lots near the Visitor Center to avoid violations. The incident with her husband had not been resolved as of press time.

Fredrickson said the city should change the ordinance to allow for street sweeping on each side of the road once a week, because the current parking situation is bad for the entire city.

"We have guests from all over the world who come to Williams, they have a great time, they love Williams, they're leaving the hotel, they said, 'That was awesome,' they walk out, they have a $98 ticket out there," she said. "What a nice way to send out our tourists."