Logan neighborhood seeks new restrictions on street parking

A hearing on Tuesday will give residents of Adams neighborhood a chance to voice their concerns about the availability of street parking, a growing concern in the densely populated area to the west of Utah State University.

Possible solutions may be to significantly raise the price of, or eliminate altogether, seasonal permits which are currently available for purchase by home owners.

Permits are effective Nov. 15 through the end of February 2017. Overnight parking is not allowed on the streets without permits from 1 to 6 a.m. but “the enforcement is slacking on ticketing law-breakers,” said Burt Lamborn, a resident of Adams neighborhood, during the Logan City Council meeting on Sept. 6.

“It seems like the city bends over backwards to accommodate the university students' high-dollar, high-density housing units, but they often forget the neighborhoods and the permanent residents in some areas in Logan,” said Jan Nyman, who has been a resident of Adams neighborhood for 38 years.

Several single family homes in the area have been made into duplexes with six occupants and six cars and not enough driveway to park them on. Chelsey Bitner, a resident of the same neighborhood, complained there is always someone parked in front of her home at night.

“It isn’t a huge deal but it definitely gets annoying when I have family spending the night and there is nowhere for them to park,” Bitner said.

The Factory, a student housing unit located near Adams neighborhood, has parking for about three-quarters of its tenants, leaving the rest on the streets.

Pete Coats, a tenant at the Factory, said he was "fortunate enough to get a parking spot in the garage. My roommate isn’t and he has to leave his car at his cousin’s house overnight,” in order to avoid parking on the streets at night.

“There’s two sides to the issue and there’s not an easy one to pick,” said Mike DeSimone, Logan's community development director. “It’s going to be a hard decision.”

The council will likely make a decision on the issue at its next hearing, scheduled for Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.