No Parking: Cd'A eliminates parking along Hanley between Ramsey, Courcelles

Neighbors, visitors and parents have long used West Hanley Avenue between Ramsey Road and Courcelles Parkway as a venue to park, be it for small gatherings in nearby apartment complexes, a queue for parents to pick up their kids from Lake City High School, or the most convenient spots on Friday nights for Timberwolves football games.

Those parking spots are about to dry up, however, after the Coeur d’Alene City Council voted Tuesday night to eliminate on-street parking for the third-of-a-mile stretch of Hanley.

“The complaints have been coming daily,” city engineer Chris Bosley said, “in the forms of emails, questions to the city through our website, phone calls. People are pleading with us to do something about that.”

Those calls are coming after a new apartment complex has increased density in the area. Even though Bosley said the apartments have parking lots that meet minimum code requirements, some use the streets for temporary parking. On top of that, a series of nearby sports fields host soccer games and other sporting events, which draws crowds.

And for the next few months, the occasional Friday evenings will see gridiron fans fill the high school parking lot for the return of Timberwolves football, pushing some drivers to park on Hanley.

The return of in-class students on Monday is also leading to a return of morning and afternoon overcrowding as parents wait along Hanley to pick up their kids.

It’s a mix of problems elected officials say they’ve experienced firsthand.

Council member Amy Evans said she spends time at the soccer fields and the parking lot is often full, which pushes the parking out on the streets.

"It is just treacherous to try to get to your car, especially if you’re on the north side of the street, and you’re trying to cross, and you can’t see," she said.

The local parking problem is exasperated by an unfortunate intersecting of different transportation needs. A popular bike lane stretches along Hanley from Carrington Lane east all the way into Dalton Gardens. The only break in that three-and-a-half mile bike lane starts at Courcelles and ends at Ramsey, making that stretch of road even more perilously crowded.

Even noted bike lane skeptic Woody McEvers agreed that the shrinking width of the road has created a problem.

“You know how much I hate bike lanes,” McEvers joked, “and on top of that, I hate losing parking. But when that (council agenda item) came out last week, I drove through there a couple times, and it’s scary. It’s 35-miles-per-hour-scary."

The problem will become even more complicated once winter strikes, Bosley said.

“I talked to snow plow operators within our department,” he reported, “and they’re all scared of what’s going to happen down there once the snow hits and the berms start building up, and the cars get pushed out."

The city installed temporary signage along Hanley on Thursday to inform drivers of the changes, and enforcement teams will work on education in the initial days of the restriction.

City administrator Troy Tymesen said locals should look for other places to park as soon as possible.

“We want to be flexible,” he said, “but at the same time, the parking situation there is getting untenable, especially with school coming back. People need to make alternative plans, and the sooner, the better.”