Backing out on back-in parking

A two-year grant-funded experiment with back-in diagonal parking on Main Avenue is coming to an end, following a unanimous vote by Sisters City Council.

At their May 14 meeting, Council approved City Ordinance No. 459, which amends the Sisters Comprehensive Land Use Plan and Transportation System Plan (TSP) by eliminating policy references associated with back-in diagonal parking.

The City will begin re-striping parking along Main Avenue - back to conventional parking.

Public Works Director Paul Bertagna said the start date for the restriping project is weather-dependent and the forecast for this week isn't very promising. They also are going to have to piece it into the existing schedule of work. Once started it shouldn't take more than about a week in man-hours to complete. Bertagna hasn't had time yet to pencil in an estimate of costs.

The bike lane will remain on Main Avenue, and all of the crosswalks will receive new paint as well.

Work on the Main Avenue Bicycle and Pedestrian Improvement Project was begun in February 2012. The project was funded by a grant from Oregon Department of Transportation's (ODOT) Bicycle and Pedestrian division to enhance pedestrian and bicycle safety within the city of Sisters by having drivers on Main looking forward while pulling out of a parking space. At that time, Main Avenue was designated as the bicycle route through Sisters.

Because Cascade Avenue was made narrower during its upgrade project, there was no longer room there for the TSP-required bike lanes. Through aggressive grant-writing, the City and ODOT were able to get grants to upgrade the roadbed, parking and sidewalks while also allowing for the requisite bike lanes. The belief is that Sisters was awarded the grant in part based on back-in parking along the bike route.

In addition to the controversial back-in parking, the project included widening and reconstructing existing sidewalks, striping bike lanes, and improving the storm-drainage system. There were also additional streetscape features like lighting and landscaping. The grant from ODOT covered 90 percent of the project. Total cost was $723,409.85. Of that amount, the State paid $651,068.87 and the City $72,340.98.

Back-in parking was originally recommended by the Sisters TSP Project Advisory Committee and added to the Sisters TSP in December 2008 and approved in 2010 following six community workshops in 2007 and 2008. Main Avenue merchants were also included in a number of focused workshops during that same time period.

There was controversy over the back-in parking before the project ever began and the discontent continued for two years until the current council chose to return the parking on Main Avenue, a block of Larch Street and a block of Pine Street to head-in parking.

A search of The Nugget website for references to back-in parking over the past two years revealed a long list of letters to the editor, both pro and con, guest columns, and a number of news articles.

One letter to the editor on April 3, 2012 warned that the back-in parking "could be an expensive experiment for the City of Sisters" and questioned why "such a matter was not brought before the voters."

Others feared the merchants on Main Avenue would suffer financially from loss of business due to locals and tourists choosing to not adapt to the new parking regulation and electing to shop in other areas of town.

There were pleas for the Council to have the "courage to admit that the decision was wrong" less than a month after the project was completed.

One letter-writer pointed out that although Main Avenue "is the designated east-west route through Sisters for cyclists ... both bike shops are on Hood and the vast majority of cycling venues are on the Hood side of town; McKenzie Pass, Three Creek Road, the trails to FivePine and Tollgate, and the extensive Peterson Ridge system."

Not everyone thought the new parking project was a mistake. There were those who found "it not at all difficult and a much easier and safer way to reenter traffic." There were kudos to "those who brought it to Sisters."

After the 2012 summer tourist season the Sheriff's office announced it would enforce the new parking regulations by issuing a $25 ticket for anyone parked illegally, which included backing into a front-in diagonal parking space or parking front-in in a designated back-in space.

The ODOT grant funding the improvements on Main Avenue included a clause that required the back-in parking to remain in place for at least 24 months. The end of that time period is approaching, allowing the City to reverse the back-in parking.

A year ago, the City engineer determined that reversing the striping to front-in parking would eliminate 45 of the 314 parking spaces due to the direction of current bulb-outs. However, this week Bertagna indicated that with some realignment of curbs and the removal of the mid-block bulb-out in front of the Habitat Thrift Store, the number lost will be lower.

Overall there seemed to be decidedly more criticism than support for the back-in parking and to this day, it is only intermittently observed. Many citizens have considered it a waste of money, a confusing scenario for tourists, and an unsafe condition that needs to just go away. The City Council apparently agrees.