Everyone, it seems, holds the opinion that parking in the Town Center is scarce. A story in today’s Reporter about parking issues reiterates that view and adds a new twist in the on-going confusion about who is allowed to park where and when in the Town Center.

As a community, we need to respect the businesses that need open spaces outside their front door — for both customers and delivery trucks. The city has spent a great deal of time and money on signs and striping to control parking. Perhaps part of the issue is that drivers — delivery drivers, business patrons and office workers — are either not paying attention or choose to simply ignore city signs and the colored stripes that define parking zones. The city, for its part, does have an officer to police the area for wayward cars and trucks, but a $35 dollar parking ticket seems fairly paltry, especially when some delivery services are willing to pay tickets for their drivers. They consider it part of the cost of doing business. Such hassles make the idea of a shuttle to bring people from the South end to the North end sound better and better…

The declaration by city planners that the environmental effects of the Boys and Girls Club PEAK project will not be significant enough to warrant a full environmental impact statement brings the responsibility for the project back to the club and school district. They must now make good on the 16 items that the city has said must be dealt with to mitigate the effects of the 45,000 square foot project on the surrounding neighborhood — traffic and parking are the first on the list. With this decision, the club and the city avoid a longer and more costly process to develop a full EIS that would probably not change the outcome of the proposal. But there is much work left to do before permits are issued and the club breaks ground.