Garden City council holds work session on parking, identifies short-term enforcement and ACHD coordination

Garden City’s City Council held a work session May 20 to review recurring parking congestion and safety issues in the East End around 40 Second and 40 Third streets, particularly near two schools, the Boys & Girls Club and several recent townhouse developments.

Council member Jorgensen opened the discussion, describing narrow streets where cars regularly park on both sides during peak hours, creating conditions where two vehicles cannot pass and where school buses and children boarding or exiting buses add safety concerns. Jorgensen said the city previously asked the Ada County Highway District (ACHD) to move a pedestrian crossing and that ACHD accommodated that request.

Chief Allen (Garden City Police Department) described operational problems and enforcement constraints: enforcement of turn restrictions and parking is possible but depends on staffing. He said traffic engineers have identified longer-term engineering fixes (right‑turn lanes, intersection improvements) that would be costlier and outside immediate city capacity.

Garden City planning and public-works staff confirmed that 40 Second and 40 Third have 50-foot rights-of-way with 5-foot sidewalks and meet ACHD width and design standards. Staff reported ACHD does not anticipate designing major improvements to 40 Third under its current program, other than infill sidewalk where missing.

Council members, police and staff discussed a range of options: restricting parking to one side of a street, time-limited parking (e.g., two-hour zones), residential or business parking permits, targeted additional enforcement, outreach to apartment or townhome management (Trailwinds and others), using sensors or app-based pay stations instead of traditional meters, and neighborhood meetings to collect input from affected residents and businesses. Several members noted a recent failed parking-meter implementation in Caldwell that led that city to cancel a downtown meter program after local businesses reported harm.

Council asked staff to pursue several near-term follow-ups: (1) request ACHD consider targeted changes where safety can be demonstrated, (2) contact Trailwinds and other property managers about tenant parking policies, (3) explore the legal and enforcement limits of time‑limited parking or permits, including how fines are processed and collected, and (4) prepare outreach for a community conversation focused on the 40 Second/40 Third area. Police and staff said citation collection is administratively difficult when vehicle owners are not easily served; parking citations are infractions that go to court but often do not yield collection revenue.

Council also discussed Coffee/Coffey Street and Marigold Avenue parking and said a proposed intersection project (Coffee and Marigold) is in the city’s five-year work plan for ACHD review; staff will coordinate with ACHD engineering staff and the council’s ACHD commissioners when next steps are considered.

Next steps recorded at the end of the session included staff outreach to property managers, a meeting with ACHD staff and the mayor to review engineering options, and a community meeting to gather neighborhood input before any binding changes to parking or code.

Context and emphasis

Council members repeatedly framed the issue as a mix of safety and convenience: narrow local streets, new development with on‑site parking that residents sometimes avoid using, and periodic large events (soccer tournaments, fairgrounds uses) that can overwhelm on‑street supply. Staff cautioned against parking rules the city cannot reliably enforce; police and city staff recommended targeting changes that ACHD will accept as safety improvements or pursuing phased local permit/time-limit programs where enforcement resources are feasible.

Quotations (selected, attributed to meeting speakers)

"Cars park on both sides of the street in the mornings. That narrows it down to very narrow passage where two cars cannot pass," Council member Jorgensen said, describing school‑time congestion.

"We don't have the resources to patrol or enforce any kind of metered type parking solution," Chief Allen said, noting enforcement depends on staffing.

"I would request that we contact management at Trailwinds and the townhome associations to ask what their tenant parking policies are," the mayor said, directing staff to gather information.

The council did not adopt any formal ordinance during the work session; it asked staff to return with information and to meet with ACHD engineers and property managers.