Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transportation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Libby council pauses diagonal-parking plan, sends proposal back to committee
Summary
Council debated angled parking on Main Street, heard safety and visibility concerns from police and residents, and ultimately returned the plan to the streets committee for further analysis rather than adopting it tonight.
The Libby City Council discussed a streets committee recommendation to add diagonal parking along Main Street to create additional spaces, but members and residents raised safety and data concerns and the council referred the proposal back to committee for further study.
Streets committee members argued that diagonal parking would add spaces near the county annex and courthouse and provide parking for employees who currently use private lots. The police chief cautioned that while accidents reported were not usually caused by backing out of angled spaces, visibility at crossings matters. Several residents, including Rocky Gifford and Tony Wickham, expressed concern that angled parking could increase hazards without data demonstrating a congestion problem; Gifford said he and others are collecting a petition opposing 2-hour limits and angled parking.
Council members discussed front-in versus back-in (reverse) angled parking and requested more analysis of safety tradeoffs. One councilor moved to implement diagonal parking and the motion was seconded, but a separate attempt to table the motion failed and, after procedural discussion, council agreed to send the item back to the streets committee for direction on design (front-in vs. back-in) and safety analysis.
Next steps: the streets committee will report back with traffic and safety analysis and a recommended direction for any angled-parking configuration before the council considers final approval.
