|
The “Pit” is the large parking area located near the Automotive Training Center and adjacent to SCC’s soccer field. Prior to the start of the academic quarter, it was repossessed by the city of Shoreline, severely reducing the number of student parking spots available on campus.
Trying to find an alternative means of parking, SCC students have parked their vehicles in nearby
neighborhoods, resulting in increased
traffic and debris. Located
just west of SCC on Innis Arden way, the small, upscale residential community of Shorewood Hills has been hit particularly hard.
“(The ‘Pit’) has been in existence
for probably 25 years. It’s been consistently used,” said Shorewood Hills resident Ed Robinson.
“It’s probably not the first parking lot to fill up, but it’s where the overflow goes to and currently with it not in operation, the overflow
now flows into the surrounding
neighborhoods.”
Robinson is the former President
of the Shorewood Hills Homeowners
Association (SHHA). He maintains that although students have parked in the neighborhoods in the past, the recent closure of the “Pit” has caused the number of cars to nearly triple. “It has been a problem consistently. It’s been a problem for 15 years,” said Robinson.
“But we used to get seven cars. Now we get 20.”
Current SHHA president Dave Dunaway agrees with Robinson. “We’ve had the college parking here for years. It’s always been a problem,” said Dunaway. “It’s heavier this time and I suspect it’s because of the loss of the (‘Pit’).”
Neighbors say that the difficulties
extend far beyond the increasing number
of college cars that are parked in front of their homes. “There’s a problem
as far as traffic, there’s a problem with unsightliness
to the area,” Robinson said. “When you put 30 college students in there a day that don’t care, it’s a far different situation. You end up with beer cans on the street and cigarette butts all over the place.”
Solutions from the college have also been described to be few at best. Both Dunaway and Robinson
have complained to the college during their respective terms as SHHA President and both say they have come to no resolution with the college. “We get lip service
but no action,” Dunaway said. “Over the years, various Board of Directors have contacted the college
and we get lip service, but that’s about it.”
College executive Randy Stegmeier,
however, states that there is no immediate solution to this problem that the college can present.
Stegmeier, SCC’s executive director of facilities, capital projects,
safety and security, says “We have no enforcement authority. Those are not our streets; that’s not our property. As a college, we have no enforcement authority to stop them from parking there. That would fall to the city.”
Stuart Trippel,
the Vice President of Student
Services, agrees. “(Shorewood
Hills) is not our property or our jurisdiction,”
he said. “It is the city of Shoreline’s and it seems there is a solution to this, but it’s not a solution
the college can enforce. It’s a solution the city of Shoreline has to enforce.”
As one possible solution, the college
proposes that the neighbors collaborate with the city in installing
“no parking” signs and making
the area a Residential Parking Zone (RPZ). A RPZ is a parking zone established on blocks where traffic congestion is heavy due to nearby businesses, hospitals and/or schools and requires any vehicles
that are parked curbside to display a permit during hours of peaked congestion. The establishment
of a RPZ would allow the city to ticket the vehicles of non-residents and students that are parked in Shorewood Hills during school hours.
College officials use the section of Greenwood Avenue near the Greenwood parking lot as an example
of RPZ action in the area. “The city and the neighborhood, if the neighborhood wants to do such, should pursue making (Shorewood Hills) an RPZ,” Stegmeier said. “That is something that has been done in other surrounding areas around the campus.”
Trippel states that if the neighbors
decide to take such action, he would be supportive of their cause. “If (SHAA) wanted to convert their area into a residential parking
zone, we can support that,” he said. “We’d have to see the specifics,
but I don’t know why we would oppose that.”
Trippel also states that if there is no RPZ present, no action can be taken against the excess cars parked in Shorewood Hills. “We don’t want to have our residential neighbors inconvenienced but as a practical matter, the easiest (solution)
is for them to pursue a RPZ with the city and I don’t know why we’d oppose that,” Trippel said. “We would have some individual students that would oppose it, I’m sure. But I don’t think the college, as a whole, would oppose it.”
Until a solution is found, the college
requests that the students use parking designated for students, whether it be on campus or the Sears parking lot. “We certainly would encourage our students to refrain from parking in residential
neighborhoods,” Stegmeier said. “It does reflect poorly on the students and the institution because the neighborhoods do get inconvenienced.”
| 
)