YAKIMA, Wash.- The discussion on parking in downtown Yakima may soon be nearing its end. On April 2, Yakima City Council agreed to have city administration draft an ordinance to address concerns with parking.
The ordinance would include increasing free parking in city-owned lots to three hours, while enforcing a two-hour limit for street parking. The monthly parking pass and parking violation fees would also drop to $20 each.
Mayor Patricia Byers says the city would still have to see how the new system works in the months following, but enforcing the new rules will be key.
“We haven’t had a lot of enforcement,” says Byers. “We’ve had none during COVID. And since then, it’s been like spotty hit and miss depending on when we had a moratorium on. So, we’re trying to now get back on track as really the whole idea here is let’s get back on track with a plan.”
The ordinance follows almost five months of discussion with downtown business owners and employees who received tickets for parking in city-owned lots during their shifts and would sometimes have to leave work to move their cars every two hours.
Corie Ratliff, the owner of Mama Corie’s Kitchen, says her business is in danger of shutting down because of the parking situation.
With the restaurant located on Pendleton Way, directly across from the Yakima County buildings, she’s seen 20 County employees park in front of her store in a day, when there’s 23 designated spots for those employees.
“If they’d simply move those vehicles across the street, that would free up every person that people can pull up come have lunch,” said Ratliff during the public comment period of April 2’s council meeting. “Because as I have told you guys, time and time again, people are circling. They’re not able to come in and eat.”
The city says that will be addressed in the new ordinance.
“If they have parking lot, they should be using their parking lot,” said Deputy Mayor Matt Brown in reference to governmental offices in the downtown area.
Councilmember Rick Glenn suggested a warning period where cars staying over the time limit would not be penalized until the changes go into effect but would be told the changes are coming.
City Council will vote on the ordinance at next week’s meeting. If the vote passes, the changes will go into effect May 9th.
The city’s current moratorium would be extended to end on the same date.
