Parking problems: Centre Court, city clash

Residents want two-hour public parking restored

One viewpoint: A bunch of frustrated senior citizens are fighting city hall to restore much-needed easy access to their front door.

Another viewpoint: The Kalispell Parking Commission is trying to accommodate those senior citizens while juggling a limited amount of downtown parking spaces.

The battleground: Eight parking spaces on the east side of the 100 block of West Second Avenue in front of Centre Court Manor, 121 Second Ave. W., home to 45 senior citizens.

Six spaces are for permit-only parking. Two spaces are 30-minute loading zones.

Until May, that stretch used to be two-hour public parking spaces with a bus-loading zone. From May to mid-December, that stretch consisted of permit-only parking and a bus-loading zone.

Eighteen Centre Court residents and manor manager Carol Thrasher recently met with the Daily Inter Lake, voicing their frustrations about being unable to restore two-hour public parking to the street in front of their building.

Residents met with city officials Dec. 8, and the Parking Commission met Dec. 15 to change the bus-loading zone to a 30-minute loading zone. The residents think that change doesn't meet their needs.

"We feel very passionate about this. This is our home, and they shut our front door, and we can't get in," said Centre Court resident Cecilia Bertram.

The residents' position is as follows: They are elderly, and many have problems walking even short distances. Many of their friends are elderly with the same troubles. Their children and grandchildren often have to lug along small babies when visiting and have problems walking significant distances. Caregivers such as Meals on Wheels are frequent visitors.

The residents' bottom line: These visitors are best served by allowing them to park for significant amounts of time in front of Centre Court Manor. They cannot do that with permit-only parking and 30-minute loading zones, which post $10 fines for violators. That restriction discourages friends and family members from visiting them.

"We have no on-site parking for visitors, family, etc. This is a seniors building. Many of our visitors are seniors and have trouble walking 100 yards," resident Tom Hamilton said.

Resident Dee Dowd said: "These people [city officials} forget someday they're going to be elderly and have a hard time walking. … They don't get it."

Thrasher said: "We'd like to get entire street back, but are willing for settle for half [returning to two-hour public parking]. … We asked for reasonable accommodations for families, for friends and for caregivers."

Centre Court has 40 apartments with 20 on-site spaces for residents' cars, with a waiting list of five extra cars that cannot fit in. On Wednesday, the manor bought six permits -applicable to the 100 block of West Second Avenue and the parking lot due south of Centre Court - for its residents.

A few years ago, the Centre Court site used to be a city-owned permit-only parking lot with 55 spaces. Hampstead Partners of La Jolla, Calif., bought the site and built Centre Court Manor. The city of Kalispell bought a building one block to the south and tore it down to create a 21-space permit-only parking lot. And another city-owned, 26-space, permit-only parking lot is nestled along the south side of Centre Court. Monfric Inc. of San Diego is buying Centre Court from Hampstead Partners and authorized the manor to buy its six new permits.

Overall, Kalispell has 341 spaces reserved between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays for people who have bought one-month or six-month permits. Permits are valid only for specific parking lots and street spaces that match cards hung from rear-view mirrors.

In 2004, a few Centre Court residents approached the city Parking Commission for five extra spaces. "It started out that the residents there asked for more permit parking," said Janet Cook, one of Kalispell's five volunteer parking commissioners.

The Parking Commission is dealing with a downtown with limited parking and growing pressure from businesses to provide more spaces for their employees and customers, Cook and commission Chairman Mark Pirrie said.

The commission thought it came up with a solution that met the manor residents' wishes in May by adding the permit-only parking in front of Centre Court - a move that put permit-only parking on a block that sees little parking use before and after the change. The commission switched the bus-loading zone to a 30-minute loading zone this month to make that spot more available to cars dropping people off at the manor, Pirrie and Cook said.

But last week, the manor residents called for two-hour public parking instead.

"They wanted more long-term parking," Pirrie said. "We were doing what we thought they requested."

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com