Parking violation crackdown is coming
Published 10:42 am Monday, March 3, 2008
Anyone living in the newly annexed area of Mill Creek who is still parking their car on the sidewalk or facing the wrong way had better break the habit or else they’ll face a fine.
Mill Creek police will have the option of issuing tickets for various parking violations in the newly annexed area starting Wednesday, March 15, police chief Bob Crannell said.
Since the area was annexed into Mill Creek on Dec. 1, police have not issued any parking violations. For the first two months after the annexation, violators were notified of their infraction with what Crannell called a “courtesy notice” that mentioned what city law was broken. After Feb. 1, officers began issuing written warnings to violators. Exact numbers of notices and written warnings were not available.
“What we were looking for was education and voluntary compliance,” Crannell said. “People in the annexation area were unfamiliar with the laws and there was not a lot of law enforcement presence there before. I think we’ve been very fair.”
Crannell said his officers are reporting more voluntary compliance in the new annexation area. He also said he’s received a variety of comments from residents in the new area, with some pleased about the enforcement and others not-so-pleased.
“But for the most part people are positive,” Crannell said.
Mill Creek’s parking laws parallel state law, with one exception: the city is stricter in terms of parking vehicles on the street. City law says cars cannot be parked on the street for longer than 24 consecutive hours.
“If we put a chalkmark on your tire, come back 24 hours later and the same mark is on the same spot on the same tire, we can write you a ticket,” Crannell said.
The 500-plus-acre annexation area is bordered on the north by 132nd Street SE., on the east by Seattle Hill Road, on the west by the Mill Creek city limits and on the south by 144th Street SE.
For more information, call code enforcement officer Paul Delgado at 425-921-5765.
