OGDEN, Utah — There are changes to where you are allowed to park when it snows in Ogden, with newly approved amendments to the snow ordinance.
"We're looking for ways to make it to where we could easily just make the roads safer,” said Ogden City Council Vice Chair Ken Richey.
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, members voted to amend the existing snow ordinance. The vote passed with only one vote against the ordinance.
"Basically when it’s snowing or snow's imminent, and we need to have people with their cars off the road, and there are certain areas in the city where there's not a lot of off-street parking, and those have been exempted,” added Richey.
The city council snow ordinance packet includes a map of some of the exempted areas. These rules only apply to city streets, and crews are working with communities to see if more streets need to be added to this list.
"It’s an ordinance that can disproportionately affect my community,” said Kevin Lundell, a concerned resident who lives in Downtown Ogden. “Downtown is dense, and it’s hard to find parking, hard to get your car, not everyone has driveways, not everyone has a place to put their car."
Lundell adds that he does not think there are enough spots for everyone who lives on these streets to park their cars.
"You only have to go downtown, drive around after a snowstorm and look at all the cars, where are those cars going to go?” added Lundell.
With the amended snow ordinance, Ogden City Council and the administration are hoping that this first year can just help educate people about the new rules. It’s an opportunity to residents to understand the rules, without being severely penalized. So, officials are trying not to give as many tickets out this year. They are giving them out in certain circumstances, but they're hoping people can learn the process this year, so real enforcement can start next year.
"I think it’s good to start with a bit of education, I think that gives us a window of time to help people understand, but at the end of the day, they're going to have to start enforcing it,” added Lundell.
"It’s all about safety primarily,” explained Richey. “When you have a car that is on the street and a snowplow can't plow to a curb, then it creates an issue where if they're trying to walk around the car, now they're in lanes of traffic.”
Hoping for other alternatives while officials work out all the kinks in the process. "I think there are other alternatives that could have been in play,” suggested Lundell. “maybe an A and B day - park on one side of the street on one day, one side of the street on another. Other states do this, other communities do this.”
