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Town Council to consider new parking restrictions for Woodside Road

by Dave Boyce

It would be lovely to get around in Woodside in a low-altitude balloon, especially when it comes to parking. You want to deliver your third-grader to school and spend a few minutes with her teacher? You're meeting someone for lunch at Bucks? How much space do you need for a concrete block and a tether?

Yes, well, enough daydreaming. If you're a Woodside Elementary School parent or a patron of downtown shops and restaurants, or a pedestrian or bicyclist for that matter, you've known the frustration of negotiating around the illegally parked vehicles along that half-mile of state Highway 84 (Woodside Road) between Canada and Miramontes roads.

During the school year, at least twice a day, traffic slows or stops and squeezes through aisles of cars parked in the bike lanes. The town government and the California Department of Transportation, it seems, have had enough.

The Town Council, when it met on July 14, sounded willing to adopt a proposal by Public Works Director Paul Nagengast to install no-parking-or-stopping signs on both sides of Woodside Road, with some exceptions for special events and the twice-daily student drop-off and pick-up.

The council takes up the measure at its July 28 meeting, and it would need the approval of Caltrans, which has proposed a more far-reaching plan: no parking, no stopping, and no exceptions between Canada and Kings Mountain roads. The Woodside proposal is a step back from that.

Under the town's plan, Albion Road, a cross-street near the school where parents often park, would also be off-limits, Mr. Nagengast said. For special events, the town could disable the signs by covering them with bags.

The problem, in essence, is that the area has parking for 358 vehicles and needs parking for 420, according to a consultant's report. The bike lanes are often blocked, forcing cyclists of all ages out into the traffic lane. Students, both on bike and on foot, use the bike lane because there are no sidewalks, and the horse trail on the south side is narrow and can be muddy in winter.

The bike lane in winter also becomes slippery from parked vehicles tracking in mud, said Bob Page, a Woodside Road resident and member of the Bicycle Committee.

Barbara Weinstein, who also lives on Woodside Road, related to the council how tough it is getting out her driveway safely when there are parked vehicles on either side, and how the roadside can become impassable for pedestrians.

"We'd love to take our grandchildren to the (Woodside) Bakery, but the side of the road is completely full down to Buck's," she said. "They can't walk safely on the right side of the cars, and they can't walk at all on the left side of the cars."

Some on the council wanted to move more slowly. Councilman Dave Tanner suggested introducing the restrictions in stages so as to more closely monitor the impact on parking. Parking is a like balloon, he said. Squeeze it out of one area and it will move to another.

Councilwoman Sue Boynton said the plan needs community buy-in and recommended setting up a task force. "We're a tiny little rural community," she said. "Maybe we need to look at how we create our events."

"While we are a small little community, this is not a small little road," Mr. Nagengast noted. "We may have a solution imposed on us."

For the long term, staff would look into the possibility of more parking in what is now open space behind the mini-mall at the corner of Woodside and Canada roads. Build a two-story parking structure back there, said Mr. Page, an idea that received a second from Mayor Peter Mason and no one else.