SANDPOINT — Recent City Council workshops culminated in the adoption of revisions to Sandpoint’s snow removal and special event policies on Wednesday.

Under the snow removal policy, residents will now be required to park only on the side of the street with even numbered addresses between the months of November and March. The intent, said Sandpoint Public Works director Amanda Wilson, is to allow room for city crews to get equipment down the city streets during snow removal operations.

“We will hope this proves to be an effective approach,” Wilson said.

The snow removal policy now delineates streets as priority one, two or three. Priority one areas include arterials and major collector streets, as well as streets that serve emergency response facilities, schools, and streets with hills and sharp curves. Priority two includes streets generally located within the downtown business core. Priority three is all streets that do not fall under the first two priority areas, primarily residential.

It is in the priority one and three areas where on-street parking is restricted to the even numbered side of the street between Nov. 1 and March 1.

“That’s not to say that the even side of the street won’t get served — it will — we just won’t be able to serve it until the vehicles have moved by going to school or work or whatever they might be doing,” Wilson said.

As for priority two, on-street parking is prohibited in the downtown business sector between 2-6 a.m. between Nov. 1 and March 1, unless otherwise posted.

Wilson also discussed the use of snow gates, which is a piece of equipment attached to city graders to help reduce the amount of snow plowed in front of driveways.

“The primary clarification on this was to emphasize that the gates will only be used in front of driveways and not in front of vehicles, and that we will be using snow gates as often as is practical,” Wilson said. “More often than not we will be able to use snow gates, but in the event where we really need to allocate our resources in the most efficient manner possible, we might need to suspend the use of gates so that we can ensure we get the timely coverage of all of our residential streets ... The use of gates does take longer.”

Wilson said residents can get updates on city operations and road conditions through the Engage Sandpoint app, on Facebook, or the city’s new hotline at 208-920-SNOW.

Special event policy and procedures were discussed during an Oct. 17 workshop in an effort to clarify and simplify the process and fees for city staff and for the public. Under the new fee structure, there is no fee for small events with less than 51 participants, though they are still required to fill out the special event application; a medium event with 51 to 499 participants is $100, and a large event with 500 or more participants is $300. Special events include parades, public assembly, marches, Farmin Park events, bike rides, runs and walkathons, sporting tournaments, and other park events.

The special events policy also designates venues for downtown events. These include Farmin Park and Jeff Jones Town Square, and the city streets on Main Street between town square and First Avenue, and on Second Avenue from Cedar to Church.

Another change that was discussed in detail during the workshop was the certificate of insurance requirement, naming the city “additional insured” of $1 million was required for all events. Under the new policy, small and medium events are no longer required to provide a certificate of insurance.

Council members also adopted revisions to City Beach and park regulations on Wednesday, eliminating sections specific to special events as those were moved to the special events ordinance.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.