Sandpoint adds downtown streets to proposed paid parking plan
ERIC WELCH | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 7 months, 2 weeks AGO
The latest draft of a proposed paid parking plan for downtown Sandpoint includes a suggestion to charge fees for curbside parking in select stretches of central streets.
Photo courtesy CITY OF SANDPOINT
SANDPOINT — During a Wednesday city council meeting, Sandpoint staff shared a new draft parking plan that adds street parking fees on a collection of central roads to the previous proposal to charge for parking at city-owned lots in Sandpoint’s downtown core.
No action was taken Wednesday. In a public agenda report, Welker wrote that a finalized plan is likely to come before Sandpoint City Council on June 18. If approved, paid parking will begin in the spring of 2026.
Sandpoint’s Community Planning and Development Director Jason Welker, the primary architect of the plan, has said his main goal is to balance Sandpoint’s parking utilization and thereby improve the likelihood of drivers finding an available stall where they want to park.
The original plan, brought into the public eye during a Jan. 21 planning and zoning commission meeting, proposed to implement fees at Sandpoint’s currently-free downtown parking lots. Sandpoint residents who purchased a $10 annual pass would receive free two-hour visits at all city lots. Since then, Sandpoint has collected feedback from city taxpayers, area residents and local business owners and used it to revise the plan.
The latest draft retains the original concept, but ups the cost of an annual pass to $15 while offering free three-hour visits to all city lots except City Beach, where passholders can park for six hours before being charged an hourly fee.
A similar pass would be available to nonresidents, but it would cost $30 and offer free two-hour stays at all lots and three-hour stays at City Beach.
Downtown businesses would be eligible to purchase $40 monthly passes for unlimited parking at all lots and all-day parking in some time-restricted street stalls. Downtown residents would be able to buy a pass with the same privileges for $60.
Wednesday’s meeting marked the first appearance of proposed fees for street parking in the plan. The draft proposes hourly fees for curbside stalls along stretches of First Avenue and Second Avenue in central Sandpoint, along with a handful of other central roads.
The change was integrated based on feedback voiced during a recent planning and zoning commission meeting; according to Welker, parking meters used to exist in the same area from 1947 until 1990.
“We would really just be going back to an era when parking downtown was paid parking,” he said.
He added that fees for the on-street stalls would be charged year-round, but that rates would likely fluctuate depending on demand to ensure the spaces are utilized as effectively as possible.
City staff have stated that a secondary goal of the plan is to create a sustainable source of funding for the maintenance and improvement of Sandpoint’s parking lots — some of which are overdue for replacement.
Welker told attendees Wednesday that the proposed plan stands to generate between $300,000 and $500,000 annually. He added that he anticipates most of the revenue would come from visitors and tourists rather than city taxpayers.
ARTICLES BY ERIC WELCH
City personnel, community members discuss options as James E. Russell Center costs exceed revenue
Community planning and development director Jason Welker, who oversees Sandpoint’s parks and recreation programs and facilities, suggested that the city could either maintain its current approach at the facility, shrink the center’s operating hours, install new modular playing surfaces for mixed sports use on some of the courts, or recruit a nonprofit organization to operate the facility.
‘Expressions’ courses fill non-school art void
Teens participating in Gentry’s class practiced printmaking, painting and design to create works including a pop art-inspired self-portrait. “My goal when I'm teaching the kids is to just show them lots of different ways that you can make really cool art. It doesn't have to be just traditional,” she said. “The kind of art they do with me, they get to just express themselves, and it doesn't have to be perfection.”
City of Sandpoint sheds light on sewage incident outcome
On the morning of Feb. 24, an electrical control system failure caused pumps to shut off unexpectedly at Sandpoint’s municipal wastewater treatment plant — a city-owned facility that removes contaminants from sewage before discharging it into the Pend Oreille River.