What would you do? (Seattle: home, neighborhood, construction)

[happyhunting]

Kind of a long story, but here goes. I live near a pretty busy street (but I don't face it), limited street parking available. A home across the street last year with a very large lot sold and a huge 3-4 story complex is going up. One of the bigger construction companies in town, whose name is all over multiple projects going on simultaneously in this area, has been working on it since last year and I fully anticipated noise, traffic, and parking issues.......not a problem. The issues are many though.....one is that on 3 separate occasions, 3 different vehicles (personal cars) belonging to these workers (might be sub-contractors) parked directly in front of my driveway. Not just a little over, not halfway, but fully in front like it was theirs (although even I can't legally block my own driveway). This was before 8 am, and parking enforcement wasn't open yet when I called, so I never got through, and they eventually moved before I could do anything. I witnessed the first two times it happened, and so I noted the vehicles and plates, and can see they are fully decked out construction workers. The third ocassion, I found out only because we had been out of town for a week, got back in town and one of the construction workers approached me, said his vehicle had been ticketed for parking there and why had I called? WTF? First, I was not even there, secondly, a citizen doesn't have to call, the parking enforcement are more than happy to drive around town ticketing infractions, third, why is this my fault? After speaking to a neighbor, he tells me this particular car was parked in front of our driveway ALL week, and he assumed we had company and didn't want to say anything. Any how........that's just one issue.

Second issue: this construction company has put up no parking signs several months ago, on one side of the street, that were permitted the first through the end of the month. But only on one occasion was a huge piece of utility equipment parked there for about 3 days. The entire rest of the month they parked their personal vehicles they drive to work in. About 6 cars can fit on this one side. And when they leave for lunch they put up orange cones "reserving" their spots, so nobody else can park there. The signs expired two months ago, and they leave them up, essentially blocking anyone else from parking there. This morning we wake up and the opposite side of the street, the one I park my vehicle in front of my own house, has new signs up here too. But once again, it's all the workers personal vehicles, not equipment. So my question is, are they allowed to get permits to put up no parking signs and use it to reserve spots for their workers to park personal vehicles in?

Another issue: I was taking my trash out early one morning, saw a worker come out of their little trailer/office thing, deposit 3 black bags of trash next to my neighbors cans. She will be charged about 8 bucks a bag because waste management will assume they are hers, when they are not.

My husband has called parking enforcement, verified they are not permited to have the signs up. All signs that are permited will have a piece of paper, and be official, these are hand written and there is no record according to them. At the same time, I don't want my vehicle towed. Even though if they are in the wrong it would be at their expense, I don't want the hassel of it.

Bottom line is, this is the most disrespectful group of employees I've ever seen working in the neighborhood. They throw their trash from meals out their car window onto street, blast music in the morning and as far as the parking situation, I'm not sure who to accelerate it to? Anyone have to deal with this before?

[shoegal111]

Personally I would discreetly take photographs, next I would try to contact the property owner where this construction is occurring or the construction company (blocking my phone number) and tried to resolve the issues with them. If that doesn't work then I would request the parking enforcement come out to speak to them. Lastly if that doesn't work, check to see if the police have ticketing authority (which they probably do) and call the police non-emergency number to report when parking enforcement is closed.

If none of the above can help, then maybe a complaint to the mayor's office or asking a local news channel to do a story might get them back in line.

[happyhunting]

A little update........so we called the parking enforcement, they claim they have no permits for that construction company to block parking on either side of this particular street, that the signs are owned by the city, and they are placed and removed by the city. They have no record for "no parking" on that street and that sometimes these guys will keep the signs (read steal) and use them elsewhere. He also said they have multiple complaints about the same company doing this in other areas before, and that even if they had been permited, it's not for reserving spots for personal vehicles of employees. He said they would stay on top of it, and within a few hours all the signs were knocked down. Hope it stays this way

[sean98125]

If it is a major project, then they probably have construction conditions on file with the Department of Planning and Development (or whoever does code enforcement in your community). There are probably restrictions on parking impact. If you are in Seattle, you can file a complaint at DPD -- Compliance: Codes We Enforce

You can look up the permits for the project at DPD Permit and Complaint Status.

[isaackko]

Call the contractor directly. Don't bother with the bureaucracy.

[Vinylly]

So, when that construction worker was pissed off at you for supposedly calling Parking Control and getting ticketed I would say, 'Yes, and next time this happens your car will be towed away !!!!'. Paint a red strip of paint 6' on both side of your drive-way and post: 'No Parking on Red Strip or Vehicles will be Towed' Then, whoever does park there, call the towing company. Warning; If you don't call the towing company, the violaters will only think your a whimp and park there anyway.

[happyhunting]

Originally Posted by Vinylly

So, when that construction worker was pissed off at you for supposedly calling Parking Control and getting ticketed I would say, 'Yes, and next time this happens your car will be towed away !!!!'. Paint a red strip of paint 6' on both side of your drive-way and post: 'No Parking on Red Strip or Vehicles will be Towed' Then, whoever does park there, call the towing company. Warning; If you don't call the towing company, the violaters will only think your a whimp and park there anyway.

It's funny you mention this. I started a thread last year about possibly painting a curb..........our neighbor did go out and put up a no parking tow away zone on his garage. We might do the same.

The parking enforcement fined the company, they then took the signs down, put up new ones the next day with proper paperwork and a much smaller time frame. Today they did legit concrete work and really did need the whole street blocked. If it continues this way I have no problem complying at all. But if they start parking personal vehicles there while blocking the residents from doing so, parking enforcement asked us to take pictures and forward them. The city has been very promt in responding.......I was kind of surprised. Then again, they might need that money form the tickets and fines?

The funny thing about the very first time we called to complain, is that as soon as my husband said he had an issue with no parking signs and blocked areas, she mistakenly thought we were complaining about a different area, and quickly replied, "people, it's Seafair........" I guess they are getting a LOT of complaints right now.