City takes look at diagonal parking on Fifth

Since the city of Columbia Falls put in diagonal parking on Fifth Street, some motorists have expressed concern on whether two cars can pass each other on the street just off Nucleus Avenue.

City manager Susan Nicosia told council earlier this month that there should be plenty of room to pass, even with longer pickups parked diagonally.

The city has a 70 foot right-of-way total, she told council. Once the parallel parking on the north side of the street is subtracted and the diagonal parking on the south side is subtracted the driving lanes are still 14.5 feet wide, she said.

The police department also used one of its pickup trucks in a diagonal spot to see if it could back out OK with a car parked opposite of it on the north side of the street — it could.

“It’s tighter than it was, but there is still a lot of driving surface,” she said.

The diagonal parking has its advantages, because it adds five to six more spots on the street than regular parallel parking.

With new businesses sprouting up on Nucleus, parking has become a premium in downtown, though there’s still plenty of spots to be had if a person doesn’t mind walking a block or two.

In other city streets news, the city learned it won’t have to foot the bill for crossing arms on 12th Avenue West at the railroad tracks.

But it still needs to negotiate a right-of-way agreement to finish the sidewalks at the crossing.

The city stopped the recent reconstruction of 12th Avenue short, because it was initially told by the railroad it would have to foot the bill for crossing arms at the intersection, which cost tens of thousands of dollars. The train, when it does go through the crossing, is typically going at a low rate of speed — 20 mph or so, crossing arms seem unnecessary.