Are neighbors reporting your Meridian parking violations? Tickets are likely here
Downtown was the most common place in Meridian to get a parking ticket in 2022, according to data obtained by the Idaho Statesman.
The second most-common place was Centrepoint Way, a street in a neighborhood made up of mostly town houses and apartments near Ustick and Eagle roads.
The multifamily housing along Centrepoint Way has been widely opposed by area residents, who said parking and traffic were major concerns.
Meridian Code Enforcement, which investigates and enforces city parking regulations, gave 134 parking tickets to vehicles parked on Centrepoint Way in 2022, according to records. The department gave 143 tickets on Pine Avenue and the same number on Idaho Avenue, both downtown.
Most of the Centrepoint Way vehicles were cited for parking in a no-parking zone, according to the data.
The Meridian Police Department records clerk, Kelly Herb, said out of the 134 tickets, three were from resident calls to dispatch and two were reports to Meridian Code Enforcement from residents in the area. One of the people who reported the parking issues called from Centrepoint Way, and the other called from North LeBlanc Way, which is south of Ustick Road, two blocks from Centrepoint Way. The rest of the citations were from officers patrolling the area, Herb said.
Centrepoint Way’s high-density developments include the Brickyard Townhomes, Centrepoint Townhomes and the Delano subdivision. In 2019, residents in the area, near Ustick and Eagle Roads, came out in droves to voice opposition to Delano’s 85 single-family homes and an apartment complex with nearly 100 apartments.
Malissa Bernard, a representative on the outreach committee for the Alpine Point Homeowners Association, north of the Brickyard Townhomes, said residents they have not experienced any parking issues because their subdivision is not yet connected Centrepoint Way, but will be in the future.
She encouraged the city to make sure apartment and town house communities have enough parking for their residents. The lack of affordable housing the Boise area is making parking even tougher, she said.
“We don’t have enough parking places in the most convenient spot for the residents,” Bernard said by phone. “I think we’re seeing much more roommates than anticipated for each unit because of the cost of housing, and those roommates have friends that spend the night. I don’t think there’s enough parking for the economic situation right now.”
In July, the Meridian City Council approved 259 new apartments at 3100 N. Centrepoint Way. One of the major sticking points was parking. During the public hearing, Janet Bailey, a Centrepoint Way resident, said cars park on both sides of the road.
“There is only room enough to park on one side,” she said.
Homeowners in Jackson Square, the single-family-home subdivision near the Centrepoint apartments, opposed the complex, Bernard said. A representative for the Jackson Square Home Owners’ Association did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 4:00 AM.
