Update: SDOT to install time-limited parking signs in place of ‘no parking’ signs

Meghan Walker Ballard

Update (9:20am): Not long after publishing the below post, Nagy informed My Ballard that SDOT contacted her and offered to install time-limited parking signs in front of her business. The signs will allow for two- to four-hour parking, “to help maintain accessibility for your tenants,” SDOT’s Thomas Fowler told Nagy.

“I will be removing mine when they put theirs up. Win/win!” she says.

Original (Published 8:53am): Erika Nagy owns a property at the corner of NW 85th St and 12th Ave NW. For weeks she’d been frustrated with cars camped out in front, leaving garbage and drug paraphernalia in the parking lot.

“I’ve asked people nicely to move on who have been there for long periods,” Nagy told My Ballard. She said some have agreed, while others refused.

So, three weeks ago she took matters into her own hands and decided to put up the “no parking” signs — purchased online — to discourage the campers. “I just want to ensure tenants can do business,” Nagy said. “As you know parking is limited around Ballard, even more so these days.”

And it worked, she said. The vehicles left, and the parking lot was much cleaner.

But then the letter came from SDOT. The department said her signs were illegal and a “public nuisance”. They warned that if she didn’t take them down, they’d be removing the signs themselves, and sending her the bill.

“I honestly had no idea it would be an issue,” Nagy said. “I thought it was a benign way to maybe give some pause.”

To prove that the signs were illegal, SDOT included in the letter an aerial map that marked out where her property ends and where city property begins — apparently half the parking lot belongs to the city.

Nagy wants to work with SDOT to find a solution — she said she sent an email to the department requesting help to deal with the situation.

My Ballard reached out to SDOT for comment but they haven’t yet responded.

51 thoughts to “Update: SDOT to install time-limited parking signs in place of ‘no parking’ signs”

  1. If they won’t ticket and remove drug dealing, bike thieving, illegally parked RVs, why should she removed her sign? What are their real priorities at SDOT?

      1. Oh great. Another self-appointed guardian against the Trump-tards. As much as I may appreciate your politics, your need to constantly post is just as obnoxious as the couple of sockpuppeters who bloviate about homelessrvjunkypackagetheifblahblahblah. Just stop. And no, not fake. A real profile and a very seldom-posting Ballard resident. Thanks.

    2. Well, SDOT can’t ticket and remove drug dealing, bike thieving, illegally parked RVs, so I’m not sure what SDOT is supposed to do about it. While SDOT can enforce their regulations, SDDOT is not a law enforcement agency. So the priorities at SDOT are probably to enforce their regulations, which include not allowing people to put up whatever sign they want on public property. And clearly, it looks like SDOT is willing to work with the property owner in this situation.

      So while there might be many valid reasons to complain about SDOT, I don’t see them doing anything wrong in this situation.

  3. Looking at the King County Parcel Viewer it appears that most of that parking is on city owned property. But it is still insane that the city wont remove the campers but will threaten a business owner!

    1. Yes, but they are crossing her property line and parking on her property. If it was my property, considering that she’s already asked them nicely not to, I would have every single one of those people towed without a second thought, especially the tweaker mobiles.

  4. Ah, the clown world continues.
    The city spends money policing these “illegal signs” instead of CLEARING THE JUNKIES OFF THE BG TRAIL.
    Today was a steady stream of trash and graffiti from Fred Meyer to Fremont.

    Hey, Postal Service: CLEAN THE JUNKIE TAGS OFF YOUR PROPERTY. Disgusting.

  5. Isn’t it fun being a property owner in Seattle? Not only do you pay exorbitant taxes and have your property stolen then you have to deal with the city and their petty complaints. I had to take all my reserved parking signs down in front of my apt building because the parking strip belongs to the city. Now anyone can park there. Next time Erica light some fireworks under their RV’s. They’ll be gone in a hurry.

      1. Haha, I love it. The same liberals who cry about how the RV hobos don’t have resources to move then tell local workers “just move if you don’t like it!” as if they can just pick up and move that easily.

        1. They made a choice to buy or rent a spot with no on site parking. It’s not the obligation of business people to give away their property rights to others.

        2. I however am not one of those people. Relocating is easier than one might think and I would certainly put the safety of my family over a job or a house any day. Of course I am lucky and do NOT fear living in Ballard as I have for 68 years. Ex suburbanites living in terror is so sad. Poor lambs.

        3. Ever think maybe you’d have more resources if you weren’t glued to that chair every waking moment posting bitchy complaints about every single thing that happens? If you want money to move, you need a job, and nobody’s going to pay you to be nothing but a whiner.

          1. Hey numbnuts, I’m not the one who’s biitching here. It’s the vagrants and freeloaders who think they’re entitled to park their cars for free on someone else’s property who are.

          2. “I’m not the one who’s bitching here,” Hayduke bitched.

            You are definitely the one bitching, bellyaching, whining, moaning, and complaining here. It’s the only thing you do.

  6. She doesn’t own the parking , that really sucks. I hope she knew this before purchasing it. I dont think she can legally do anything other than put up with bums parking there like they do all over the City or sell the building disclosing the parking is shared with SDOT.
    Maybe she can get help from her real estate agent who sold her the building.

    2. She owns the part of the parking lot that butts up against her building. She should tow any one of those so called “homestead” RV’s without any warning when they violate her property rights. The city might tolerate and welcome it, private citizens should not.

      1. Kinda like the McDonalds on 14th & Market. RVs in that lot all the time, not to mention the hobo couple who have been living and begging there for months.

      2. Tow companies won’t tow any dilapidated RV’s because they won’t get any money for doing it. The RV’s just sit there, then need to be towed somewhere else for auction.

  7. You see the spike
    You have a need
    You gotta get
    So high you pee
    You nod off
    Your body shakes
    Another hit is what it takes
    You like to think that you’re
    A pro with the stuff oh yeah
    It’s closer to the truth to say
    You’re just a chump
    You know you’re gonna have to face it
    You’re addicted to junk

  8. I have been a business owner in Ballard for almost 30 years. I have gotten to know officers, City workers, and many others who have to clean up or try to control the drug related crimes and RVs. When the RVs show up in front of our buildings, nothing is done for two weeks, then the police will tag them. The only time they reacted immediately was when I identified one that had three young females (approx. 18) that were using it as a brothel with an older male (approx 50) keeping watch. The City workers who have to pick up the needles and feces are unhappy and the officers truly wish they could do more, but are under direction to stand down. I have had a knife pulled on me twice, vehicles broken into, too many needles to even count strewn around the property, urination on the doors, feces dumped out in the street and parking areas. So many stolen items have been dumped off here, too. Honestly, like most, I have compassion, but come on, this is becoming a public health situation as well as public safety issue. I really dread what awaits us on Monday mornings. SDOT’s actions here are so typical of this City. Total class envy lead by Sawant and her lemmings. Ineffective eunichs like O’Brien and others who could not lead a whore to bed or manage a brothel on a Navy base. The solution, though, is more taxes…….to where the money is spent, is hard to say, but we do know to blame businesses and Jeff Bezos, in particular.

    1. “Honestly, like most, I have compassion, but come on, this is becoming a public health situation as well as public safety issue”
      Once Seattle got suckered with the compassion scam it was all over. Being compassionate to criminals is insanity. Here we are: road to hell is paved with good intentions.

      1. You figured out the scam, don’t tell anyone! You see, the City ‘Clowncil’ hides their incompetence behind a veil of compassion. “Oh, this person is someone’s brother/sister/husband/father/etc”. Sure are/were. This ‘family member’ is now crapping on the sidewalk, injecting/selling drugs, stealing ‘to survive’ and leaving areas they don’t actually ‘live’ in or care for worse off than before they arrived. Is some of it sad and pathetic? Absolutely.
        But, is some of it criminal and violating laws? Also absolutely.
        But, as long as our fearless leaders can pull out the ‘we’re trying to make the situation better!’ card, they’ll tug on people’s heartstrings and be allowed to continue their graft and incompetence, at the sake of your neighborhoods, for another month or two, at least.

        1. I don’t remember voting to fill Ballard up with junkies, bums, thieves, and lunatics, nor do I remember the citywide vote to allow tent and RV camping in parks and green spaces.
          For all their talk about “democratic values” the CC (and orgs like St Luke’s) has acted unilaterally on these issues and all we can do it vote for/against individual council members.

          Ecology? Saving the watersheds? NOPE. Garbage is everywhere but HOO BOY BETTER RECYCLE THAT CAN, CITIZEN.

          We are all unwilling participants in their VERY EXPENSIVE, FAILED social justice experiment. It’s been said before, but it appears as though hard left progressives have a very high threshold for disgust. We did not have enough police before this stupidity, so HOW THE F*CK did they plan on keeping up with the “babysitting” the emergency responders must do every hour when these losers O’D or assault someone?

          I really want to know the “safe spaces” logic here.

          1. Don’t forget being given a fine if you put a banana peel in the garbage instead of in the food waste bin, but no fine given if you crap in the planters or bushes. That’s called urban fertilizer!

          3. Or as Sharon Lee famously said about the sanctioned encampment at 15th and 83rd “No, you don’t get to vote on it!”

    3. Total class envy lead by Sawant and her lemmings. Ineffective eunichs like O’Brien and others who could not lead a whore to bed or manage a brothel on a Navy base. The solution, though, is more taxes…….to where the money is spent, is hard to say, but we do know to blame businesses and Jeff Bezos, in particular.

      I was tracking you and almost had sympathy for your plight, but then you ended your comment with this and now it’s clear you’re just the sockpuppet, posting another fake sensationalist story.

      Get help dude.

  9. Is it legal to put up a “No Stabbing” or “No Pit Bull Mauling” sign?
    I really want to know. Sadly, I’m not being funny.

  10. So now SDOT is going to put up signs for this land owner. Why not give her the signs that SDOT prefers and let her put them up just like the one that was? Oh no, maybe the union would get mad, this little fiasco is a waste of time, effort and money by another City agency. An aside, about 30 years ago I hired a contractor to poura patio for me. Turned out he was a supervisor with SDOT. He had the forms in place, etc. Told me he did not know when he could pour the concrete, then one day he called saying he had a crew and concrete and would do it that afternoon. His crew you ask??? All SDOT workers and relatives of his. I assume the concrete was from a project and he “over ordered” to do the job. Mr. Moi Moi had a nice scam going. When the City was notified of this……crickets. I checked his contracting credentials (no internet back then) and his references. He had a valid license etc. I eventually tore out the patio, I hated knowing the scam that was going on, and that the City did NOTHING when I informed them of my suspicion.

  11. I want everybody here today to wet their right index finger, thrust it into the air, and THEN make decisions. Because that IS what we’re getting from our idiots in command today. They do NOT represent me or any of my values. They do however say a lot about the residents of today’s Ballard and what they um, feel.

  12. Choosing to enforce this law, but ignoring all the crimes drug addicts do that plague our city is — I think, the big gripe so many of us have. Why. Why send a letter, and have a city employee spend several hours printing out a map of the property to enforce some type of parking rule, when there is a swarm of dumpsters on wheels that park illegally, dump sewage and pollutants in our streets zero (or barely any) enforcement.

    I would LOVE it if she got the same letter, but that all the other RV related violations were enforce with such vigor.

Leave a Reply