$33,000 in SLC parking tickets issued for these ADA stalls in 2 months

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City said it would make changes to a group of ADA parking stalls after neighbors and visitors complained, revealing tens of thousands of dollars-worth of parking tickets issued there in the first two months of the year.

Enforcement officers wrote 98 tickets totaling more than $33,000 between January 2 and March 3 for the stalls on the south side of the street at 455 West and 200 North, a public records request revealed.

“I think they know there’s a tendency of people to park here, technically illegally,” said Durian Spagnuolo, who lives nearby. “I think whoever is giving the tickets — they make several rounds throughout the day.”

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Shaine Johnston, who also lives nearby, said he initially believed each of the two ADA parking signs spaced apart from each other represented individual ADA stalls, but he quickly learned otherwise.

“Obviously I thought that was the handicapped spot, so I moved over between the two and got a ticket,” he told KSL TV.

For Mark Covington of Riverton, the sticker shock was real when his daughter came home with a parking ticket from the space.

“Three hundred and forty dollars is not small for a parking spot when you don’t realize that’s a handicap spot,” he said. “I mean, that’s a pretty big ticket.”

Covington surveyed the area himself and said he was dismayed to see incomplete signage and markings. He pointed to ADA rules which require access aisles.

As he went to small claims court over the citation, he filed for a GRAMA request that revealed the number of tickets written in the first 2 months of the year.

“In that particular spot, yeah, they’re just dishing them out,” Covington said. “Just in the first two months, they made over $30,000 — if everybody just paid the fine and walked away.”

Salt Lake City Public Services deputy director Julie Crookston said the city does not set the rate for a parking violation in an ADA stall.

“We comply with state regulation, so that’s why we issue a citation that’s valued at $340,” she said.

Crookston said despite the high numbers, enforcement officers have not been sitting on that spot, waiting for violators.

“We’re not trying to make revenue,” Crookston said. “We’re not trying to reach certain citation counts.”

According to Crookston, complaints can result in more policing of particular areas and once repeat issues are detected, enforcement officers are proactive.

“We just want everyone to have the best access they can to parking in the city,” Crookston said. “We just want everybody to be following the regulations.”

Crookston maintained federal regulation did not require the painting of the curb or pavement for an ADA stall, but after the city was made aware of concerns, it has been “proactively analyzing the situation.”

Additionally, Utah Code requires “vertical signage, including the international symbol of accessibility, that is visible from a passing vehicle,” and “a clearly marked access aisle, if provided, that is adjacent to and considered part of the parking space.”

The ADA stalls on 200 North therefore meet Utah’s expectations, even though they don’t have a marked access aisle, but drivers argue the arrows marked on the signs are confusing.

Crookston said workers planned to add more signage and paint the stalls at that spot as well as some other locations around the city over the course of the next month, as the weather allowed.

She urged drivers to avoid parking in ADA stalls when they are not permitted to do so.

“It really does have an impact,” Crookston said. “When you’re taking an ADA spot, there may be someone who is coming along and trying to access a business or visit a family member that lives in the area and they need the extra space that an ADA spot provides and they can’t use it because somebody else is.”

Covington, who had his parking citation case dismissed, said the city wasn’t serving either drivers or those in need of ADA stalls by what had been occurring in the 200 North space.

“(It) seems disingenuous for the city to be giving tickets out when they’re not really providing parking for the handicapped anyway,” Covington said of the 200 North stalls.

He pointed to properly marked ADA stalls with access aisles at a park in Riverton as an example of what should be in place.

Johnston — who actually strung red tape between the 2 ADA signs to better warn drivers — said he simply hoped for clearer markings and fewer tickets in the future.

“Nobody would park here if it was marked, obviously,” Johnston said.

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This article was updated with additional reporting and removed a quote that implied an access aisle is required for all people with disabilities.

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Contributing: Mary Culbertson, KSL TV