Regarding Columbian reporter Sarah Wolf’s Sept. 19, 2026, article, “Parking Pique.”
Sarah Wolf did a great job highlighting the frustration caused by the lack of residential parking in new developments. However, there is another, more serious issue that deserves attention: public safety.
Many new developments include private roads that are 24 feet wide or less. These roads may reduce the county’s maintenance responsibilities because the burden falls on homeowners’ associations, but they can also create significant challenges for emergency access.
At the same time, many homes have shallow driveways that provide little room for larger vehicles such as trucks, work vehicles or family-sized vehicles. As a result, residents often park on both sides of these narrow streets. On a 24-foot roadway, vehicles parked on both sides can consume as much as 16 feet of the available width, leaving only about 8 feet for moving traffic.
That becomes a serious concern when emergency responders need access. A fire apparatus, in particular a hook-and-ladder truck, can be wider than the remaining travel lane. Parked vehicles can also obstruct fire hydrants and further restrict access. In an emergency, residents may have limited options for evacuation when streets are too narrow or congested to accommodate normal traffic and emergency vehicles simultaneously.
This is not simply a parking inconvenience. It is a public-safety issue that affects residents, firefighters and other first responders.
The Clark County Council has the ability to address this problem by reviewing and, where necessary, revising Title 40 to establish adequate requirements for residential parking, roadway width, emergency access and fire apparatus operations.
New developments should be designed with enough roadway width to accommodate parking while still maintaining two usable lanes of traffic and sufficient clearance for emergency vehicles and equipment.
Public safety should be a priority when we approve high-density residential development.
We should not wait for a tragedy to demonstrate that narrow streets and inadequate parking has created an emergency-access problem.
Janet Kelly
Vancouver
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