Feeling the crunch

West Valley High School is a large neighbor with a big parking problem.

The $29 million school remodel that’s currently underway has created a temporary parking crunch, sending cars spilling into the driveways and onto the lawns of nearby homes.

Residents living near Vista Road and Buckeye Avenue are seeing bumper-to-bumper parking each morning as hundreds of high school students descend on the Millwood neighborhood looking for places to park.

“It’s just chaos,” said student Rachel Scott, 17. “There is really no place for us to park. What are we supposed to do?”

Two weeks ago school officials warned students that if they park on some neighborhood streets near the school, in front of people’s homes, cars would be towed. Narrow streets with no sidewalks are causing kids to park as close to the property line as possible.

“No laws are being broken, but we want to teach good citizenship,” said Dave Smith, the project manager for the renovation and the former West Valley superintendent. “We are the largest neighbor there and we need to be good neighbors.”

The two-year remodel, which West Valley voters agreed to pay for with a $35 million bond passed in May 2004, is expected to be complete in 2007.

Construction crews took over the former student parking area in October, when work began on the new gymnasium at the northwest end of the school.

A new staff parking lot was added across the street from the school on Vista last summer, and student parking was still allowed at the south end of the building and in a new lot built to the east.

But in December the parking scenario changed yet again when portable classrooms were placed in the east lot as crews began work on 13 new classrooms, and the south lot was consumed by constructions crews and portable classrooms.

There is a parking lot at the north end of the football field, which the students say is “all the way over in Egypt.” When the few coveted spaces on the street are full, that lot fills quickly, too.

“Pretty much everybody tries to get here early to find a place to park,” said senior student Kayla Wigen. “If you don’t get here by 7:30 (a.m.) you won’t find one.”

As a last resort, some students park in the Albertsons grocery store parking lot about five blocks away.

“I know lots of people that have to do that,” Scott said.

Students and area residents agree that the current parking debacle is worth dealing with because the end result will be good for everybody.

The much-needed facelift will add more than 50,000 square feet to the school, and technology and infrastructure updates long overdue. Old dull brick will be replaced with shiny new red brick.

“I’m sure it’s going to be a very beautiful building, it may even increase the property value of my home,” said Lois Karnes, who lives across the street from the school near Vista Road and Fairview Avenue. “But we’ve got to be able to get out of our driveway.”

Karnes said that twice she has had to call the school to ask students to move cars blocking her driveway. Once a student came to move her car, and another student pulled right in behind her.

“He hung into our driveway even further,” Karnes said. “It’s frustrating. But I do realize that the kids have no place to park, and they’ve got to park someplace.”

Karnes said she put up an orange cone at the end of her driveway, in the hopes of keeping it clear. A neighbor on the next street over set up sawhorses to keep kids from parking on the shoulder in front the home, and partially on the lawn.

“There really isn’t anything we can do about it because it’s a public road,” said Debby Miller, who lives on Grace Avenue near the school. Miller said her street is packed with cars each morning.

“This remodel is a long time coming, and it’s going to be very nice for the kids,” Miller said. “But I can’t wait until they are done.”