Chinook Park is a great addition to the North Salmon Creek area, creating a paved connection between areas near Northwest 139th and 149th streets. It also includes natural areas, benches and a great playground served by an expansive asphalt parking area at the end of Northwest 142nd Street. But that’s where things gets weird. No one can actually use the parking area, because it’s sealed off by a series of metal barriers. What’s up with that? Why go the time and expense of creating a parking area, only to lock it away and leave park visitors no choice but to park in front of houses on narrow residential streets?
— Confused and Concerned in Salmon Creek
There’s a simple reason for that, C & C in S.C. The parking lot you saw is not a parking lot. The cul-de-sac at the end of Northwest 142nd Street is a turnaround area for emergency vehicles, as required by Clark County code.
“The county did request and receive a variance, also called a road modification, to install removable bollards to prevent non-emergency vehicles from accessing the cul-de-sac,” Jeff Mize, public works spokesman, wrote in an email. “Firefighters have universal keys that can be used to remove these and other county bollards. Allowing vehicles to park would defeat the need to have the cul-de-sac as a turnaround area for emergency vehicles.”
Mize added that when the county builds a park, it is treated like all other development applicants, and the park must comply with the same code provisions. The code provision here comes from the Street and Road Standards section of Clark County code, specifically noting that a turnaround must be constructed “whenever a residential urban cul-de-sac street is more than 150 feet long.”
