New homes sites unveiled at May Bridgeport City Council meeting

BRIDGEPORT – A stretch of vacant property running between the Columbia River and Columbia Avenue will be the site for new homes, the Bridgeport City Council learned at its regular monthly meeting last May. The property previously owned by Bridgeport resident Scott Wright has been purchased by Global Prosperity, LLC of Cashmere. While few details are available at this writing the proposed sites are surveyed and the new owner is pursuing a short plat with Douglas County for the project.

Disposition of a small unexplained island of land with no easement in the middle of the proposed development was the topic under discussion with public works, but that has since been resolved.

In other business the city addressed the ongoing problem with private vehicles parked on city rights-of-way that are obstacles to street maintenance, cleaning, and safety.

“There are vehicles right now on the right-of-way that have four flat tires, no tabs,” said Public Works Superintendent Stuart Dezellem. “They haven’t been moved in months or years.”

Dezellem said he sympathized with vehicle owners who – unlike years ago when wrecking yard dealers picked up such vehicles for free – most such operators now charge a fee to pick up an unwanted car.

“I understand the homeowner’s struggle to have a car that doesn’t run anymore removed,” Dezellem said. “Nobody wants to pay that fee.”

After checking how other communities across the state handle parking on their rights-of-way, Dezellem found that “every community in the state has some sort of restrictions against parking on its right-of-way.” When he took a closer look at Bridgeport’s city code, he discovered that it does also.

Title 17, Section 17.60.030 of the Bridgeport Municipal Code stipulates that anytime a homeowner modifies the footprint of a home, the city can implement a requirement to provide off-street parking.

“People who have completely fenced their properties with no driveways - if they modify with a building permit – we can implement that requirement in the building permit,” said Dezellem. “We haven’t done it in the past but it is in the code so we can get some of these cars off the street.”

Dezellem said public works will move forward with off-street parking and included a future fence permits.

Public events are a growing attraction for city residents and are now costing the city extra money for law enforcement presence. As of the May meeting event organizers had already held 17 such events so the council discussed imposing a fee on event applications to help cover overhead. A proposal for a $50 fee for each application was suggested. It will be further considered at the June meeting for possible approval and implementation in July.