Locals fight back at illegal parking near Logan’s Café Sabor
Logan City residents who live near Café Sabor are frustrated with customers parking in front of their homes and blocking their driveways.
Residents who live near the restaurant located at 600 West and Center Street came to the municipal council meeting to discuss options for parking, since many Café Sabor employees and customers regularly block residence driveways.
Mark Karpowich, who lives by Café Sabor, stood up to address his grievances with the city and the restaurant.
“People don’t care if they block our driveways,” Karpowich said. “Employees park there all day.”
The city raised the concern that perhaps the restaurant didn’t have enough parking space as planning and zoning requires, but city planner Jay Nielsen refuted that idea.
“They have parking that is required by code,” Nielsen said.
Scott Salisbury, a concerned resident who lives near Café Sabor, was upset by the parking violations along his street.
“Right now there is a lot of confusion on Center Street,” Salisbury said. “[The] majority of cars are employees’.”
Justin Hamilton, owner of Café Sabor, said he has been doing all he can to ensure residents in the area have sufficient access to their houses and
driveways.
“We parked 48 cars valet last Friday,” Hamilton said.
Because of the cold weather, Hamilton said many of the customers that frequent Café Sabor don’t want to park far away, so they’ll park wherever they can, even if it is in parking not designated for customers. Café Sabor employee Mason Smith said he has seen cars parked in front of houses on Center Street, but has never seen any cars blocking driveways.
Council members discussed moving parking spaces to the west side of the 600 West, where cars have traditionally been parking on the east side, causing parking problems and endangering pedestrians crossing to the restaurant.
Hamilton said a meeting has been arranged with the Union Pacific Railroad, who owns property adjacent to Café Sabor, to see what options are available for parking on or near Union Pacific’s property.
With the possibility of more snow falling on city sidewalks, concerned council members discussed the problem of ice- and snow-covered sidewalks, and the dangers they present.
The council members said it is the responsibility of the property owner to keep their walks cleaned, unless circumstances prevented them from doing so.
The council has decided to re-address the issue in April after Cafe Sabor has had the chance to discuss options with the railroad company.
Other topics discussed at Tuesday’s meeting included the Associated Students of Utah State University’s recruitment of senior citizens for summer programs offered at USU and a report on recent activities of the Logan City Youth Council.
Three Logan businesses were recognized for their efforts to keep Logan’s air breathable during the recent inversion.
McDonalds, Wells Fargo, and Zions Bank were all applauded for closing their drive-up windows during the inversion to discourage more pollution caused by idling cars at their businesses.
-scottsj@cc.usu.edu