City revises downtown Bend curbside pickup spots, not enforcing parking limits
Diamond Parking not ticketing overtime violators, just safety violations
(Adding video, city official comments)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related impacts on businesses, the city of Bend has continued to adjust parking management downtown, now offering businesses a designated curbside pickup spot.
The city is now offering downtown businesses a designated parking space for curbside pickup, which officials said Wednesday makes it easier for customers to support local businesses and adhere to health and safety guidelines related to COVID-19.
The city also said it will remove the former larger, temporary drive-thru curbside pickup areas and replace them with one designated curbside pickup space, if a business takes steps to have one established.
"We need to be able to free up more parking, because these combined zones do take up a lot of spaces," said Tobias Marx, the city's Parking Services Division manager.
"More and more people are coming back, so we wanted to make sure to find a good balance between maintaining a good availability of parking spaces but also have a way to serve our businesses, too," Marx said.
Spaces are limited to food service, retail or other service industry businesses.
Businesses interested in obtaining a designated curbside pickup permit should contact Diamond Parking at 541-317-2805.
All designated curbside pickup spaces are valid for a two-week limitation. The city of Bend’s Parking Services Division via Diamond Parking Services will keep track of the designated parking spaces.
Currently, Diamond Parking in downtown Bend is not issuing parking citations for time violations. As part of the city’s COVID-19 response, parking enforcement is currently limited to safety violations in the downtown parking district.
"We ask people to respect them (parking signs), but we do not enforce them," Marx said. "We do enforce parking in front of a fire hydrant, handicapped space or street corner."
Regular parking enforcement will return in conjunction with the second phase of our community’s reopening plan, the city said.
See www.bendoregon.gov/parking for more information about parking programs.
