Deputies with the King County Sheriff’s Office have been ticketing cars at the entrance of KVI Beach for the past two months in an effort to get visitors to follow the county’s parking rules.
“We’ll keep coming until it’s not a problem,” said Dep. Joel Anderson as he strolled past a car that was illegally parked on a recent sunny day at the popular beach.
The deputies said they’ve upped their patrol at KVI in large part because of complaints from neighbors, who say the line of parked cars is sometimes a safety hazard.
“Memorial Day was awful. People were calling saying they couldn’t get out of their driveways,” said Dep. Jeremy Muir.
According to the two deputies, some drivers park in the no-parking zone right at the beach entrance, an area the county wants to keep clear for safety vehicles. The area is demarcated by two no-parking signs.
Others park too far out onto the road, making it difficult for safety vehicles to make their way through the narrow road that circles past the beach, the officers said. County rules require that both sets of tires be off the paved roadway, they said, although they’re only ticketing if half of the car is on the pavement.
The officers said they walk out onto the beach to give motorists who might be in violation a 30-minute warning.
“We’re trying to be friendly,” Muir said.
But the increased patrol has been frustrating for some beach patrons, some of whom have been surprised to find a $30 ticket on their windshield. No signs inform motorists of the requirement to have all four wheels off the road, noted Lisa Coley, who got a ticket in June.
“I told the officer, ‘If there’d been a sign there, I never would have parked there,’” she said. “He said that in unincorporated King County, they don’t have to post a sign.”
“Everybody parks there,” she added, referring to the shoulder of the road near the beach. “There’s no place else to park.”
The two deputies also said they’ve been walking the beach at night, breaking up parties where drinking is occurring. No alcohol is allowed on the beach.
“We’ve had some repeat offenders,” Anderson said.
