Anchorage Daily News

PALMER -- The last thing Stan Guthrie wanted to be was a problem.

So when he moved his long-time hair salon from the Koslosky Building to its new spot at the corner of Alaska Street and Cedar Avenue two years ago, he made sure he did things right.

One of the things he did right turns out to be wrong. The result is likely to be an $8,000 bill for Palmer and new parking rules for the business district.

Guthrie's Country Cutts sign has caused people to complain in recent months that they can't see traffic when they try to enter South Alaska Street from Cedar.

When Guthrie, a 25-year resident, put the sign up about two years ago, he met the city's code requirements. But now, in the interest of safety, he and the city have a plan to put the sign up on a pole so drivers can see under it and more easily enter traffic.

The bill will be $8,500, and the city's picking up the tab.

"My guys didn't do anything wrong," Palmer City Manager Bill Allen said. "The code is wrong, and we're going to change it, because we're not going to compromise public safety."

The sign generated a lengthy discussion at Tuesday's City Council meeting about the broader issue of access to Alaska Street at most intersections in the core area of downtown.

When Palmer was a young town, buildings were built right to the sidewalks, and maybe that was OK when there was less traffic and people weren't quite as eager to get from one place to another.

Now, though, it's nearly impossible, everyone at the council agreed, to see traffic from a side street without nosing your car into the pedestrian crossing lane, which is illegal.

It gets even more difficult where the street narrows to the south as drivers head out of town.

One of the solutions offered Tuesday was to extend the yellow no-parking areas farther from the intersections to increase line of sight on the main drag.

That, of course, means even less business-district parking, which some residents and visitors say is too minimal as it is.

Another possibility, and the one that got the most positive comments from the council, is to limit parking in some areas to smaller vehicles, and make pickups, trucks and vans park toward the center of the block.

Public Safety Director Jon Owen said it's workable, but he asked for an ordinance so police officers would have a law backing them when they start writing tickets.

Allen said he and the staff would begin drafting such an ordinance, and they will also rework sign codes so the future Stan Guthries can be assured they won't have to dig up or replace new signs.

"I've been happy with the way the city has worked with me," said Guthrie, who has owned the business since 1984.

He had special praise Thursday morning for Sara Jansen, special projects manager for the city.

"She's been exemplary working with me on this. Just exceptional."

Find TC Mitchell online at adn.com/contact or call 352-6716.

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