By SHANNON PRIEBE

Every morning, she takes her four children to school. Every morning she returns to find there are no parking spots left in front of her home.

Needless to say, Sheila, a Cowen Park area resident who asked to be identified only by her first name, wants the problem fixed.

Sheila and her neighbors are the only ones fed up over the issue of parking.

A few miles to the west, in the Licton Springs neighborhood, residents are also complaining of increased parking congestion, which they largely attribute to growing numbers of North Seattle Community College students who park off campus.

At a Jan. 19 meeting, members of the Licton Springs Community Council decided to take action and voted to gather signatures among their neighbors to petition the City for implementation of a Residential Parking Zone (RPZ).

A RPZ is designed to limit the amount of time non-neighborhood residents can park their vehicles within a designated area. Usually the time limit is two hours, Monday through Friday, but can be decreased to one hour if the problem has not been alleviated. Residents who live in these zones are given two permits per household and one visitor pass, which exempts them from the RPZ restrictions. Residents within a RPZ who plan to have more than one guest may opt to purchase additional passes for 60 days at a cost of $5 apiece or they may ask to borrow guest passes from their neighbors.

There are currently 17 RPZs in Seattle, according to Julie Erickson, RPZ program coordinator for the City. "Some work better than others," said Erickson. She added that six months after a RPZ is implemented, an evaluation is conducted to assess whether the situation has improved or not.

The City has approved RPZ requests for both the Cowen Park and Licton Springs neighborhoods, but signatures are needed from 75 percent of the residents for the City to proceed with implementing the zones.

Gathering the needed number of signatures will be difficult as some residents have expressed reservations regarding the number of allotted guest passes. Questions also remains as to whether RPZs can effectively solve the problem, or if they merely push traffic out into surrounding neighborhoods.

As one resident stated at last month's Licton Springs Community Council meeting, "It might make our street seem unfriendly."

Still, many residents in these dense parking areas say they are getting tired about having to pick up trash left behind by commuters or coming home with groceries to find that there are no parking spots for blocks.

In the Cowen Park neighborhood, where the process of petitioning has already begun, residents believe the rising parking problems stem from the increasing commercial development along NE 65th Street, accompanied by University of Washington students who park in the area and take the bus to school.

"There has been increasing density," said Ruth Ferris, a Cowen Park area resident. "People were parking at the university, but (residential parking) zones were put in (near the UW) and this is the last free zone before the university."

Peter Dewey, the transportation systems manager for the UW, said UW students aren't the main cause for the Cowen Park area's parking woes. "It's my belief that the primary issue is people who work along Roosevelt (Way) and Cowen Park," he said.

However, the UW has agreed to pay for 75 percent of the first permit for each household, because of a decision made in the 1980s, said Dewey.

"We (the UW) have an impact on the area," Dewey said. "We agreed to establish a perimeter that we would be responsible for the parking zones."

In the Licton Springs neighborhood, North Seattle Community College has also agreed to pay for implementing an RPZ in the blocks surrounding the school. Wally Fosmore, manager of facilities operations at NSCC, said the problem with students parking off campus isn't due to a shortage of on-campus parking. He suspecst that students are parking off camps to avoid paying the fee to park on campus. NSCC uses a sliding scale to charge students for parking which depends on a number of factors, such as the amount of time spent on campus.

The proposed RPZ for Licton Springs will most likely run from N. 95th to N. 97th , along Densmore Ave. N., and from N. 92nd to N. 97th, along College Way N.

The proposed RPZ for Cowen Park will run from NE 65th to Ravenna Blvd. NE, and from Roosevelt Way NE to 17th Ave. NE.

For more information, contact Julie Erickson, RPZ program coordinator, at 684-5092.