# Vehicle Impound Appeal: When Marathon Signs Fall Down **October 21, 2025** — A Bellingham marathon runner's Toyota Tacoma was towed from Railroad Avenue on race day morning, leading to a hearing that would illuminate the complex intersection of public safety, weather, and municipal event management. ## Meeting Overview Hearing Examiner Sharon Rice presided over the virtual hearing from her home office, one of nine jurisdictions she serves across western Washington. The case before her was straightforward in its facts but nuanced in its implications: Spencer Cutsforth, a marathon participant, appealed both the impoundment of his 2004 Toyota Tacoma and the $710.14 in towing and storage fees after his vehicle was removed from the 1200 block of Railroad Avenue during the Bellingham Bay Marathon. The hearing brought together the key players in what would become a case study in municipal event management under adverse conditions. Present were Greg Coulter from Parking Code Compliance, Lieutenant Dante Alexander from Bellingham Police, Chris Heston from the contracted towing company, and Cutsforth himself, all participating via Zoom on a Monday morning that felt more like a courtroom drama than routine administrative business. What made this case particularly compelling was the weather event that struck just hours before the marathon began — winds gusting up to 30 mph that toppled temporary signage and created the very scenario that municipal codes are designed to address but rarely anticipate in such stark terms. ## The Setup: Marathon Logistics Meet Mother Nature Greg Coulter's testimony painted a picture of meticulous preparation. Working with Lieutenant Alexander, parking enforcement had identified all areas requiring temporary no-parking restrictions for the marathon route. The 1200 block of Railroad Avenue was particularly critical — it would be the second block of the race where approximately 1,000 runners would pass just after 9 AM. "We were given areas and applicable times for all the no parking signage that would be put up by the Bellingham Bay Marathon event staff," Coulter explained, referring to detailed route maps included in the hearing packet. The block in question had received comprehensive coverage: 28 temporary signs plus one permanent retroreflective sign near the crosswalk. The temporary signs followed standard protocol — placed 72 hours in advance with parking enforcement verifying their placement on October 19th and 20th. Photos in the record show the signs in place, attached to parking meter posts with zip ties. "We visited again on an overtime shift on the 20th to ensure that they were still in place," Coulter noted. Then came the weather. At 1:45 AM on October 21st, calm breezes of 5-7 mph suddenly escalated to gusts and rain reaching 30 mph, lasting through 7 AM. Coulter had included Bellingham Airport weather data showing the precise timeline of the storm that would fundamentally alter the morning's enforcement landscape. ## When Plans Meet Reality When parking enforcement arrived just after 6 AM, only six of the original 28 temporary signs remained standing on the 1200 block of Railroad Avenue. The retroreflective "Road to be Closed" sign at the block's entrance had survived, along with what Coulter determined were the minimum two signs required under Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) guidelines. But the situation continued deteriorating in real time. As Coulter worked his way through the block issuing tickets and coordinating with police, four more signs fell down, including one that had been covering the area where Cutsforth's Tacoma was parked. "While I was setting up the paperwork, taking photos, and issuing tickets to the vehicles further up the block, four of the signs on this portion of the block fell down, including one covering this portion of the block," Coulter testified. "When I arrived back at the car to ticket it, it was one of the last in this block for us to address, that sign had fallen down from the time that I arrived to the time that I had left." The photos in evidence tell the story starkly: page 19 shows Cutsforth's truck with a crumpled sign lying on the pavement beside it. Page 21 shows the same sign positioned at the base of the parking meter post — placed there by Coulter to demonstrate where it had originally been mounted. ## The Safety Calculation Lieutenant Dante Alexander's testimony revealed the public safety framework underlying the decision to proceed with impoundments despite the compromised signage. His role in Special Operations includes reviewing permitted events, and the Bellingham Bay Marathon represented a familiar challenge. "Historically, this is an area where we reach out to our parking team that works with Public Works due to the issues with parking around the race," Alexander explained. "We want to make sure that it's a safe environment for people to run in, and the areas that are marked as no parking isn't parts of the race, that we want to make sure people aren't actively driving on, or people are arriving at their car and trying to leave as the race is going." The morning of the race, Alexander and Sergeant Craig Johnson attempted to contact registered vehicle owners before resorting to towing. Using license plate lookups through their records system, they successfully reached 6-10 vehicle owners who were able to move their cars. But for vehicles where they couldn't reach owners — particularly rental cars and out-of-town visitors — time was running short. The decision to proceed came through consultation between Alexander, Johnson, Officer Mays, and Coulter. "After consultation between Lieutenant Dante, Sergeant Johnson, Officer Mays, and myself, we made the go-ahead to begin with the impounds on this block," Coulter testified. Alexander emphasized the specific safety concerns: "Due to that, and this being the second block of the race, where several hundreds, if not thousands, of racers were going to come through here. Their concern was to make sure that we can get that block clearly, vehicles removed from that block so we didn't have any safety issues." ## The Towing Operation Chris Heston, owner of Heston Hauling and Heston Towing, provided a window into the logistics of large-scale impoundments. His company handled 32 vehicles that morning, bringing in extra staff for the event. "A lot of it was just take their photos, grab the vehicle, get out of there, get back for the next one, so that they could be cleared in time for the race," Heston explained. The urgency led to less precise record-keeping than usual — the typical detailed timestamps on the impound invoice weren't accurate because drivers were focused on speed rather than documentation. For Cutsforth's Tacoma, classified as a Class A vehicle, Heston charged the minimum one-hour fee of $400, plus an after-hours fee since it was Sunday, plus half-day storage. The total came to $710.14, calculated using rates set by the state of Washington through the Consumer Price Index. "Under the tow truck operator official fees, the state of Washington, a couple years ago, adopted, to keep fair with the towing companies and with the public, they used the Consumer Price Index to determine those fees," Heston explained. "And since we are contracted with law enforcement, we have no options but to go with the fees that they send us." ## The Runner's Perspective Spencer Cutsforth's testimony introduced a fundamentally different narrative about the morning's events. As a marathon participant, he had relied on information from the race website stating that participants "can park anywhere downtown for free" with the specific exception of the Depot Market lot itself. "You can park anywhere downtown for free. You can use the commercial street garage and mezzanine. You will not be able to park right at the depot market lot," Cutsforth read from the website during his testimony, sharing his screen to show the exact language. His interpretation was logical from a participant's perspective: if the race website said downtown parking was available for runners, and he wasn't parking in the specifically prohibited Depot Market lot, then Railroad Avenue should have been acceptable. Cutsforth's account of arriving around 5 AM painted a different picture of the signage situation. "When I rolled in, there was no signage at the parking spot," he testified. Even regarding the retroreflective sign at the block's entrance, his reading differed from the city's interpretation. "This sign that was shown here, it was stated earlier that this was posted as a no parking, but it doesn't say no parking, it just says road to be closed," Cutsforth argued. "The way I would understand that is that the road's close, but that doesn't mean that you can't park there, especially as a race participant, when it says there's free parking everywhere downtown." His logic continued: park for the race, take the bus to the starting line, let the road be closed during the race for runners, then return to his car afterward. "The participants can run through the road, but then the parking wouldn't be an issue." Most significantly, Cutsforth specifically looked for signage at his parking spot. "I looked specifically at the poll, the parking meter pull, and there wasn't any sign there when I parked there," he testified. ## The Numbers Game Coulter's rebuttal included a statistical analysis that would prove crucial to the hearing's outcome. Of 350 marathon participants, approximately 10 vehicles were impounded — representing 2.9% of racers. "To me, that is more indicative of an individual level of error than of a systematic failure," Coulter argued. "For a systematic failure, I would expect to see 10-15% of the racer's vehicles be towed, which would be 40 to 52 cars." He also addressed Cutsforth's interpretation of the "free parking" language: "I noticed the capitalization on the free in the sentence about you can park anywhere downtown for free, and unfortunately not to be a stickler about grammar, but to me, that indicates that you don't have to pay to park, not that anywhere is available for parking." The statistical argument carried weight beyond this individual case. Coulter noted that similar impoundment numbers occur regularly: "In my experience, in a year and a half in this position, no, that is fairly consistent with signage that had no issues, no wind event, no storm. Typically, we tow between 20 to 30 vehicles for these large-scale events." ## Persistent Violations Despite Active Enforcement Perhaps most striking was Coulter's testimony about continued violations even during active enforcement. Despite police, parking staff, and tow trucks operating on the block, and despite moving the road closure barrier into the middle of the crosswalk, nearly 10 more vehicles attempted to park as impoundments were underway. "Even as parking staff, police, towing operators were on site, and after we had moved the road-closed barrier out into the middle of the crosswalk, we still had nearly 10 vehicles try to park on that block as we were actively impounding them," Coulter testified. This phenomenon spoke to broader issues of urban parking pressure and event management. As Coulter noted, "as Bellingham has grown to a city of 100,000 people now, space parking on roads is at a premium." ## Communication Gaps and Future Coordination Lieutenant Alexander revealed an important coordination effort that apparently didn't reach Cutsforth. "I was in contact with the race organizer that morning and let him know that we were impounding vehicles that were parked around the Depot Square," Alexander testified. "Unfortunately, it sounds like you probably didn't get contacted, just unfortunately, but we did notify the race organizer that there was several vehicles being towed around the depot market." This led to Alexander's recommendation for future races: "My request to him is to make sure he shares that next year as they're racing through an email or something." The communication gap highlighted a systemic challenge in event management — how to rapidly disseminate changing conditions to participants who may be en route or already departed for starting areas. ## Technical Standards and Weather Resilience The case also exposed tensions between environmental sustainability and enforcement reliability. Coulter explained that the temporary signs are "recyclable" cardstock, "unfortunately subject to wind and weather events." He noted that some jurisdictions reinforce such signs with duct tape or plastic coating to improve weather resistance. Despite the weather damage, enforcement proceeded based on MUTCD compliance. "The required signs that would need to be up through the MUTCD were there," Alexander testified. "That's why we felt comfortable continuing with the impounding of the vehicles, due to the safety concern for the racers." ## Final Arguments and Broader Implications In his final comments, Cutsforth returned to his core argument: he encountered no "no parking" signage at his specific location. The retroreflective sign at the block entrance said only "road to be closed," and the temporary sign that would have been at his parking meter was gone when he arrived. "I didn't come across the sign that said no parking, just to be clear," he concluded. The case encapsulated broader challenges facing growing cities like Bellingham: balancing public events with limited parking infrastructure, maintaining effective signage in weather events, coordinating communication across multiple agencies and private organizers, and managing the expectations of participants who may reasonably interpret ambiguous guidance. ## Closing & What's Ahead Hearing Examiner Rice took the matter under advisement, noting she had 10 business days under city code to issue her written decision — making November 4th her deadline. The decision would need to weigh the adequacy of signage under adverse conditions, the reasonableness of Cutsforth's interpretation of available information, and the validity of the city's public safety rationale for proceeding with impoundments despite compromised temporary signage. As the Zoom session ended with polite thanks all around, the case stood as a microcosm of modern municipal governance: well-intentioned policies meeting real-world complications, with citizens caught between competing interpretations of rules designed to serve the public good. The outcome would likely influence how Bellingham approaches future large-scale events, particularly regarding signage resilience, participant communication, and the balance between public safety and individual rights when Mother Nature intervenes in carefully laid plans.

### Meeting Overview The City of Bellingham Hearing Examiner heard an appeal on October 21st, 2025, from Spencer Cutsforth challenging the impound of his 2004 Toyota Tacoma and associated fees following the Bellingham Bay Marathon. The vehicle was towed from the 1200 block of Railroad Avenue, where temporary "no parking" signs had been posted for the race but were blown down by high winds during the early morning hours. ### Key Terms and Concepts **Hearing Examiner:** An independent attorney hired by the city to conduct quasi-judicial hearings and make decisions on appeals like vehicle impounds, land use permits, and code enforcement matters. **MUTCD (Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices):** Federal guidelines that establish minimum standards for traffic signs, signals, and road markings to ensure consistency and safety. **Vehicle Impound Appeal:** A legal process allowing vehicle owners to challenge the validity of their vehicle being towed and the associated fees through a formal hearing. **Retroreflective Sign:** A road sign with special coating that reflects vehicle headlights back to the driver, making it highly visible in dark conditions. **Class A Tow:** The smallest classification for towed vehicles, typically passenger cars and light trucks, with specific state-regulated fee structures. **Burden of Proof:** In impound appeals, the appellant (vehicle owner) must prove the city's impound action was improper or wrong. **State-Regulated Towing Rates:** Fees for police-ordered tows are set by Washington State using the Consumer Price Index, updated every six months to ensure fairness. ### Key People at This Meeting | Name | Role / Affiliation | |---|---| | Sharon Rice | City of Bellingham Contract Hearing Examiner | | Spencer Cutsforth | Appellant (vehicle owner) | | Greg Coulter | City Parking Code Compliance Officer | | Lieutenant Dante Alexander | Bellingham Police Department Special Operations | | Chris Heston | Owner, Heston Hauling and Heston Towing | ### Background Context The Bellingham Bay Marathon is an annual running event that requires temporary street closures and parking restrictions to ensure participant safety. For this event, approximately 1,000 runners were expected to pass through the 1200 block of Railroad Avenue around 9 AM. The city typically places temporary cardstock signs 72 hours in advance, with one sign per parking meter, plus permanent retroreflective signs at block entrances. However, severe weather struck the morning of the race, with winds gusting up to 30 mph between 1:45 AM and 7 AM, accompanied by rain. This weather event blew down most of the temporary signs, though city staff determined the minimum required signage under federal guidelines remained in place. The challenge illustrates the tension between public safety needs during large events and individual property rights when temporary signage fails due to circumstances beyond the city's control. ### What Happened — The Short Version Spencer Cutsforth, a marathon participant, parked his Toyota Tacoma on Railroad Avenue around 5 AM on race day. He claims he saw no "no parking" signs at his specific parking spot. City staff arrived around 6 AM and found that high winds had blown down most temporary signs, though some remained standing initially. By the time staff reached Cutsforth's vehicle, the sign for that section had also fallen. After consultation between police and parking officials, they decided to proceed with impounds for safety reasons, ultimately towing 10-12 vehicles from this block alone. Cutsforth was charged $710.14 in state-regulated towing and storage fees. He appealed, arguing the impound was improper and the sign said "road to be closed" rather than "no parking," which he interpreted as allowing parking by race participants. ### What to Watch Next - **November 4th deadline:** Hearing Examiner's written decision is due within 10 business days - **Race organizer communication:** Lieutenant Alexander suggested the marathon organizers should better communicate parking restrictions to participants via email for future events - **Signage durability review:** The city may need to evaluate whether recyclable cardstock signs are adequate for weather-prone events ---

**Q:** Who serves as Bellingham's Hearing Examiner and what is their role? **A:** Sharon Rice, an attorney contracted by the city who also serves 9 other western Washington jurisdictions. She conducts quasi-judicial hearings and makes independent decisions on appeals. **Q:** What was Spencer Cutsforth appealing? **A:** The impound of his 2004 Toyota Tacoma and associated towing/storage fees totaling $710.14 from the Bellingham Bay Marathon event. **Q:** Where was Cutsforth's vehicle parked and towed from? **A:** The 1200 block of Railroad Avenue, which was the second block of the marathon race route where approximately 1,000 runners would pass. **Q:** What weather event affected the signage on race morning? **A:** High winds up to 30 mph with rain between 1:45 AM and 7 AM, which blew down most of the temporary "no parking" signs. **Q:** How many temporary signs were originally placed on the 1200 block of Railroad Avenue? **A:** 28 temporary signs (one per parking meter) plus one permanent retroreflective sign at the block entrance. **Q:** What was Greg Coulter's job title? **A:** Parking Code Compliance Officer 1 for the City of Bellingham Public Works. **Q:** How many vehicles total were towed from Cutsforth's block? **A:** Between 10-12 vehicles from the 1200 block of Railroad Avenue. **Q:** What are state-regulated towing rates based on? **A:** The Consumer Price Index, updated every six months by Washington State to ensure fairness between towing companies and the public. **Q:** What was the total amount of towing and storage fees charged? **A:** $710.14, including one hour minimum towing fee, after-hours Sunday fee, and half-day storage. **Q:** How does the city contact vehicle owners before towing? **A:** Police run license plates to get registered owner information, then contact dispatch/records to obtain phone numbers if available in their system. **Q:** What percentage of marathon participants had vehicles impounded according to city analysis? **A:** 2.9% of the 350 marathon participants (10 vehicles), which staff considered individual error rather than systematic failure. **Q:** What would indicate a systematic signage failure according to the city? **A:** If 10-15% of participants' vehicles were towed (40-52 cars), rather than the actual 2.9%. **Q:** What does MUTCD stand for and why is it important? **A:** Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices - federal guidelines that establish minimum standards for traffic control signage. **Q:** What was Cutsforth's main argument about the entrance sign? **A:** The retroreflective sign said "road to be closed" not "no parking," which he interpreted as allowing parking by race participants. **Q:** What did the marathon website say about downtown parking? **A:** Participants "can park anywhere downtown for free" except the Depot Market lot, and could use the Commercial Street garage. **Q:** When is the Hearing Examiner's decision due? **A:** November 4th, 2025 (within 10 business days of the October 21st hearing). **Q:** What type of vehicle classification was Cutsforth's Toyota Tacoma? **A:** Class A tow truck classification, the smallest category for passenger vehicles and light trucks. **Q:** How early did Cutsforth arrive to park on race morning? **A:** Around 5 AM, before taking a bus to the marathon starting line. **Q:** What suggestion did Lieutenant Alexander make for future races? **A:** The race organizer should email parking restriction information directly to participants rather than relying only on website notices. **Q:** What time did city staff arrive to begin the towing process? **A:** Just after 6 AM, when they found 6 signs still standing on the block initially. ---