A state Department of Transportation official on Friday said parallel parking near the end of Mud Bay Road poses a safety hazard and that the state wants to see improvements there, recommending residents pool resources to build additional parking on the road’s bay side.

In the meantime, resident John Brainard can get an encroachment permit to use “a reasonable amount of space to park” on state right-of-way there, and DOT would consider a request for a reduced speed limit and sign on that stretch of road, right-of-way agent Joanne Schmidt told about 30 residents at a meeting in the library.

Brainard’s claim to parking space along the road helped trigger recent concerns by residents seeking to park in spots for crossing to their homes across Mud Bay. That discussion coincided with ongoing concerns by local DOT officials, Schmidt said.

At Friday’s meeting, some residents questioned whether there was an “actual safety issue” with parking in the area, but Schmidt said the hazard was “not an irritating parking issue but a real world problem” and a “highway safety concern.”

State trooper Drew Neason said the parking has been a safety issue for him during his three years here, with concerns including pedestrians crossing the road and a wedding where cars were double-parked.

Schmidt said that safe passage on the road includes a “clear zone” at least eight feet wide on both sides of the paved portion of the road, so drivers who momentarily lose control of their cars have space to correct their course. Currently, cars park a few feet off the asphalt.

Schmidt said that while the state must adjust its standards for geographic features, such as cliffs and embankments, it also must hold as close to those standards as possible.

“Getting cars off the roadway is not negotiable at all… Whenever possible, we need to keep the roadway clear,” Schmidt said.

Resident Dave Ricke said about eight cars park along the road there in winter, but that number climbs to about 20 in mid-summer.

“This isn’t a couple houses across Mud Bay. This is a community. It would probably help to start thinking of it that way,” Schmidt said.

Options residents might pursue include either a public or private parking area. The state would be willing to provide fill material from the area of the 19 Mile slide, although the offer does not include trucking it to the site, Schmidt said.

Schmidt said residents could work for a long-term lease of state property on the beach side of the road on which to put a parking lot. “At some point that’s what you’re going to want,” she said. “You might as well ask for what you need and think about the future.”

Following the meeting, Schmidt said the state would not back off its position that the parking situation on the road must improve.

“The long-term solution is to have cars off the roadway. We’ll work with the community to achieve that in a reasonable amount of time,” she said. For now, the “roadway” includes paved road and adjoining clear zones, she said.

She said she didn’t know what the state’s response would be if landowners take no action to remedy the parking situation.

Brainard didn’t attend Friday’s meeting, or respond to messages left for him this week, but Schmidt reported speaking to him about right-of-way boundaries previous to the meeting.

After the meeting, Ricke wouldn’t say whether the meeting amounted to progress on the issue, in his opinion. “I think an open communication was started, a dialogue. I’ll leave it at that,” he said.

The meeting included discussion of a potluck to continue the discussion among neighbors.