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Articles
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| ‘Performance parking’ gets support with conditions at D.C. Council hearing |
VOICE writes, "BY BEN WEINSTEIN
Ward 6 D.C. Council member Tommy Wells’ performance-parking plan recently gained momentum, gathering support from a majority of witnesses who testified at a Jan. 30 council hearing.
Several Ward 6 residents and neighborhood leaders said they support the “performance-parking” proposal, but they want to be assured of community involvement when it is implemented.
“You need to make sure that we’re preserving residential parking,” Southwest advisory neighborhood commissioner Andy Litsky told Wells and Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham, chair of the public works committee.
The current residential parking pass regulations use a “one-size-fits-all approach” throughout the city ,said District Department of Transportation director Emeka Moneme at the hearing of the Committee on Public Works and the Environment. But, he said, Wells’ plan to control parking around certain Ward 6 commercial corridors and the new baseball stadium with programmable meters and stricter time limits would allow the city to tailor regulations street by street.
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The bill gives the mayor discretion over the pilot zone -- the area subject to the three-year proposal -- allowing him to set rates and times, and extend time limits later into the evenings and on weekends. And Litsky suggested amending the legislation to give residents and advisory neighborhood commissions a role in regulatory decisions.
Representatives from the Ward 6 business community largely supported the proposal, but several recommended putting business protection measures in place.
Jonathan Darr, executive director of the Capitol Hill Association of Merchants and Professionals, said the group supports the proposal but wants to see a plan for regular analysis on how the changes affect businesses.
Michael Stevens, executive director of the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District, said his group urges “caution, flexibility and reason” in the implementation of the plan. He added that the expected 10,000 new residents for condos planned around the stadium would also require residential parking.
“Enforcement” was a major theme at the hearing, as it has been at other meetings on the plan during the past few months. Several residents have said the city is ill-equipped to enforce regulations, and they are skeptical that the Department of Public Works can handle enforcement of more complicated regulations.
“We need clarity on this, absolutely,” Litsky said of ensuring funding for enough parking-enforcement officers.
Moneme said the director of the Department of Public Works assured him that the department would be able to handle increased enforcement. Both Wells and Moneme said the new meters — like those in Adams Morgan and Georgetown and on K Street — simplify enforcement by negating the need to keep track of every car in residential zones.
Under the proposal, Ward 6 permit holders would still be allowed to park on both sides of residential streets without time limits, but drivers without permits could park only on the metered sides. Enforcement officers would not need to mark and measure cars in those zones because the time information would go on printed receipts displayed under the cars’ windshields.
The proposed guest-pass system also drew concern. Residents said that residents would sell their passes to baseball fans, allowing them to park with impunity on residential streets during games or to congressional workers and lobbyists.
“These cards can be sold -- and they will be sold,” Litsky said. “Let me tell you, Craigslist will be lighting up.”
Frank Young, a representative of several businesses around Eastern Market, opposed the plan, saying high parking costs and severe penalties would turn away potential customers.
Wells said people have spread misinformation about parking prices. He said that the figures to be set would assure adequate customer parking by encouraging turnover on commercial strips.
Southeast resident Ralph Ditano also opposed the bill, arguing in his testimony that, "While not perfect, the present system of parking rules and regulations affords a good balance between the needs of Hill residents and those of its shopkeepers and restaurant owners."
Ditano also stated that while he understands the pressing need to tackle baseball-parking challenges, the proposal "goes far beyond addressing that need with its open-ended and unnecessarily expansive provisions."
In a phone interview, Ditano said he also opposes the bill because it does not propose an adequate guest-parking solution.
With opening day approaching, the plan cannot be enacted in time to handle stadiumgoers, according to Wells, so the Transportation Department hopes to get D.C. Council approval for an initial version around the ballpark.
Moneme said that streets near the stadium will get electronic meters and new signage. Also, the hours for residential parking regulations will be extended to discourage fans from driving to games.
Moneme said he expects to make several changes to the plan as the baseball season goes on, as the department did around the Nationals’ former home, RFK Stadium.
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Posted on Feb 20, 2008 15:45pm.
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