Parking. Tuesday night's discussion topic for the third in a series of Sound Transit-led forums on 'transit oriented development' of the land surrounding the future Capitol Hill light rail station isn't exactly sexy. In fact, Sound Transit seems to be hoping to sex the night up by also including a discussion about the Nagle Place, um, extension. Super sexy.

But don't let that fool you. The Nagle Place discussion will be a happy thing, to be sure -- as we reported, Sound Transit is working on an agreement that will turn the extended street into a home for the weekend farmers market once the station is complete in 2016. That's hot. But the real conversation needs to be about a key element in determining the transportation future of the development that eventually graces the real estate around the station.

Here is our coverage of the first two TOD sessions:

• Community uses
• Housing and retail

The forum format thus far has been Sound Transit and assembled experts providing information followed by Sound Transit officials taking questions from the audience -- though, to their credit, ST mixed it up in the Housing and retail session by facilitating smaller group break-out discussions. All of this ostensibly goes toward Sound Transit gathering community feedback to inform their future decisions, etc.

But the real workstream we need to pay attention to is ST's RFQ/RFP process. The requirements and the framework surrounding the agency's 'request for proposals' on the development work can -- and need to be -- shaped. It's a community/political process. These forums are part of the community/politics. Stakeholders are listening. We'll need people and organizations with political clout to champion our 'community' requirements (BTW, "Why haven't you attended a Capitol Hill TOD forum?" might be a good question to ask your favorite city councilmember or candidate). The RFQ/RFP process won't get hot and heavy until around 2011, reportedly, so we're slowly building toward the process.

Tonight we'll discuss parking. In a document presented to the stakeholder group working with Sound Transit to shape the community (political?) process around TOD, Sound Transit officials outlined the following focus areas for the discussion about parking-related planning for the possible retail, housing and community development around the Hill's light rail station. From the ST document (attached to this post):

•    Incorporate parking for the business district in redevelopment plan

−    Access from Broadway should not be permitted

−    Provide permanent, predictable, affordable parking supply for customers (not commuters)

−    Use the less desirable areas of the site (especially below grade) for parking

•    Consider creative ways to construct parking as part of site development

−    Sound Transit could concurrently build the station and underground parking, saving significant construction costs for an incoming developer

−    Sound Transit could also construct and lease back the garage

More notes from the ST outline of parking issues and opportunities in the light rail TOD:

• Business district lacks parking:
  
  

  According to the Capitol Hill Chamber, the business district lacks sufficient business and retail parking.  In addition, Sound Transit has removed several public pay parking lots (approximately 113 stalls) to construct the Capitol Hill station.  The Capitol Hill Chamber has expressed concerns that light rail riders may utilize remaining public parking for commuter parking; thereby further decreasing retail parking supply.

• City code restraints:



Code and policy requirements and constraints are a consideration to including business district parking at the TOD sites.  The City’s code eliminated minimum parking requirements for development within the Station Area Overlay (SAO).  Due to the area pedestrian designation and SAO, access to parking would not be allowed from Broadway.

 

The SAO prohibits single-purpose parking structures however it would allow community-serving short-term parking.  There are no parking maximums in the code.

Sound Transit policy is to not provide new commuter parking at Link stations in urban areas.  The Station Area Plans specifically proposed actions that created station areas predicated on transit oriented development and urban design that was supportive of non-auto access to Link.  Although short-term parking could be operated so that it is not used by commuters, attracting large numbers of cars to garages at station entries would compromise the desired pedestrian orientation of the sites and station areas. 

• Sound Transit's mission
  
  

  Sound Transit has maintained its position that as a regional transit agency, increasing community parking supply is inconsistent with its mission of providing transit service. Construction of a light rail station in this area will in fact mitigate loss of parking. Sound Transit will also not provide commuter parking at the Capitol Hill station.
  
  Sound Transit’s business and policy positions to date have been:
  • TOD site developers will likely provide some level of parking for tenants and retail customers (short-term) of TOD businesses.
  • Developers will not provide commuter parking or additional parking to serve business district (contrary to mission and not financially feasible).
  • ST will not build parking concurrent with station construction, construct parking and lease back garage, or subsidize parking for developers.

• Market forces
  
  

  To be competitive in the market each of these elements will need to be supported by some amount of parking. The number of parking spaces needed to compete with other space in the market in 2015 is unknown at this time; however, today the ratios in the table below provide some indication of market demand.
  Residential = .75 to 1.0 spaces per unit
  Office = 1 to 2 spaces per 1,000 square feet
  Retail = None necessary – more is better
  

The document also has a list of alternatives to parking that the station development requirements could be shaped to include:

Reducing total parking provided to meet minimum development needs:  In the station area overlay zone, there is no minimum requirement for parking.  However, developers generally need to provide some parking for tenant use which is often a requirement for construction loans.  Sound Transit will encourage the developer to keep parking at a minimum amount that makes sense for the development.  As fewer parking spaces are provided for personal car parking, users will look to other access options.  

Shared parking: Depending on the uses in the developments, parking can be shared between uses at different times of the day.  For example, a parking space could be utilized by an office employee during the daytime and a restaurant or other customer in the evening.

Commuter Financial Incentives:  Residential parking spaces could be offered to tenants only at an extra fee, and not bundled in overall rent costs.  Residents could be provided an opportunity to forgo a parking space for transit pass discounts and lower rental rates.  This would encourage use of transit, while lessening the need for parking within the development and/or in the neighboring community.  

Encourage retail use of transit:  Future retailers could promote use of transit instead of driving cars by offering small discounts to shoppers using transit when shopping.  Developing such incentives would be at the discretion of retailers to determine, but in a situation where limited parking is available directly at the site, more shoppers could be encouraged to use transit to get there.

Provide transit information: Property managers could provide up to date transit information, ride-sharing opportunities, bicycle services and facilities and other non-car information.

Reserved parking spaces for one or more car- sharing vehicles (Zip Car):  Developers could incorporate parking spaces for a flex car that can be utilized by the tenants of the developments.  This arrangement would offer use of cars for specific occasions but would not require the consistent need for parking for individual car ownership.  Tenants would have the option of a car when they need it, but would rely on transit, biking or walking at other times.

Electric Car Charging Stations:  Providing facilities and parking for electric car charging stations provides an alternative to typical car parking, while also working to achieve sustainability goals.  

Bicycle Parking:  The Capitol Hill Station west entrance plaza will provide bike racks for light rail patron bike parking.  In addition to this bike parking space, there will likely be a need for additional bike parking for transit users as well as tenants of the TOD sites.  Bike parking facilities will continue to be a need in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, so Sound Transit may pursue some additional bike parking arrangement with the TOD developers.  This could entail below grade bike parking for tenants (customers) of the TOD sites, and/or could also consist of some street level or below grade public (customer) bike parking.  Sound Transit may encourage or require the developers of one or more of the TOD sites to consider creating more bike space as a public amenity.

Sound Transit or the developer may also seek grant opportunities or partnerships to explore how bike parking can be further incorporated at the TOD sites.

There you go. A crash course in TOD parking concerns, issues and opportunities. Like we said, not sexy.

Capitol Hill Station: Transit Oriented Development Community Forum, Tuesday, Oct. 27

Ever wonder what it might look like around the Capitol Hill Link light rail station once construction is completed?

Join us for a discussion about transit oriented development issues at the station. This is the third in a series of quarterly community forums exploring future transit oriented development concepts at the station site.

This forum will focus on the Nagle Place extension and parking associated with the development sites.  Sound Transit will also present some promising news about plans involving the Broadway Sunday Farmers Market.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 
6– 8 p.m. (presentation begins at 6:15 p.m.) 
Century Ballroom 
915 E. Pine St. 
Seattle, WA 98122

For more information: 
Contact Michelle Ginder at 206-398-5328 or michelle.ginder@soundtransit.org. You can also visit www.soundtransit.org/CapitolHillTOD

Don't shoot the messenger. The Seattle Department of Transportation has released a draft plan for parking changes for the Broadway area of Capitol Hill. Some of the proposals will not be popular (with me!). Proposals include:

• Extended paid parking hours past 6 PM on Broadway between John and Roy
• Replacing free 3-hour parking along Cal Anderson Park with paid 4-hour parking
• A stick in your eye

Kidding. No sticks. Not all of the proposals will make you sad -- one proposal that could be cool is the addition of parking on both sides of the street on Mercer, Republican, Harrison and Thomas west of Broadway. More on that and the rest of the draft plan below. And, thinking of the greater good, better managed parking can be really healthy for local businesses and encourage better decisions for the environment by drivers. But, yeah, paying to park after 6 PM on Broadway is going to suck. And, don't even talk to me about the Cal Anderson change -- I consider that stretch official CHS motorpool parking when I'm chasing breaking news.

Here's the proposal map and details from SDOT:

Download PDF

SDOT Broadway parking proposals

• Increase residential parking availability by adding paid parking with restricted parking zone (RPZ) signs to
• mixed-use blocks just north of E Pine St (valid RPZ permit holders would be exempt from paid parking rates)
• Improve predictability for customers and visitors by converting 1-hour time limits to more standard 2-hour
• time limits
• Alleviate congested parking conditions at Cal Anderson Park and expand park access by changing 3-hour
• time limit spaces to 4-hour paid parking on 11th Ave directly adjacent to the park
• Create consistency and increased parking opportunities for residents east of Broadway by installing
• Zone 4 RPZ signs where there are currently gaps
• Increase parking availability and calm traffic by adding unrestricted parking on the north sides of streets
• where it can be done safely. All eligible blocks are shown in purple—which ones work best for you?
• Create more customer parking for restaurants and businesses by extending paid parking hours on Broadway after 6pm

SDOT is collecting feedback on the plan here through November 23. 

We wrote about the planning process and told you about some of this early planning here, by the way.

Forget the passive aggressive notes on your neighbor's windshield. Next time, use our handy flier.

EDIT:  We've heard the glue-paste critics out there and are happy to provide this updated flier.  Feel free to use either version.

Oh, and e.e. is more than willing to make a tooth brushing flier if that would be helpful for you, but please provide a valid email address so we know where to send it.

Happy parking!

With the transformation of Pike/Pine parking complete, City of Seattle planners are now working on an overhaul of parking around Broadway that could include nighttime metering and an increase in parking on the area's side streets. They're also looking at changes in First Hill -- and tonight, they want to talk to you about it:

You know that parking is at a premium on Capitol Hill and First Hill. We know it too.

That's why SDOT is working on community parking projects in both these neighborhoods. We've gone to community meetings, studied how parking is used, and walked around the neighborhoods. Now we have a few options to change and improve parking in your neighborhood, and we need your feedback. Please join us at our Capitol Hill and First Hill Parking Open House.

Capitol Hill/ First Hill Parking Open House

When: Thursday, September 17, 2009 06:00 PM - 08:00 PM

Where: First Baptist Church, 1111 Harvard Avenue, in the Parlor Room

Ruth Harper, project manager with the city's Community Parking Program,...

On Friday, September 18th, people all across the nation will take to the streets to turn car spaces into people spaces. In Seattle, Feet First is leading the charge by making it relatively cheap and easy to get street use and meter permits.  On Capitol Hill, People's Parking Lot (a.k.a. the Keith Harris Conspiracy) and the Capitol Hill Community Council have stepped up to make Park(ing) Day 2009 even better. 

On that Friday, the vacant lot on 500 E Pine will truly be a people's parking lot - Keith Harris' ingenious plan is to recruit neighborhood groups and businesses to host individual parks in the space. Over a dozen names are already on the list, including SVR Design, WorldChanging Seattle, and co-working space Office Nomads. Alongside the many and varied amusements supplied by the individual parks, a schedule of events is being planned for the entire lot as well.

The crown jewel of the day's events on 500 Pine will undoubtedly be the awards ceremony for the first ever Park(ing) Day Seattle Prize,...

We told you they were coming. Now they're here. New parking rules for Pike/Pine mean new meters on the streets like this hooded unit on 10th Ave between Pike and Union. Tipster didn't note if there was a sign saying when the hoods will be removed but you might want to have your credit card handy the next time you're parking in the area.

The same process that is transitioning Pike/Pine into a more regulated and hopefully more efficient parking environment is also underway around other areas of Capitol Hill's core. The Seattle Department of Transportation began studying the streets around Broadway back in March to gather information for how best to manage parking in the area. By October, SDOT hopes to have a plan in place. Two key strategies officials are talking about: introducing both-side-of-street parking on a set of streets just west of Broadway and piloting a test of paid parking on Broadway after 6 PM.

The moves would increase available on-street parking to relieve pressure on existing spaces in the area that were often at -- or over -- capacity during the March study. The data tables for the study illustrate just how chock full parking spots on Capitol Hill can be with utilization ranging from between 64% in the 1-hour time limit spaces to 95% over the course of the day in the unrestricted zones.

When looking at SDOT's numbers, remember they are aiming for moderate utilization around 70% and high compliance (a sign that people aren't so pressured for parking that they feel they ned to cheat). Given those parameters, you can see the need for SDOT to twiddle a few knobs.

Here is a map of the streets SDOT monitored for its March observations:

There are also some holes in SDOT's study methods:

• The study happened in March so includes seasonal factors
• The study mostly covered daylight hours so didn't capture the nighttime situation where pretty much everything in this area seems to go to 100%+ utilization
• The study was done by consultants manually counting cars. SDOT's Ruth Harper said that her department's methods might soon be improved, however, with the purchase of License Plate Recognition units that will allow a much more comprehensive, scalable collection of data. You may have read that the LPRs will also be used to give you tickets.

Even with those holes, however, SDOT is moving in the direction of increasing capacity. In the study write-up being distributed to Hill community groups, SDOT includes the following takeaways:

• 30-minute spaces have low utilization. Get rid of?
• 1-hour spaces have moderate utilization. Convert to 2-hour?
• Cal Anderson 3-hour parking is very full but compliance is high
• Unrestricted parking is very highly utilized but shows some turnover during day
• Low 1-hour utilization and poor compliance for 2-hour slots on 12th Ave suggest change needed
• Broadway 2-hour paystations create needed turnover when in effect
• Broadway's 30-minute parking slots also show low utilization
• Broadway parking is 100%+ full after 6p. Pilot after 6 PM paid parking?

As for the introduction of both-side-of-street parking on a few stretches west of Broadway, here's the roster SDOT is considering:

E Mercer between Bellevue and Harvard

View Larger Map

E Republican between Bellevue and Harvard

View Larger Map

E Harrison between Bellevue and Boylston

View Larger Map

E Thomas between Bellevue and Belmont, Boylston and Harvard

View Larger Map

E Olive between Bellevue and Boylston

View Larger Map

SDOT is also considering adding angled parking on one side of Summit and Bellevue Avenues between Pine and Olive

If you have feedback or questions as SDOT works to put together a plan for Broadway parking, drop Ruth Harper a note at capitolhillparking@seattle.gov

You can check out the SDOT Capitol Hill parking project site here.

If you are lucky enough to be parked in one of Pike/Pine's unrestricted parking spots on 10th Ave between Pike and Union, you better enjoy it while it lasts. Back in September, we wrote about the Seattle Department of Transportation's project to overhaul parking rules for the Pike/Pine neighborhood. Good neighbors, the time is nigh. Pike/Pine's parking changes will go into effect in a few weeks. The no-limit, free parking areas will be wiped from the map.

gay to park this block
Originally uploaded by faeryboots

And, turns out, you've been getting a bonus. The new restrictions were planned to be in place by now.

"It is getting pushed back a couple weeks. We expect new time limit signs, restricted parking zone signs, and pay stations to be installed the week of August 10th," SDOT planner Allison Schwartz told CHS by e-mail.

The Pike/Pine changes are only the first phase of a Capitol Hill parking revamp by SDOT. The department has also completed a study of central Capitol Hill between Roy and E. Pine and will be readying a plan to overhaul parking from Cal Anderson to I-5 Shores. CHS will cover that study and likely solutions next week. While adding more metered spaces is an opportunity for the city to generate more revenue, it's also a strategy to put market forces at work to make parking available when people drive on Capitol Hill. Make parking too cheap and there's no place to park -- cars don't move. Make it too expensive and the spaces won't be used to capacity.

Keeping that balance in mind, this SDOT slideshow details the coming changes for Pike/Pine:

The key changes for the neighborhood's parking according to SDOT:

• 2-hr time limits replace all unrestricted zones
• Some of the new 2-hr zones will be paid
• A strip of paid 3-hr parking will be introduced on Madison
• A block of 10-hr paid parking will be introduced around Broadway Ct.
• Restricted Parking Zones implemented for residents
• 2-hr paid parking added to some RPZ blocks
• Bike and scooter spaces added

The maps from the presentation best illustrate the new Pike/Pine parking landscape:

So, what's it going to cost to pay to park in Pike/Pine? Pay rates will be as follows:

• 2-hr and 3-hr paid parking = $2/hr
• 10-hr paid parking = $1.25/hr

I try not to drive to Pike/Pine much but it's necessary sometimes when I'm in a hurry to cover a story or late for another meeting. Happy to see the free 2-hr parking above 12th isn't going away.

More about the Pike/Pine parking overhaul from SDOT here.

The Capitol Hill Times has a great article about the challenges faced by Capitol Hill Housing as they work to transform the East Precinct parking lot on 12th Ave near Pine into a mixed-used development with housing, retail and community space. The Times properly identifies the barrier: the East Precinct's demand for expensive 'structured parking stalls,' as we wrote about earlier. The planned development has 75 spaces planned, the police department says they need double that to provide adequate parking for its employees. But Capitol Hill Housing's director of fund development Michael Seiwerath points out that the Times didn't quite get it right in their print editions about just how expensive the parking stalls really are.

Capitol Hill Times reported cost of each stall: $7,000
Cost according to Capitol Hill Housing: $40,000

The $2 million difference is enough to knock the project off balance and make it impossible to build, Seiwerath and Capitol Hill Housing contend. He says the mayor is aware of the issue and...

Click to view Capitol Hill RPZ map

UPDATE 4:13 PM:
The committee put off a vote on the legislation this morning, a spokesperson for councilmember Drago told CHS, opting instead to discuss a series of amendments and schedule a public hearing for next Wednesday at 5:30p in Council chambers. We'll have the proposed amendments on the site when we receive them. Sounds like an extensive overhaul of the proposals is being considered. After the public hearing on the 27th, the commitee will take the ammendents up for vote on June 2nd putting the plan on target for a vote from full Council on June 8th.

---------------

You can see Capitol Hill's Restricted Parking Zone streets marked in blue on the map included in this post -- if you live in these areas, you need one of the city-issued RPZ stickers to enjoy the same parking privileges on your street that other citizens enjoy in other parts of the city.

The City Council this morning is considering legislation to radically change the rules by which the Seattle Department of Transportation manages residential parking in Seattle. You can review the entirety of the plan, recommendations and new rules here. To give you a flavor of the changes, note that the new rule set is now being called the Restricted Parking Zone program by SDOT, not the warm and fuzzy Residential Parking Zone program RPZ of the past.

The Council transportation committee will likely vote this morning on implementing these new rules though chair Jan Drago promised some important amendments will also be considered in today's vote. The changes won't be the only parking rules shifting on the Hill. SDOT is also pushing a Pike/Pine parking plan forward that will radically increase the amount of restricted parking in that neighborhood.

Top line RPZ changes:

• Limit permits to eight per household address to reduce extreme abuse; consider other disincentives in the future to manage parking demand
• Improve enforcement by adjusting permit design, adding fines and improving coordination with Seattle Police Department
• Continue to issue one biennial guest permit per household address
• Develop single-day visitor permit as a second option to allow for multiple guests
• Revise zone creation process to ensure more effective community process to include all community interests and address race and social justice barriers to community participation
• Start pilot program to issue RPZ permits to businesses in the Southeast and South Downtown light rail station areas
• Improve customer service with online permit system

And highlights from the details:

• Keep authority for department to issue RPZ and guest permits to residents and others that need routine access in an RPZ zone, including property managers, home health care workers and shelter guests.
• Set as policy goal that residents and guests should aim to park within six city blocks from their residence as way to reduce permit abuse.
• Work with Major Institutions and RPZ stakeholders to standardize who pays permit fees in 12 zones where contributions are made.
• As a pilot program, allow access for employees with local businesses to RPZs in proposed link light rail RPZs.
• Continue to issue one biennial guest permit per household address.
• Develop a single-day use guest permit as a second option, to offer residents change to have multiple guests over at one time
• Make permit design changes to improve enforcement and reduce opportunities for re-sale.
• Emphasize and investigate other parking management tools before installing an RPZ, especially along residenti al streets that surround neighborhood business districts.
• Implement new process to ensure that all stakeholders are involved in discussion at level “playing field”.
• Require that at least 50% of vehicles (from 25%) are non-residential to help accommodate an increased level of visitor parking in and around neighborhood business districts,
• Require at least 10 contiguous city blocks (or 20 block faces) of residenti al development.
• When two or more zones abut, consider restructuring zones to break at planning boundaries, such as city-designated neighborhood boundaries, by splitting large zones and combining smaller ones.
• Fix obvious gaps of streets without RPZ signs by engaging residents with the purpose of filling in zones.
• Consider adding additional PEOs to dedicate more hours to RPZ enforcement.
• Use mobile license plate recognition and other new parking enforcement equipment to provide PEOs with in-field access to valid daily RPZ permit listings.
• Modify RPZ and guest permits to reduce fraud and add enforcement fines .
• Exempt motorcycle and scooters from RPZ permit requirements to ease confusion for permit issuance and placement.
• Define valid RPZ permit and guest permit to require parking within six blocks of eligible resident.

More about this later but, for now, here's some of the promotional schwag for Seattle Department of Transportation's new campaign to encourage public transit, biking and walking in the Pike/Pine neighborhood. You'll start to see these coasters around the neighborhood soon to thank you for skateboarding to the bar. Preaching to the converted, if you ask us. But with P/P parking on the road to change and further restriction including new metered spots, it looks like the city is trying to help balance things by encouraging your carbon-friendly behavior.

For the past year, the City has been working with Pike/Pine community groups, residents, and businesses to figure out a better way to manage parking in this dense, high demand area.

In November, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) sent out a mailing with a proposed plan, based on recent parking data and community input.  We also put out a survey, did some field outreach, sent out emails...

Unfortunately, we didn't get a lot of feedback.  Now that we are developing a final plan (to be released this spring and implemented over the summer), we'd really like to hear from you. SDOT would like to incorporate motorcycle/scooter and on-street bike parking in the plan. So if you get around on 2-wheels, let us know where you'd like to see those types of parking spaces.  Visit the project website or our new Facebook page to leave a comment.  You can also email me at PikePineParking@seattle.gov.

Thanks! 

Allison Schwartz (Pike/Pine project manager)

The passive aggressive note left on your vehicle to inform you of the crime against humanity you have committed is a rite of urban passage. In small towns, they bake you cookies, knock on your door and ask you nicely to move your International Harvester off their lawn. On Capitol Hill, they leave a mean note. Sometime this works for tagging, also.

But in this incident culled from the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct reports from last week, one such note went far beyond mean.

Victim came to the East Precinct on 2-24-09 at 0930 to report that an unknown person left a threatening note pinned to the seat of his XXXX Vespa Gran Tourismo scooter. Victim had parked his scooter on the street, in the XXX block of XXXX on 2-23-09 at approx. 2100 hrs, when he returned to it on 2-24-09 at 0900, he found the note which said "You greener-than-thou sanctimonious retard: Take up an entire car-sized parking space with this scooter again and you'll be shopping for a new tire ... " Victim said that this is the second...

Please join us and attend a Walking Tour, show SDOT staff how parking is being used, and discuss opportunities for improvement.

Walking Tours will be between 60 and 90 minutes and are scheduled for:

    * Tuesday February 10th at 12:30pm – Meet at the corner of E Denny Way and Harvard Ave E.  We will walk north on Harvard.
    * Thursday February 26th at 5:00pm – Meet at the corner of E Denny Way and Nagle Pl.  We will walk around portions of Cal Anderson Park, and explore 11th and 12th Ave E in the vicinity.

 Business owners, residents, employees and other community members are encouraged to join.
 
Please RSVP by contacting Ruth Harper, Project Manager at 206-684-8186 or CapitolHillParking@seattle.gov, no later than the day before each scheduled tour.

City's parking people want to set up walking tours to visit parking trouble spots on the hill. They are looking for guidance on where to focus their tours -- they asked me what I thought. Capitol Hill is a big place, stretching from I-5 Shores in the west to the eastern edges of Fancy Pants and Interlaken park at St. Mark's in the north down to Miller Park, Radio/TV Point and Pike/Pine in the south. You can find parking problems in every neighborhood. So, what are your hill parking sore spots?

I know the city already has these stretches on its radar.

From west to east:

• Dense apartment and nightlife zones in Pike/Pine and I-5 Shores. Pretty much done deal that these areas are due for a parking regulation overhaul.
• Seattle Central area
• Broadway, of course, but especially coming light rail activity and need for parking for construction crews
• Group Health and 15th Ave E

But here's your chance to be provincial. What areas do you want the city to have top of mind? Or is there an area you'd like them to leave...

Parking is going to get a whole lot tougher on Broadway and in the Pike/Pine corridor. First, the city is planning changes to how the parking rules work in the area. Now, Seattle Central is proposing a plan to replace the school's parking garage at Pine and Harvard with a new science building. It's not clear from the notice whether SCCC is planning to replace or only utilize the open space near the garage. Looking into it. Stand by.

Science trumps parking... again!

From the land-use notice:

Land Use Application to allow a new 1,800 sq. ft. structure (Greenhouse/ Plant Sciences Building) for existing institution (Seattle Central Community College) in an environmentally critical area. Project includes minor amendment to the major institution master plan. Determination of non-significance prepared by Seattle Central Community College.

Comments are being taken through November 12th. We side with the greenhouse on this one. We're hoping those SCCC students produce bumper crops of Capitol Hill tomatoes. All in the name...

Two months ago, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) released draft recommendations for changes to the Residential Parking Zone (RPZ) program.  SDOT is seeking public comment until October 20, 2008, and will submit recommendations to the mayor and city council by the end of the year.  No changes were proposed for the North Capitol Hill area around Seattle Prep High School or the Pike/Pine area.  Here are the remarks regarding the RPZ in the Capitol Hill area around Group Health(mapped at left): "The northern portion would probably work well with two permits/HH but parking in the southern portion is extremely tight. If, in the future, the zone is split into two zones, the classifications could be different."  The way that I read this is that the northern portion of this zone would work well with 2 parking permits per household.  So if this zone is eventually split into two, the southern area may have to live with 1 vehicle or less.  Proposed changes that would impact all RPZ zones would be a 30% increase...

A Capitol Hill endangered species is about to go extinct. Watch out, Pike/Pine parking spaces without 2-hour limit signs or fancy-pants electronic kiosks -- the Seattle Department of Transportation is coming for you.

Here's the SDOT Pike/Pine parking study that makes the case for annihilation. Among lots of wonky-fun charts and graphs, is this stat -- after 10 p.m., the unrestricted spaces reach 101% of capacity. The people of Pike/Pine are creative parkers. You can see it where that blue dot jumps up onto the little pink line.

Not only does the study prove the creativity of your parking abilities but you can also see what kind of citizens you are. This table shows the "compliance rate" for the various types of restricted parking in the area. When it comes to the pay stations, most of the time, people paid -- but you were a little more sneaky when parking above Broadway. You also mostly followed the rules posted on signs in the non-pay areas -- except below Broadway in the 2-hour zones. Good job, citizens.

The result...

Via Cap To The Hill, the parking crisis has reached the next level.  Too many bicycles creates the need for new innovative ways to park, as you can see from the photo. 

Legally, cars can only be parked in one place for 72 hours http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/parking/parking72hour.).  Overall, I believe Parking Enforcement does a pretty good job at ticketing vehicles that block sidewalks but they do a poor job of enforcing the 72 hour rule.  I know that residents can prompt Enforcement to stop by and ticket (then possibly remove) a car that has been parked too long, and I must admit that my husband and I have been lucky that no one has yet to do that to our car. 

See, our car will be taken to the shop tomorrow morning for repairs but for the last 5 weeks, it's been sitting immobile outside of our apartment building.  I've watched from my window as Parking Enforcement putters by and ticket cars parked on either side of ours for violating the Zone 4 two hour limit.  I've seen the little carts drive by every day and today, watched one park in front of our car and eat his lunch for 20 minutes, the same Enforcement officer, oblivious to this "dead"...