The Pike/Pine crunch for street parking will soon have a strict new player. The neighborhood’s music and nightlife venues are celebrating.

The city is getting ready to put new “Music Venue Zone” restricted parking areas in place across Pike/Pine and Seattle’s nightlife districts after years of efforts searching for a solution to help make it easier for the people who drive the city’s live music industry.

The Seattle City Council passed legislation last month that will open the way for venues to apply to add the new zone to their curb spaces and do away with the cumbersome mess of temporary parking permits and space saving that has been part of band life.

The new permits will cost venues $250 a year and the legislation has established rules limiting where they can be deployed. Each permit allows up to three Music Venue Zone
spaces per venue. Restrictions on parking and loading will be 24 hours a day, 7-days
a week. Vehicles in zones without the valid permit displayed will be subject to citation and impound, the city says.

The program will only displace around 60 street parking spots around the city but many will be in the heart of Pike/Pine which was identified as a core area for the program by a council staff analysis.

The city says the loss of the spaces will cost it around $178,000 a year — a tiny fraction of the $41.7 million of parking meter revenue it expects to generate this year from the approximately 11,000 paid on-street parking spaces in Seattle.

Venues can begin applying for the new zones 30 days after Mayor Bruce Harrell signs the newly passed legislation into law.

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