Tag Archives: parking

Kaiser Permanente reluctant to act on Capitol Hill surface parking lots

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(Image: CHS)

By Ryan Packer

When Kaiser Permanente purchased Group Health in 2018, its flagship Capitol Hill campus came with a Major Institution Master Plan. Used with hospital and university campuses around the city, the plan guides the long-term vision for how a given campus will grow, and sets parameters around how employees to and from the campus will get to work. Any time a major update is planned for a campus, the plan must be updated. Shortly after taking ownership of the property, Kaiser Permanente announced that they were planning a $400 million campus overhaul, and at the same time announced the formation of a Standing Advisory Committee (SAC) to guide the campus through any updates to the master plan.

Now some members of that advisory committee are trying to push Kaiser to move forward on some past commitments that have been made around the Capitol Hill campus, particularly when it comes to the 1.5 acres of surface parking lots that sit on 16th and 17th Ave close to campus. Those lots actually sit outside the boundary of the area guided by the campus plan.

David Dahl is an architect who lives in the neighborhood, and sits on the Standing Advisory Committee. “It definitely doesn’t feel like it’s a priority for them to follow through on the agreements they’ve made,” he said of Kaiser Permanente. “They’ve shown they can reduce their drive alone rate…I would like to see some follow through.” Continue reading →

‘The carpenters’ fight is our fight to make Seattle affordable for all’ — Sawant unveils construction worker parking reimbursement bill

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As members of the Northwest Carpenters Union have approved a new contract that included employers doing more to help defray the costs of transportation and transit to work sites in the city, City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has unveiled legislation she says will require contractors in Seattle to pay for the cost of parking for construction workers.

“Shamefully, construction industry contractors, who have made billions in profits off the backs of workers, have refused to cover the cost of parking for carpenters and many other construction workers,” Sawant said in a statement on her new legislation and called on her council colleagues to quickly approve the bill. Continue reading →

City Council approves move of parking enforcement officers to SDOT, new rules for crowd control weapons for SPD

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The Seattle City Council tied bows Monday on the legislative process for changes to Seattle Police that will remove parking enforcement from the department and create a new framework for what crowd control weapons the force can use.

Monday’s full council votes included approval of the plan to move the around 100 parking enforcement employees in the city from SPD command to the Seattle Department of Transportation. The vote finalizes debate of whether the enforcement officers should be part of SDOT or a new Community Safety and Communications Center. In May, the council approved a plan to move around 140 emergency dispatch employees to the new center.

The city’s 2021 budget brought a cut of about a fifth of Seattle’s more than $400 million annual outlay in police spending along with changes to reduce the size and power of the department by moving 911 and traffic enforcement operations outside of the Seattle Police Department and spending more money on social, community, and BIPOC services and programs. Continue reading →

Nature is healing: Seattle bumps up parking rates but Capitol Hill still far from $4.50/hour pre-pandemic levels

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(Image: Ryan Packer)

By Ryan Packer

Capitol Hill’s on-street parking rates are going to stay pretty affordable, at least for the foreseeable future.

Last week, the latest adjustment to citywide metered parking rates took effect, as the Seattle Department of Transportation says it is trying to match demand as vaccination rates increase and businesses welcome more customers. But unlike other cities that have reinstated their old, pre-COVID parking meter rates, Seattle is keeping a base rate of 50 cents per hour and adjusting that based on demand. As a result, parking a car in Pike/Pine will actually be cheaper than it was when SDOT adjusted rates back in February.

Will you be paying early 2020 rates to park a car in any on-street spaces on the Hill anytime soon? Not likely. Pre-pandemic rates hit as high as $4.50 per hour during evening hours in the heart of Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, rates in First Hill are inching just a bit closer to their former peak rate of $5 per hour, with $2 per hour morning rate and $1.50 at mid-day.

Here are the new hourly rates as of June 1st: Continue reading →

To protect those living in cars, Sawant calls for end of Seattle’s ’72-hour rule’

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District 3 City Council representative Kshama Sawant is calling for the city’s to reinstate its suspension of restrictions that prohibit motor vehicles from being parked on streets for more than 72 hours.

Mayor Jenny Durkan and SDOT officials reinstated the rule this month after a year of pandemic moratoriums.

“For people forced to live in their cars – many of them working people – Durkan’s move could be catastrophic, costing them not only their vehicle, but also their only shelter and all their possessions,” Sawant writes. “The pandemic has worsened the severe housing crisis. We need affordable, social housing – not harassment of neighbors struggling to survive.”

The easing of Seattle parking restrictions last March including the city’s “72-hour rule” was positioned as a way to help residents get through stay at home restrictions during the COVID-19 crisis. Many on Capitol Hill celebrated the temporary end of having to shuffle their cars around the neighborhood’s high demand street parking every three days to avoid a ticket. Continue reading →

City says vandalism putting parking pay stations out of commission around Capitol Hill protest zone

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Seattleites who seem to have both an unending appetite for paid parking and complaining about it might have a new reason to support the controversial “direct action” protesters who gather and march on Capitol Hill nearly every night.

The city says protesters have destroyed dozens of parking pay stations and there are currently no plans for repairs. The vandalism has caused thousands of dollars in damage and lost revenue for the city.

“It is unfortunately true that close to 80 pay stations have been seriously vandalized, and graffiti has abounded,” a Seattle Department of Transportation representative wrote to a CHS reader who contacted the city about the problem and shared the message with us. “The Capitol Hill neighborhood has taken the brunt of much of the damage to the City’s parking infrastructure.”

Some of the lost revenue might be offset by an increase in parking tickets with parking enforcement officers again issuing fines after this summer’s COVID-19 grace period. With the pay stations busted, many more drivers are risking a ticket over using the city’s online payment system. And searching for a working meter is a waste of time. Vandals have destroyed pretty much every station for blocks around Cal Anderson.

SPD says it is looking into parking enforcement issues related to the damaged stations but has not yet provided an update to CHS. Continue reading →

Seattle to turn meters back on after weeks of free parking for COVID-19 ‘essential trips’

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(Image: SDOT)

With its businesses districts kicking back into motion after months of COVID-19 restrictions, the City of Seattle is ready to restore paid parking and enforcement across the city.

Monday, the city’s meters will again be active with the hourly rate set at $0.50 — the lowest the Seattle municipal code allows:

  • With King County’s transition to Phase 2 of the Safe Start Plan, businesses are reopening, and reliable access at the curb for customers is critical for recovery.  Beginning July 13, we’ll reinstate hourly time limited parking and paid parking enforcement.  Parking will be $0.50/hour in all paid areas; the minimum rate allowed according to the Seattle Municipal Code. Continue reading →

It’s not a free for all but Seattle eliminating most parking tickets during COVID-19 restrictions

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With life under COVID-19 restrictions already mostly a massive bummer, Seattle officials have recognized that parking tickets right now are adding insult to injury. Most residents are doing their best to stay close to home to help fight the spread of the virus while many essential workers must drive to work. Starting Saturday, Seattle is eliminating most parking tickets as paid parking and time limits are suspended on the city’s streets:

Mayor Jenny A. Durkan today announced that the City of Seattle will temporarily eliminate paid and time-limited street parking rules to support residents and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following Governor Inslee’s extension of the “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order, the City will immediately implement these changes to parking so residents do not have to worry about tickets while they remain at home. Elimination of paid parking will also facilitate easier access to essential businesses for employees and customers.

  • No payment will be required on streets with paid parking.
  • Hourly time limits will not be enforced outside of Restricted Parking Zones (RPZ).
  • Loading zones up to 30-minutes, including new food pick-up zones, will continue to be enforced.
  • Other previously announced temporary parking enforcement changes including suspension of the 72-hour parking rule will continue until further notice.
  • Special zones will still be in effect, including new zones for hospital and human services staff as well as existing zones for freight, food trucks, or charter buses. 
  • Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ) time limits will be enforced so that people who live in RPZ neighborhoods can still find parking near their homes.

Like many alterations to daily life under COVID-19 restrictions, the changes to parking will be a major reset for the city. Reinstating paid parking will be phased in after the stay home order is lifted, the city says. At that time, SDOT will reinstate a minimum payment of $0.50 per hour in all paid areas for three weeks. The city will then begin to “adjust rates based on demand as customers return to business districts and need reliable access at the curb.” Continue reading →

Where and when it will be cheaper to park on Capitol Hill in 2020 (and where the appetite for parking is apparently insatiable no matter how expensive it gets)

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2020 mornings will bring cheaper paid parking to most of Capitol Hill’s streets — the nightlife crush means prices are rising. Seattle announced its annual adjustments Friday to be rolled out in its regular rebalancing of pricing for the city’s paid parking based on demand studies over the past year.

“Our goal is to make it efficient and accessible for people who need to drive to find a parking space,” SDOT says in its announcement and explainer of the 2020 adjustments. “This reduces how much time drivers spend circling for parking, which provides other important benefits” —

  • Improves safety for pedestrians and cyclists – drivers circling for parking are often distracted
  • Reduces congestion – drivers circling for parking contribute to congestion
  • Improves transit efficiency – less congestion and fewer cars stopping in the bus lane means our public transit is more reliable
  • Decreases greenhouse gas emissions – less circling means fewer emissions

Simplified, SDOT says its goal is to price so that “two parking spaces are available on each block throughout the day.”

It’s not clear how high prices would have to rise across SDOT’s Capitol Hill paid parking regions to hit that “two space” goal at night were capacity is also measured at hitting greater than 100% thanks to creative — and illegal — parking strategies some nightlife visitors deploy. Prices will hit from $4 to $4.50 across most of Capitol Hill at night. Continue reading →