After collecting feedback on parking recommendations from Ballardites, SDOT has issued a plan for the proposed parking changes in Ballard.

Through the Ballard Partnership for Smart Growth, SDOT, City officials and the Ballard Chamber of Commerce banded together to study parking in Ballard’s urban core and the surrounding area. Their work in 2014 developed short-term changes to parking with an aim to improve parking access in the neighborhood.

The proposal is designed to help customers and visitors find parking while equalizing the needs of local employees and residents. The feedback was used to revise their original proposal.

 “Through that process, we heard from many different stakeholders about the challenge of parking in the Ballard commercial district,” stated SDOT.

SDOT shared the findings on parking with the community Ballard.

Wide scale parking changes have not been made in Ballard since 2005.Come spring of this year, SDOT will implement the parking changes and will continue to monitor parking conditions through their annual citywide parking survey.

According to SDOT, the parking changes are being made to make parking more available in Ballard and while also more predictable.

SDOT says there current time limits do not create the desired parking turnover needed for higher density parking demands. Vehicles are staying put way too long.

A past study revealed that core-parking areas were 90 percent full for more than three consecutive hours of the day. The low turnover causes drivers to peruse the neighborhood, casing for a parking spot and causing congestion.

After evaluating the hundreds of comments sent in by Ballardites, SDOT has made some changes to their original plan. Implementation is set for spring 2015.

Changes include:

Smaller area of new paid parking:

“We have scaled back plans to add paid parking along many blocks that have less street-level retail and offices and less need for increased parking turnover,” stated SDOT in the parking proposal.
Less 2-hour paid parking: New paid parking will have 2-hour time limits and will be concentrated in areas along Ballard Ave NW and Leary Ave NW.
Additional time limits north of NW Market St: Additional areas of paid parking will be added to NW Market St.
Through 2015 SDOT plans to assess load zone demands in core areas. They will also study the eligibility for a restricted parking zone in core areas. Parking occupancy will also be studied in 2015 and results release in the summer.