Seattle Department of Transportation has done a new study that qualified an area in Central Ballard to one day be designated as a Restricted Parking Zone.
The Central Ballard Residents Association sent Seattle Department of Transportation a letter last September that requested they look into implementing an RPZ after a rise in street-parking congestion.
Michael Kahrs is a founder and Committee Chair of CBRA. He said that the group was concerned for the wellbeing of residents in Central Ballard.
“One of the issues I was seeing was problems with parking. It seemed that every neighborhood that’s had growth has had success with an RPZ, and Ballard did not have one,” said Kahrs. "Parking has been an issue near and dear to my heart since I started CBRA, and my goal is to make it easier for residents to live here.”
SDOT responded by doing an RPZ study in Central Ballard last year, focusing on the residential area to the north of the Ballard Urban Hub core (N.W. 57th Street to N.W. 65th Avenue and 15th Avenue NW to 28th Avenue N.W.). The findings did not justify designating an RPZ. In order to implement an RPZ, 75 percent of on-street spaces must be occupied, non- resident vehicles must occupy at least 35 percent of those spaces and the zone falls within 20 contiguous blocks.
Later in May/June of last this year there were changes to the commercial parking in the Urban Hub. Paid parking hours were extended from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and paid parking was added to Ballard Avenue N.W and other blocks. SDOT waited for citizens to acclimate to the changes before doing a follow-up study for an RPZ. However, this RPZ study included areas further south of N.W. Market Street, which garnered more significant findings. SDOT surveying license plates at evening and morning hours on Wednesday and Saturday. This time the findings warranted implementing an RPZ. In all hours surveyed, parking was over 90 percent occupancy with close to 50 percent non-residents.
SDOT RPZ findings.
So what comes next?
Ruth Harper with SDOT headed the studies. She said that just because the findings warrant an RPZ there is still some work to do.
“We are still very early in the process and no decisions have been made,” said Harper.
SDOT plans for public meeting to gather community input on designating the area as an RPZ zone. They plan to send out a zone survey in early 2016 and host public meetings in the spring to discuss zone boundaries and hours of operation for the zone.
“The details we’d like to hear about include whether we chose the right hours or the right blocks or if residents think this will make parking better. People say many different things, and we want to hear what they think.”
If an RPZ is implemented residents in the zone would need to apply for a permit. Permits cost $65 for two years and permitted vehicles would be able to park in the same spot in the zone for up to 72 hours. There are currently 31 RPZs in Seattle. Most zones allow two-hour parking for individuals without permits.
For more information about RPZ visit www.seattle.gov/transportation/parking/parkingrpz.htm
