The Seattle Department of Transportation is proposing to enforce paid parking and residential parking zones on otherwise free streets in some areas of Fremont.

The proposal came as a surprise to the Fremont Chamber of Commerce and some residents, who fear that it will create unwanted impacts to the neighborhood and businesses. Residential parking zones are signs allowing cars with permit stickers to park at any time and others only at designated hours.

"A couple years ago, some residents started asking for residential parking zones," said Jessica Vets, executive director of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce. "The process in getting the zones installed is through the city determining if a neighborhood is feasible."

It turns out areas of Fremont are a good candidate for parking zones but, typically, to further the process five continuous blocks and 60 percent of households on each would have to sign a petition allowing it. However, not enough signatures were gathered when an effort was made a few years back.

But since then, Vets said the city has plans to move forward with the parking zones regardless.

"With the new proposal, now the city is coming in and saying that they will put the residential parking zones even without the signatures of residents," she said. "They're starting to change their own rules."

Vets was also informed by the city that the number of residential parking zone permits could be reduced per household along with a possible increase in permit price to help cover the cost of the program. Currently two permits are allotted per household.

Rick Sheridan, public information officer manager of the Seattle Department of Transportation, said those factors were still undetermined.

If the city sees a need to mitigate parking in a neighborhood it is allowed at will to install a city instituted residential parking zone to alleviate the parking problems, said Sheridan.

"It's an obstacle for committee members to collect signatures, so we can help mitigate some of the parking problems through a "city instituted" residential parking zone," he said.

Pete Hanning, co-owner of the Red Door bar, said he's concerned about residential parking zones because if placed close to downtown business neighborhoods it might hurt business because there won't be as much availbel parking.

He said it's not only hard on the pockets of those visiting Fremont, but also for residents who have to pay for the permits.

The city believes the installation of the zones would create a comprehensive mix of on-street parking management that would serve a wide variety of users.

The proposal to install pay stations is partly based on two studies in 2005 and this year that on-street parking in the area was at capacity in the neighborhood's business district. Much like the conversion in parts of downtown Ballard almost three years ago, unpaid streets would be monitored with parking pay stations, common around the city.

The department reported that when use of on-street parking spaces reaches 75 percent or higher they will consider implementing parking management changes to ensure that parking spaces are available for customers.

Sheridan said, "Fremont's utilization percentage of parking is more than 75 percent on some blocks for most of the day with higher utilization rates at lunchtime. Other blocks even have a 90 to 140 percent utilization rate."

In 2001, in agreement with the city's parking study that recommended a series of "parking management techniques" to address the lack of parking in downtown Fremont, both the neighborhood and the city adopted the Fremont Parking Plan. The aim of the plan was to find solutions to create a better parking system.

In the spring of 2005, the city came back to the residents of Fremont and informed them that any parking mitigations or changes would not be made until the Fremont Bridge Approach Project was complete, which wrapped up last fall.

This last spring the city approached the Fremont Chamber of Commerce and community once again to analyze the parking need with a new study.

In May, the transportation department, along with the community, led walking tours to point out areas that could hold more parked cars if streets were reorganized. Vets said she was told that their ideas would be kept in mind after the second parking study.

"They came back recently and said that the parking engineers thought that all the possible places for additional parking were unsafe," said Vets. "There wasn't much explanation and we felt like they were brushing us off and that additional parking would not be an option."

Instead, the solution was to install parking pay stations in the business district.

"This proposal is in recognition that parking is not functioning for anyone in the Fremont neighborhood and we're configuring a package to help parking for residents, businesses, employees and visitors of Fremont," said Sheridan.

The city would be adding two-hour paid parking in the core business district at $1.25 per hour in approximately 34 blocks and add 10-hour paid parking around the core at $.75 per hour in approximately 28 blocks (directed but not officially designated for employees), both from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Vets said the community isn't happy about the pay stations. Some small businesses see it as a deterrent for customers and some industrial businesses felt it was a way to tax their employees.

"It will be at least $160 a month for employees to park in Fremont," said Vets. "So machinists and some of the people who don't have an option to drive will have to drive and will have to pay for parking."

Still, others have made the argument that paid parking can lead to higher turnover and more customers for nearby businesses.

Installation of the paid parking meters and residential parking zones is projected for January or February of 2009. Details will be refined through this fall and into November.

To share thoughts on paid parking stations in Fremont, the Fremont Chamber of Commerce has put together a group called Keep Fremont Free. It's pushing to get people to sign a petition against the meters and getting out to the community the affects of paid parking stations.

The transportation department, at the request of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, has extended input and feedback on the Fremont Parking Plan proposal to Oct. 3.

To learn more about the Fremont Parking Plan visit www.seattle.gov/transportation/parking/cp_fremont.htm or visit www.keepfremontfree.com.

Allison Espiritu may be reached at 783-1244 or allisone@robinsonnews.com. _ _