Click to view Capitol Hill RPZ map

UPDATE 4:13 PM:
The committee put off a vote on the legislation this morning, a spokesperson for councilmember Drago told CHS, opting instead to discuss a series of amendments and schedule a public hearing for next Wednesday at 5:30p in Council chambers. We’ll have the proposed amendments on the site when we receive them. Sounds like an extensive overhaul of the proposals is being considered. After the public hearing on the 27th, the commitee will take the ammendents up for vote on June 2nd putting the plan on target for a vote from full Council on June 8th.

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You can see Capitol Hill’s Restricted Parking Zone streets marked in blue on the map included in this post — if you live in these areas, you need one of the city-issued RPZ stickers to enjoy the same parking privileges on your street that other citizens enjoy in other parts of the city.

The City Council this morning is considering legislation to radically change the rules by which the Seattle Department of Transportation manages residential parking in Seattle. You can review the entirety of the plan, recommendations and new rules here. To give you a flavor of the changes, note that the new rule set is now being called the Restricted Parking Zone program by SDOT, not the warm and fuzzy Residential Parking Zone program RPZ of the past.

The Council transportation committee will likely vote this morning on implementing these new rules though chair Jan Drago promised some important amendments will also be considered in today’s vote. The changes won’t be the only parking rules shifting on the Hill. SDOT is also pushing a Pike/Pine parking plan forward that will radically increase the amount of restricted parking in that neighborhood.

Top line RPZ changes:

• Limit permits to eight per household address to reduce extreme abuse; consider other disincentives in the future to manage parking demand
• Improve enforcement by adjusting permit design, adding fines and improving coordination with Seattle Police Department
• Continue to issue one biennial guest permit per household address
• Develop single-day visitor permit as a second option to allow for multiple guests
• Revise zone creation process to ensure more effective community process to include all community interests and address race and social justice barriers to community participation
• Start pilot program to issue RPZ permits to businesses in the Southeast and South Downtown light rail station areas
• Improve customer service with online permit system

And highlights from the details:

• Keep authority for department to issue RPZ and guest permits to residents and others that need routine access in an RPZ zone, including property managers, home health care workers and shelter guests.
• Set as policy goal that residents and guests should aim to park within six city blocks from their residence as way to reduce permit abuse.
• Work with Major Institutions and RPZ stakeholders to standardize who pays permit fees in 12 zones where contributions are made.
• As a pilot program, allow access for employees with local businesses to RPZs in proposed link light rail RPZs.
• Continue to issue one biennial guest permit per household address.
• Develop a single-day use guest permit as a second option, to offer residents change to have multiple guests over at one time
• Make permit design changes to improve enforcement and reduce opportunities for re-sale.
• Emphasize and investigate other parking management tools before installing an RPZ, especially along residenti al streets that surround neighborhood business districts.
• Implement new process to ensure that all stakeholders are involved in discussion at level “playing field”.
• Require that at least 50% of vehicles (from 25%) are non-residential to help accommodate an increased level of visitor parking in and around neighborhood business districts,
• Require at least 10 contiguous city blocks (or 20 block faces) of residenti al development.
• When two or more zones abut, consider restructuring zones to break at planning boundaries, such as city-designated neighborhood boundaries, by splitting large zones and combining smaller ones.
• Fix obvious gaps of streets without RPZ signs by engaging residents with the purpose of filling in zones.
• Consider adding additional PEOs to dedicate more hours to RPZ enforcement.
• Use mobile license plate recognition and other new parking enforcement equipment to provide PEOs with in-field access to valid daily RPZ permit listings.
• Modify RPZ and guest permits to reduce fraud and add enforcement fines .
• Exempt motorcycle and scooters from RPZ permit requirements to ease confusion for permit issuance and placement.
• Define valid RPZ permit and guest permit to require parking within six blocks of eligible resident.