In 2017, Capitol Hill and First Hill streets will join the busy avenues of downtown, and Pioneer Square as the first areas in Seattle where nighttime on-street paid parking will hit $4.50 an hour. Nighttime visitors — and neighbors who play the increasingly challenging shell game of keeping their parked automobiles one step ahead of the Parking Enforcement Officer — will be happy to hear that there is no specific plan for rolling out paid parking beyond 8 PM… yet.
The Seattle Department of Transportation announced the planned increases last week as part of its ongoing “data-driven” optimization across its 12,000 on-street paid parking spaces as demand for some Capitol Hill-area parking continues to hover well beyond 100% during peak hours — seemingly no matter how high rates climb.
On the flipside, SDOT is also planning to knock $0.50 an hour off morning rates around Broadway and Pike/Pine when demand is at its lowest. We’ve peppered this post with the latest neighborhood reports from 2016 parking analysis that SDOT used to determine the new rates. You can view the full 2016 report (PDF) here. SDOT has also created a new online map to help you sort out rates across the city.
The rate changes are part of the 2017 budget approved earlier this year, SDOT notes. Another small but notable aspect of the budget when it comes to parking didn’t get a shoutout in the rate change announcement. $150,000 in the 2017 budget will power the study a possible parking benefits district, possibly on Capitol Hill. Capitol Hill Housing has been working on a pilot program that could eventually create “parking benefit districts” across Seattle, giving neighborhoods a major slice of the revenue generated by pay meters on their streets.
Also not mentioned is the 2017 budget provision to extend paid parking throughout Capitol Hill from 8 PM to 11 PM by late 2017 in response to the analysis that shows finding a paid parking spot on Capitol Hill is still tough well into the night. SDOT told CHS it plans to hold community discussions on extending hours by early 2017 to determine “whether extending paid parking hours would be the right tool to address neighborhood access needs.”
“As our business districts continue to grow and be great places to visit, we want to make sure we are keeping up to date with the street parking regulations,” a SDOT spokesperson told CHS about the plan.”Our goal is to manage street parking so that there is access; 1 to 2 open spaces per block throughout the day.”
In the first quarter of 2017, SDOT has also said it will install new paid spaces in the Pike/Pine parking area east of 12th Ave. UPDATE: The new paid areas are detailed here:
Capitol Hill Community Post | Parking Changes Coming to Capitol Hill Pike-Pine Corridor
Meanwhile, newly approved RPZ 32 will help fill in the blocks near Capitol Hill Station and below Broadway with a zone designed to better protect neighborhood access for on-street parking.
The reason there is not enough parking and that no matter how high rates are raised supply and demand cannot be placed in balance is that new buildings on Capitol Hill no longer have parking requirements. Street parking is a public resource. Those new developments, built without adequate parking, are utilizing this public resource at everyone else’s expense. This policy the city came up with a number of years ago to no longer require parking in new developments is to blame.
Developers are getting a huge benefit as parking stalls cost $30k+ to build. The extra profit they are getting is coming at everyone else’s expense as the availability of this very finite public resource (i.e. on street parking) disappears. This policy of no longer requiring parking in new construction has enriched developers at everyone else’s expense.
It wouldn’t be so bad if buses ran later and more frequently– at least until a half-hour past closing time. I’d be happy to bus it to AND from a night out. I suspect more and later buses might lower DUI’s also. (And please spare me the chorus of “take a cab or Uber”, from the highly paid crowd who probably all live in high-priced apartments without parking, and no cars. Sorry, no).
It has been obvious to many of us for several years that the lack of parking in new buildings was going to create major problems for those who must park on the street. Now, the chickens are coming home to roost, as the developers laugh all the way to the bank. Shame on you, SDOT and DPD!
@bob Knudsen – really really really mean no offense, but it made me laugh when you said something about people who “must park on the street.” No one “must park on the street.” If you have a car, you need to rent an apartment with a parking space. If you want to live in a dense, walk-able neighborhood, you have to get rid of your car. There’s no “must” here.
Scott Kubly and his anti-car SDOT, pro bailout bike share program, need to go. Seriously – he’s the worst person to have in that position and should have been fired years ago.
How can we get SDOT or DPD to reconsider these misguided policies that benefit developers at the expense of the rest of us?
Developers are continuing to build many, many more parking spaces than they are required to. Many of these spaces are sitting empty, even during peak times when street parking is, as mentioned in the article, at 100%.
Therefore, what other alternatives would you have SDOT do to get parking to become easier in our neighborhood except raising rates? If the market is demanding that developers build more off-street parking than is required, then the market is also demanding that on-street rates go up at the same rate as demand.
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Hey guys, this isn’t the 1950s (or 60s or 70s or 80s). There are a lot of folks who don’t own cars anymore. Seriously. They actually prefer to live in an apartment on Capitol Hill and walk or bike or take transit to work, and do most of their shopping in the neighborhood, and when they do need a car to drive somewhere they rent or use car2go or zipcar. This is a real thing. In fact, there are so many of those people that there is a MARKET demand for them, and so that’s why developers are building apartment buildings without parking. And besides, if you live in a dense area with lots of apartments, and you expect to find street parking in close proximity of your apartment, you’re going to be very disappointed. I would have told you the same thing 20 years ago. This is not a new concept.
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These spots are not a substitute for permanent spots for residents. A resident is not going to park by the hour, where there is a limit to number of hours and if no limit were there, the total would exceed 40.00 per day, which is far more than rented parking is on the hill. I support the city charging as much as the market will bear for street parking. If they raise it too high, folks don’t drive in, which is simple supply and demand working beautifully.
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