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.
