Local
D.C. Council weighs doubling downtown parking meter rate
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
December 9, 2008
The D.C. Council is considering doubling the downtown parking meter rate to $2 an hour and dedicating the extra revenue to social and low-income housing programs hit hardest by the city’s fiscal crisis.
Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, who has oversight of the D.C. Department of Transportation and meter issues, said Monday that he has upped the ante, revising an earlier proposal to take the current $1 per hour downtown rate to $1.50. Where meters charge 50 cents, Graham’s plan calls for a new 75-cent charge. And it requires meter payment in the Central Business District on Saturdays, lifting the current moratorium.
The council will take up the emergency legislation next week.
Residents, homeless advocates, city officials and business leaders roundly agreed Monday that the District’s $1 downtown hourly meter rate is far too low, they told Graham’s public works and environment committee. But there was less consensus as to how the District should spend any additional revenue.
The council last month closed a $131 million budget shortfall and set aside another $46 million in case future revenue estimates come in short of earlier predictions — which they are widely expected to do. A number of housing, rent supplement and social programs lost money to the reserve fund.
Graham has publicly committed the new meter money to shore up those “immediate social needs,” to the delight of organizations such as So Others Might Eat, the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, and Manna Inc.
“I’m not sure we’d be here right now but for the fact that we have a crisis in critically important programs,” Graham said.
Karina Ricks, representing DDOT, said the agency strongly supports higher rates as long as the revenues are tied to transportation.
All parking meter money goes to DDOT today, Ricks said, and there’s not nearly enough of it to meet demands to fix roads, alleys and sidewalks.
The District collected $16.6 million from meters in fiscal 2008, Ricks said, and going to $2 per hour would generate roughly $6 million more.
“I think we could easily accommodate $2 per hour provided the money goes to the agency,” Ricks said.
Other proponents say a higher rate would spur parking space turnover and drive people to public transit.
Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, who has oversight of the D.C. Department of Transportation and meter issues, said Monday that he has upped the ante, revising an earlier proposal to take the current $1 per hour downtown rate to $1.50. Where meters charge 50 cents, Graham’s plan calls for a new 75-cent charge. And it requires meter payment in the Central Business District on Saturdays, lifting the current moratorium.
The council will take up the emergency legislation next week.
Residents, homeless advocates, city officials and business leaders roundly agreed Monday that the District’s $1 downtown hourly meter rate is far too low, they told Graham’s public works and environment committee. But there was less consensus as to how the District should spend any additional revenue.
The council last month closed a $131 million budget shortfall and set aside another $46 million in case future revenue estimates come in short of earlier predictions — which they are widely expected to do. A number of housing, rent supplement and social programs lost money to the reserve fund.
Graham has publicly committed the new meter money to shore up those “immediate social needs,” to the delight of organizations such as So Others Might Eat, the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, and Manna Inc.
“I’m not sure we’d be here right now but for the fact that we have a crisis in critically important programs,” Graham said.
Karina Ricks, representing DDOT, said the agency strongly supports higher rates as long as the revenues are tied to transportation.
All parking meter money goes to DDOT today, Ricks said, and there’s not nearly enough of it to meet demands to fix roads, alleys and sidewalks.
The District collected $16.6 million from meters in fiscal 2008, Ricks said, and going to $2 per hour would generate roughly $6 million more.
“I think we could easily accommodate $2 per hour provided the money goes to the agency,” Ricks said.
Other proponents say a higher rate would spur parking space turnover and drive people to public transit.
