The Alexandria City Council has given the city’s disabled community at least 30 days before deciding whether to start charging handicapped drivers who used metered parking spaces. The council deferred a vote on the “All May Park, All Must Pay” ordinance, a proposal to make handicapped drivers pay to park at meters in the city, and gave the Alexandria Commission on Persons with Disabilities more time to present its own findings and concerns about the abuse of handicapped parking spaces in metered zones.
City officials said charging handicapped drivers for parking could reduce incentives for those who use illicit handicapped permits to take advantage of the free parking. Alexandria also stands to gain about $133,000 a year in new revenue if it charges handicapped drivers $1.75 per hour to park.
The disabilities commission argues that reports of handicapped parking violations are overstated and plans to conduct its own study to figure out just how many people are violating the law.
The Alexandria Police Department stepped up enforcement of handicapped parking in June by staking out metered spaces occupied by cars with permits. Officers reported that 90 percent of the drivers they approached returning to their cars were using permits or handicapped license plates improperly.
Chuck Benagh, chairman of the disabilities commission, called the 90 percent statistic “grossly exaggerated and outrageous.”
“We hope to be able to provide council with some accurate information upon which to base their judgment,” Benagh said.
The commission has at least 30 days to conduct its study and gather data. Benagh said he hopes the commission will make its own recommendations on how to prevent handicapped parking violations.
The city’s current parking proposal was vetted by the Old Town Parking Study Work Group, which recommended that the city charge handicapped drivers to park. But city officials are willing to wait to hear more from the commission and believe there can still be a compromise, said Andrea Wilkinson, Alexandria’s parking planner.
“We do want to make sure we consider whatever ideas they have when we’re talking about this proposed policy,” Wilkinson said.
Under the city’s plan, at least two percent of metered spaces in the Old Town Area would be designated for disabled parking. Each of those spaces would have a meter programmed to allow up to four hours of parking, the amount currently granted to disabled drivers for free.
Meters would have multiple payment options. The group recommended the city adopt a waiver program to alleviate financial hardship for disabled drivers with low incomes,
