Will Parking Proposals Alleviate Bloomingdale Woes?
After years of rewriting, city-wide parking rules and regulations will soon be updated as the D.C. Zoning Commission considers parking proposals submitted by the Office of Planning in late July.
Among the changes is a proposal that the city reduce mandatory parking minimums--zoning regulations that require a minimum amount of parking--in transit-rich areas. The proposals come after parking recommendations were made by both the Office of Planning and the D.C. Department of Transportation to address the "over-supply" of street parking availability in the city, a problem that traffic engineers say can lead to traffic congestion ("parking available becomes parking used") and lessen accessibility for pedestrians, transit users and bicyclists.
According to a memorandum released by the Office of Planning, the city is attempting to alleviate traffic congestion by limiting the supply of street parking and providing greater public transportation alternatives. To accomplish this, the Office of Planning wants to establish a maximum level of parking for new development and to reduce the number of minimum parking requirements.
As part of the proposal, the Office of Planning is pushing for the Zoning Commission to eliminate parking requirements in dense downtown areas, decrease parking minimums in parts of the city closest to mass transit and allow for reductions in parking requirements by special exception.
Originally, Harriet Tregoning, director of the Office of Planning planned to eliminate parking minimums in high-transit zones, but nixed the plan after receiving backlash from District residents and transportation groups who said the new rules would make the city less livable for drivers.
"At a time when the District's downtown and its neighborhoods are increasingly seen as exciting places to be, let's not seize defeat from the jaws of victory by making parking so time-consuming and expensive that the District becomes a place drivers avoid," said Mahlon G. Anderson, AAA Mid-Atlantic’s managing director of Public and Government Affairs.
Many say the current proposals allow the government to exert excessive control over a parking system that should be controlled by the market.
“Parking minimums are a real problem for affordable housing in the city because everyone is paying to subsidize parking costs,” said Cheryl Cort, policy director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a group focused on ensuring the region's growth offers more housing and travel choices while protecting the environment. “On U Street, parking prices are on average $220 per month per space to rent. But it actually costs $480 per month to build and maintain that space.
“With parking minimums, people who don't own cars might end up paying for parking they don't use,” Cort added. “This unnecessarily makes housing more expensive. Rather than force more parking to be built than is demanded, it's better to leave it up to the market to provide the amount of parking people want.”
Since the parking proposals focus on reducing minimums in transit zones, Bloomingdale is unlikely to be affected by the changes, according to Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Teri Janine Quinn.
Residents in the area, however, are facing their own share of parking difficulties. As the population and commercial growth continues to expand in the neighborhood, parking availability is shrinking.
"There are too many parking rules because there are too many cars in the area since there are not enough transportation options," said Grassroots Gourmet bakery co-owner Jamilyah Smith-Kanze. Long-time resident Nicole Guise wants the city to give assigned parking spaces to area residents.
“We're struggling to accommodate the number of cars on our streets, and it's becoming a safety issue when people have to park blocks away from where they live and walk blocks back to their homes by themselves," said Quinn. “While there are clear limits on how much the Commission can do, we can encourage developers to do what we think is best for residents as a condition of our support.”
Residents who are struggling to find parking in close proximity to their homes are petitioning to participate in the DDOT's Enhanced Residential Parking Program, which grants car owners who hold Residential Parking Permits and zone stickers to park on designated blocks.
The problem with the program? Car owners end up parking on blocks that do not have the enhanced status.
Rafael Grocery and Deli Celebrates 15th Anniversary
To mark its 15-year anniversary, Rafael Grocery and Deli (233 Florida Avenue NW) gave away free food to more than 150 community residents as part of the store's Customer Appreciation Day, which took place on June 29. The event featured grilled food, music and giveaways.
Store owner Letekidan Habtimichael says that she hosted the event because she wanted to give back to the community that has supported her for so many years. Since opening the store 15 years ago after moving to the United States from Eritrea, Habtimichael has been known to offer lines of credit to locals who could not afford to purchase items from her store. Rafael Grocery and Deli will host a Back-to-School drive in August to provide school supplies for children in the area.
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