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Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ) Legislation
The Seattle City Council’s Transportation Committee would like to hear from you on the proposed amendments to the RPZ legislation. The City Council’s Transportation Committee will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, May 27th at 5:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.
View the proposed legislation:
PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE RPZ PROGRAM
On April 21st, the City Council’s Transportation Committee received a briefing from the Executive on proposed changes to the Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ) program. The following changes were proposed by the Executive:
- Manage parking demand by limiting permit sales to 8 per household address and continue to examine other demand management measures
- Create pilot to provide RPZ permits to businesses and institutions around the seven Central Link Light Rail Stations with consideration of later expanding the pilot to other RPZs
- Increase the threshold for RPZ establishment from 25% non-resident vehicles to 50% non-resident vehicles and from a minimum size of 5 contiguous blocks (and/or 10 block faces) to 10 contiguous blocks (and/or 20 block faces)
- Replace the resident petition process with broader community engagement efforts
- Limit a major institution that updates its master plan to paying for a maximum of two RPZ permits per household for one permit cycle
Click here to view the Executive proposal in full.
The City Council’s Transportation Committee is considering amendments to the Executive’s proposal. These amendments are described below:
- Manage parking demand by limiting permit sales to 4 per household with the exception for adult family homes, assisted living facilities, domestic violence shelters, and permitted congregate residences
- Modify the business pilot to explicitly limit it to the seven Central Link Light Rail Stations and not allow its expansion to other RPZs; to establish a trigger point beyond which permits for non-residents would cease to be issued in order to keep parking demand from exceeding available on-street parking spaces in residential areas; and to set a time frame for evaluating and deciding whether or not to continue the pilot
- Change the threshold for establishing an RPZ to 35% non-resident vehicles to favor parking for residents while still allowing for an increase in visitor parking
- Do not approve the Executive’s limit on major institution support for RPZ permits costs for affected households; instead leave in place determination of level of major institution support for RPZ permits to negotiations as part of the master plan update process
- Modify the Executive’s proposal to include additional public involvement approaches
- Add a requirement for a public hearing prior to decisions on RPZs by the Seattle Department of Transportation Director; and clarify that appeals process applies to establishing, modifying, or dissolving an RPZ
- Do not approve the Executive’s limit on major institution support for RPZ permits costs for affected households; instead leave in place determination of major institute support for RPZ permits to the negotiation process as part of the master plan update process
- Create a new Resolution stating Council’s intent to have the Seattle Department of Transportation report back to City Council on January 1, 2011 on how the changes to the RPZ program have affected neighborhoods and what additional tools are available to manage RPZ permits
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