DEPARTMENT: Center City Development Office
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Lori Houston
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: District 1
SUBJECT:
Establishment of a pilot Residential Permit Parking (RPP) Program and designation of the first Residential Permit Parking Zone on portions of Arsenal and City Streets
SUMMARY:
This ordinance authorizes the following actions associated with residential on-street parking:
A. Creates a pilot Residential Permit Parking (RPP) program in the City of San Antonio.
B. Designates the first Residential Permit Parking Zone in Council District 1 along portions of Arsenal Street and City Street.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
On December 5, 2013, City Council approved to close, vacate and abandon an improved portion of S. Main Street between E. Arsenal Street and E. Cesar Chavez Boulevard in conjunction with the planned expansion of HEB's headquarters, including the addition of a 10,000 square foot grocery store and construction of public improvements and improvements for traffic mitigation. As part of these improvements, a bicycle lane will be added to Arsenal Street between the San Antonio River and S. Flores Street and on-street parking on the north side of the street will be eliminated. Residents along the south side of Arsenal Street were concerned about the potential impact of this reduction in on-street parking and the amount of commuter parking in the area. Their concern is that non residents will park on the South side of Arsenal St. leaving residents with limited parking availability. After researching other programs in other cities, staff proposes a one year pilot Residential Permit Parking (RPP) Program to mitigate potential parking problems along Arsenal St. and City St. in the vicinity of the planned improvements.
Residential Permit Parking (RPP) programs exist in several major cities throughout the United States and Texas to help protect residential areas from an influx of commuter parking. These programs establish zones of parking by permit only to discourage non-residents from using on-street parking in neighborhoods nearby to commercial areas. The RPP zone will allow for permit parking only between the hours of 7am-7pm on weekdays. During the hours the RPP is not in effect, the on-street parking reverts to public parking and a permit is not required.
This ordinance proposes implementing a one-year pilot RPP program and designating the RPP zone along Arsenal Street 200 feet east of S. Flores to the San Antonio River and along City Street from Arsenal Street to W. Sheridan. The program is modeled after the City of Houston and the City of Austin's current RPP programs. As part of the evaluation of the need of a RPP zone in this area residents along Arsenal and City Streets provided a petition of support requesting the RPP zone and a parking survey was conducted to determine that a commuter parking problem existed.
The process for designating an RPP zone was established by the Center City Development Office (CCDO) and the pilot streets of Arsenal and City were required to fulfill the same requirements that future zones will be held to if the program is expanded. These requirements include the following: 1) at least 60% of the residents on the street must support the RPP zone through a petition and 2) a parking survey confirms the existence of a commuter parking problem. Both pilot streets met these requirements.
A public meeting for the establishment of a RPP zone was held on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 and all residents and representatives from businesses within 200' of the proposed RPP zone boundary were invited to attend. This provided an opportunity for individuals to provide comments on the proposed boundary and served as notice of the City moving forward with implementing the RPP. If the proposed RPP zone is established, the residents will have the opportunity to purchase up to four permits per address annually for parking their cars during the effective hours of the RPP zone. Permits will be $10.00 each and one day guest passes can also be purchased for $1.00 each.
Upon the completion of the one-year pilot program, CCDO will return to City Council and will recommend whether to continue or to expand the program based on evaluation of cost and effectiveness. There has already been interest from several neighborhoods in the downtown area that are interested in such a program and this pilot program will allow the fiscal and operational impacts to be evaluated and captured before moving forward at a larger scale.
ISSUE:
This action creates a pilot RPP program and designates the pilot RPP zone along Arsenal and City Streets for test and evaluation for one year; at the conclusion of the one year period a recommendation on whether to continue or the program will be brought before City Council.
ALTERNATIVES:
City Council has the option to approve the pilot RPP program with modifications, or to alter the proposed area for the first RPP zone. City Council could also postpone or deny approval. Postponement or failure to approve the proposed ordinance would allow the on-street parking in this area to remain open to the public.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The City will charge $10.00 per parking permit with a maximum of up to 4 permits per address within the RPP zone boundaries. These funds will be deposited into the Parking Fund but are not anticipated to completely cover the costs of the pilot program's enforcement.
The Parking Fund will absorb any additional costs of implementing the program and this data will be utilized in determining potential expansion of the program.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends authorization of the pilot Residential Permit Parking (RPP) program and designation of the RPP zone along Arsenal and City Streets for a one year evaluation period.