DEPARTMENT: Center City Development Office
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Lori Houston
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: District 1
SUBJECT:
Pilot Residential Permit Parking (RPP) Program
SUMMARY:
Briefing on the creation of a pilot Residential Permit Parking (RPP) program for Arsenal St. and City St.
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 traffic mitigation improvements. As part of these improvements, bicycle lanes 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 after researching best practices, City 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. Today's briefing will provide an overview of what RPP programs are and how this program will be evaluated for potential expansion into other neighborhoods on the periphery of downtown.
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. These zones are designated permit parking only for specific hours to discourage commuter traffic from parking in a neighborhood. For example, in Austin, many of the neighborhoods surrounding the University of Texas at Austin have RPP zones in place to discourage student parking. The City of San Antonio is proposing RPP zones to be effective from 7am-7pm on weekdays. RPP zones are intended to prevent an increase in daily on-street parking on neighborhood streets caused by weekday commuters; the zones are not intended to mitigate an increase in on-street parking caused by special events.
ISSUE:
The process for designating an RPP zone was established by the Center City Development Office (CCDO). This process was modeled after RPP programs currently in place in the City of Houston and City of Austin. The streets included in this pilot program, Arsenal St. and City St., have satisfied the requirements for their petition. The current process is described below:
1. Petition
- Neighborhood initiated request for the RPP is documented by petition with resident support of 60% of the adjacent properties. One neighbor must volunteer to be the liaison with the parking division during the review process and will fill out the RPP application and collect signatures from the adjacent properties.
- As part of the petition, the residents provide their license plate numbers.
- If the 60% support is reached, the City conducts a parking survey to validate a commuter parking problem exists.
2. Parking Survey Conducted
- A parking survey is done at two times during the weekday hours of 7am-7pm and license plate data is collected and cross-referenced with the residents license plates provided. The survey is done twice to ensure that an accurate representation of the parking in the area is captured.
- Results of the parking survey are verified and if the following criteria are met, the area is eligible for an RPP zone:
- At least 60% of available on-street parking spaces are occupied during the survey.
- At least 25% of the occupied spaces are commuter license plates.
3. A Public Meeting Held to Educate Area Residents
- All residents within 200' of the proposed RPP are notified at least 10 days in advance of the public meeting.
- For this pilot area notices were sent on March 11th for the meeting being held on Wednesday, March 26th.
4. City Council Consideration for implementation of RPP zone
- All RPP zones must be approved by City Council before implementation.
Once this process is satisfied, the RPP zone will go into effect upon the expiration of 10 days from the date of City Council approval. The City will place signage on each block indicating "Parking by Permit Only 7am-7pm Weekdays" and residents will be allowed to purchase permits beginning seven days before the RPP zone goes into effect. Based on best practices, each address in the RPP zone will be permitted to purchase permits for up to four vehicles at a price of $10 per vehicle.
To help accommodate the neighborhood where this pilot program will be implemented, the City will provide permits for sale at the Commander's House on Monday, April 21st from 5:30-7:00pm. This will allow residents to conveniently pick up their permits after work and save them a trip to the Parking Division. Before the program is expanded, CCDO intends to determine how the online purchase of permits can be offered to enhance the convenience for residents.
ALTERNATIVES:
The Council has the option to approve the pilot RPP program with modifications to the proposed area for the first RPP zone. City Council could also postpone or deny approval. Postponement or failure to approve the ordinance request would allow the on-street parking in this area to remain open to the public.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The City will charge $10 per parking permit with a maximum of up to four 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 pilot program and this data will be utilized to determine the cost of the continuation or expansion of the Residential Parking Program.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends implementing the one-year pilot Residential Parking (RPP) Program to evaluate the success and cost of the program. Staff requests the Council Committee forward this item for full City Council consideration on April 17th, 2014.