Among the items of interest for this afternoon’s meeting of the City Council Parks and Seattle Center Committee is an update on the proposal to study the possibility of raising money by charging for parking at some city parks. We brought you first word of this back in October, when Lincoln Park was mentioned as a possible candidate. What’s on the committee’s agenda today is a preliminary report about the feasibility of even studying the topic. You can read it here; it basically says so many issues would come into play, that it just might not be worth it. If councilmembers do want to give it a try, the report says, the “strongest candidates” for paid parking include the Lincoln Park south lot. And one option presented would be a “pilot program” possibly including that lot:
Implement a small pilot program at 1-3 sites, without conducting broader occupancy counts. The sites may include Lake Union Park, Lincoln Park south lot, and Green Lake Community Center. These sites have the least variation in use weekly and seasonally, good transportation alternatives, and controlled nearby street parking. If conducted at all three sites by City staff, the approximate cost of this option would be $182,000, which covers $90,000 for 6 pay stations, and $92,000 in staff costs.
The other two options include spending up to $70,000 for another consultant study – though the report also goes on to note that the possibility of paid city-park parking has been studied multiple times since 2003 – or, dropping the whole thing. The meeting’s at 2 pm (viewable live on Seattle Channel, cable 21 or online at www.seattlechannel.org).
4 PM UPDATE: We’ll have a roundup of the meeting later, including a couple other items, but topline: The committee members were leaning toward the idea of a pilot project at one location, South Lake Union. No formal vote or decision yet – we’ll keep an eye out as the proposal progresses.
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