Portland Parking

[eric cantona]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

This thread has really taken off! Anyway, on City Council agenda next week. Proposal is to increase parking rates to $2 an hour downtown.

expect parking to become more and more expensive in the next decade. we should be seeing parking management in areas outside the downtown core as well. the era of free parking for all (a chicken in every pot?) is on the wane.

get on the bus.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by eric cantona

expect parking to become more and more expensive in the next decade. we should be seeing parking management in areas outside the downtown core as well. the era of free parking for all (a chicken in every pot?) is on the wane.

get on the bus.

This makes me happy I have my free parking in downtown connections still.

[maccoinnich]

City Council approved the parking rates increase today.

[maccoinnich]

The upside is that the meters approved for NW (3 years ago!) are going to finally be installed:

After bribe scandal, Portland to keep buying Cale parking meters



Portland is "legally obligated" to keep buying parking meters from a company snared in a bribery scandal, the city's top attorney has decided, even though the company blocked city investigators from digging into facts from its internal investigation.

The decision marks the latest and perhaps final turn in a years-long saga that sent a bribe-taking city employee to prison yet ultimately kept Portland in business with the same Swedish meter-maker. Hundreds of parking meters will now be installed in Northwest Portland beginning Feb. 2, a decision made after Cale Group threatened to hold the city in breach of contract.

Nearly 150 pages of newly released records show city investigators battled with Cale over access to key company records about its investigation. They also show the city's investigators received "very limited access" and were "prevented" from being able to independently confirm "the extent of the investigation or the facts uncovered."

...continues at the Oregonian.

[maccoinnich]

Get ready for more parking meters on Portland's inner Eastside



Visitors to more areas in Portland's Central Eastside Industrial District will have to pony up for parking.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation began installing 29 meters between East Burnside and Southeast Belmont Street, and Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Southeast 12th Avenue.

Primarily, the new meters will charge those parking along East Burnside and Belmont that host several shops and nightclubs.

Portland is adding more meters to the area as part of the Central Eastside Parking Management Plan, which the City Council approved in June 2012.

The moves respond to the growing density within the Central Eastside, which has limited on-street parking.

...continues at the Portland Business Journal.

[maccoinnich]

DID PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL SUPPRESS HOUSING SUPPLY IN 2013?

On July 6th, Portland City Council will be asked by members of the NW Parking Stakeholder Committee to require tiered minimum parking requirements, described below, in the Northwest Plan District.

Although the Planning and Sustainability Commission declined to recommend this zoning change, citing concerns about housing affordability, several commissioners remain undecided and it seems very possible that council will override the planning commission’s recommendation.

Regardless of the outcome next week, a larger question looms for those concerned about housing affordability and the impacts of parking policy on our city: When will we revisit the 2013 decision to require parking in transit oriented housing developments?

...continues at Portland Shoupistas.

[maccoinnich]

Mayor-Elect Ted Wheeler Has Bigger Problems Than Your Parking Space

Upcoming City Council vote shows affordable housing now outranks auto parking as a Portland priority.



Portland Mayor Charlie Hales won election in 2012 by promising to force real estate developers to include onsite parking when they build large apartment buildings.

But four years later, Hales is reversing that decision for buildings near bus and MAX lines. And his successor, Mayor-elect Ted Wheeler, agrees it's time to end the ban on apartments without parking near transit.

Wheeler's reasoning: As rents continue to rise, cutting the cost of building new apartments is more important than making sure residents have access to parking.

...continues at the Willamette Week.

[urbanlife]

I could see Wheeler doing something that requires buildings without parking to ask for lower rents than buildings with parking. If a developer is going to save money by not including parking, then they shouldn't be allowed to ask for as much in rent as a building that does have parking.

[mhays]

That's an area where the market does fine...if one company can build something more cheaply, then others probably will too. They'll compete with each other on price.

Density can be way, way higher and costs way, way lower without parking. Sometimes parking is the limiting factor. Small sites make parking extremely inefficient, especially beyond a single level. Or it's impossible to do a curb cut at all.

Picture a 50x100 site. That might be a few townhouses with a parking space each. At most, maybe 2/3 of the ground floor is parking with about seven spaces. Or maybe the alley has four spaces next to the back door. But alternatively, what about 20 apartments, or 40-50 micros? That saves cost on land per unit, and it encourages smaller units. That's how the market can serve a segment of the working poor, students, etc., without a subsidy.

[urbanlife]

Oh, I forgot to mention this one, and I am not sure if anyone on here noticed. I believe all of downtown Portland has changed its street parking hours, they have done away with the 90 minute, 3 hour, and such parking hours and replaced them with 2hours, 4hours, and 6hours to make it easier for people parking downtown.

[65MAX]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

Oh, I forgot to mention this one, and I am not sure if anyone on here noticed. I believe all of downtown Portland has changed its street parking hours, they have done away with the 90 minute, 3 hour, and such parking hours and replaced them with 2hours, 4hours, and 6hours to make it easier for people parking downtown.

That may be a possibility in the future, but it's certainly not the case right now. There is still 15 minute, 1 hour, 90 minute, 2 hour, 3 hour, 4 hour and 5 hour parking throughout the central city. Also, I'm not sure how limiting parking spaces to 2, 4 and 6 hours makes it easier to park.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by 65MAX

That may be a possibility in the future, but it's certainly not the case right now. There is still 15 minute, 1 hour, 90 minute, 2 hour, 3 hour, 4 hour and 5 hour parking throughout the central city. Also, I'm not sure how limiting parking spaces to 2, 4 and 6 hours makes it easier to park.

The 15 minute spots still exist, but the 90 minute, 3 hour, and 5 hour spots should either be all gone by now or on their way to being gone. I talked to some city people last week as they were changing the signs on the block I work downtown, and they said they were changing the signs because the city was doing away with those other time limits and going with a more streamlined system.

[maccoinnich]

Parking Isn't Going to Be Required at Portland Condos/Apartments Anymore



Portland's years-long experiment with parking requirements ends in 2018.

A little more than three years after Portland City Council troubled smart-growth advocates by forcing apartment or condo buildings of more than 30 units to provide some amount of off-street parking to residents, a somewhat chastened council voted Tuesday to undo the change.

"I made a mistake," City Commissioner Steve Novick said of his vote to enact parking requirements in the spring of 2013. "Only Commissioner [Dan] Saltzman did the right thing at that time and opposed that proposal."

"I voted for it, and I think it was a mistake," added Mayor Charlie Hales.

Now, effective January 2018, the policy should be a thing of the past. It had been a consistent target of density advocates since its inception.

...continues at the Portland Mercury.

[hat]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

...continues at the Portland Mercury.

Fantastic move. Another couple parking policies I would love the council to take up: 1) Progressively increase taxes on surface parking lots >10 spaces in the CBD, 2) Initiate congestion pricing for cars entering downtown, and 3) Market-priced parking around the city (maintaining average 20% vacancy) such as that in San Fran. These three policies would have a substantial affect on the availability of space for other uses such as increased ped. and bike spaces.

[RED_PDXer]

Originally Posted by hat

Fantastic move. Another couple parking policies I would love the council to take up: 1) Progressively increase taxes on surface parking lots >10 spaces in the CBD, 2) Initiate congestion pricing for cars entering downtown, and 3) Market-priced parking around the city (maintaining average 20% vacancy) such as that in San Fran. These three policies would have a substantial affect on the availability of space for other uses such as increased ped. and bike spaces.

I would love to see congestion pricing or even just a cordon charge of $5 to enter the downtown area with a private vehicle. That would equal a day pass on transit and they could use the money for transit improvements. Someday...

[Derek]

Originally Posted by RED_PDXer

I would love to see congestion pricing or even just a cordon charge of $5 to enter the downtown area with a private vehicle. That would equal a day pass on transit and they could use the money for transit improvements. Someday...

That will never happen in the United States. I wouldn't support that either. As somebody that lives downtown and works near the airport, I'm not going to pay an extra $5 every day to get home. I have a feeling you're going to have a rebuttal regarding taking MAX to commute but my job requires the use of a vehicle. Tolls on certain freeways and bridges? I'd support that, our roads need love, especially in east Portland, and it'll charge all of the WA residents who use our roads. But arbitrarily charging people to access downtown Portland is asinine.

[hat]

Originally Posted by RED_PDXer

I would love to see congestion pricing or even just a cordon charge of $5 to enter the downtown area with a private vehicle. That would equal a day pass on transit and they could use the money for transit improvements. Someday...

NY is finally working on a system of increased tolling to enter Manhattan south of Central Park. It's a smart move, reducing tolls on outer boroughs where car travel is a little more necessary. This is the direction I think Portland should be heading.

Toll the central city bridges/freeways ($5 sounds reasonable) entering downtown. For those people who choose to live downtown and still want to drive, I think it's reasonable to ask $5 from them per day. This would make downtown a fantastic place within a year, expanding spaces for people walking, areas for pedestrian parks (like on SW 3rd and Burnside), and free up space for people biking.

[maccoinnich]

6 PARKING POLICY PRIORITIES FOR PORTLAND IN 2017
In 2016, Portland parking advocates scored a number of important victories: in February, downtown meter rates increased; in April, City Council ordered development of performance parking policy; in July, a proposal to require parking in NW Portland was defeated; and, at the end of the year, minimum parking requirements from 2013 were effectively repealed. Still, on the ground, the state of parking policy in Portland is in the roughly same place as it was 15 years ago.

In the coming year, Portland’s City Council and the Portland Bureau of Transportation must move forward and make real progress on parking policy. Our ability as a city to take action on climate change and meet our citywide housing and transportation goals depends on the political will of City Council and PBOT to develop and approve effective parking management tools, with the help of Portland’s growing number of Shoupistas.

Stay tuned for more in-depth articles on these parking policy priorities.

...continues at Portland Shoupistas.

[hat]

Interesting story in streetsblog about parking policy in Spokane and Philly where the cities give tax incentives to companies who develop parking lots.

The CEID could use both stick and carrot with similar methods. Increase taxes on surface parking and offer tax breaks on development of surface parking. Downtown Spokane may not be as much of a moonscape as downtown Portland, but the CEID gives it a good competitor.