City looks to raise the price to park

Add it to the list of rates on the rise in Seattle: parking.

Street parking, which now costs $1.50 an hour in most places, could go up to $2.50 downtown and $2 in several neighborhoods, according to proposals the City Council is considering today.

Looking for ways to meet a budget shortfall, Mayor Greg Nickels and the council hope the increase will raise $13 million in 2009 and 2010. As the city spreads paid parking to more neighborhoods to get short-time parkers in and out, pay stations and meters have grown into a big money generator for the city.

Quarters and credit-card swipes added up to $17.5 million in 2007, an increase of 64 percent from $10.7 million in 2002. If the increases pass, the city could collect $29.2 million in 2010, or 3 percent of its core operating budget.

Council President Richard Conlin said councilmembers have spent a lot of time trying to find creative ways to increase revenue and avoid cutting city services. Although the city could have raised rates higher with the approval of downtown businesses, Conlin said this rate increase is a good starting point.

"You put your thumb up to the wind and see what's going to happen," he said. "We think raising it by this amount is a pretty hefty chunk."

Seattle residents have been generous in paying more for government services. In this month's election, they voted to pay more in taxes for light rail, park improvements and repairs to Pike Place Market. The council is currently considering charging more for water, garbage collection and park facilities.

Downtown Seattle businesses support the parking increase because they expect it to clear more spaces for shoppers, more often. But at least one small-business advocate said pricier parking would hurt businesses outside of downtown, especially while they struggle in a dismal economy.

Eugene Wasserman, who works with the North Seattle Industrial Association but spoke for himself on this issue, said the impact would be felt in places such as Ballard's Northwest Market Street, where parking would rise from $1.50 an hour to $2.

"That's much more," he said. "Two dollars an hour is a fair amount of money just to get something to eat for lunch."

The parking rates are part of the city budget, and the council expects to approve a final 2009-2010 spending plan Nov. 24.

Two weeks ago, the city said it would face a $19 million shortfall between now and 2010 because of lower-than-expected revenues from the sales tax and business-and-occupation tax.

In his September budget proposal, Nickels recommended raising parking rates by 50 cents to $2 in many areas. After realizing the city's money situation in the next two years would be worse than expected, the council and mayor suggested:

• Raising the $1.50 hourly rate to $2.50 in downtown Seattle, Pioneer Square, the waterfront, Belltown and the Chinatown International District.

• Raising the rate from $1.50 to $2 per hour in neighborhoods such as Pike-Pine, First Hill, Broadway, Uptown, Ballard and the University District.

• Increasing South Lake Union's $1.25 hourly rate to $2.

• Making no change to the $1.50 rate in Green Lake, Roosevelt, Fremont and 12th Avenue.

The city last raised parking rates from $1 to $1.50 in 2004.

The increases would take effect in January as free parking comes to an end in many neighborhood business areas.

This year, the city turned 2,000 free street-parking spots into pay spots in South Lake Union and added parking pay stations in the Denny Triangle and Uptown Triangle. Later this month the city's Department of Transportation will decide whether to convert free street parking to pay spaces in Fremont, and is studying the possibility of charging for parking in upper Queen Anne and the Junction in West Seattle.

Mike Estey, manager of parking operations for the transportation department, said the city is making the changes so people picking up their dry cleaning and dinners can get in and out of a neighborhood business area without having to compete with long-term parkers.

Wasserman said cost increases discourage people from eating out and shopping at neighborhood businesses. Even if it's just a 50-cent increase, he said, people are looking to shave costs where they can, pointing to the resurgence in coupon clipping. "Little things do make a big difference in people's lives."

The Downtown Seattle Association, on the other hand, predicts an increase would help downtown businesses and restaurants because street parking would turn over more quickly. Because street parking is so much cheaper than private lots, which charge $5 to $10 an hour, people tend to park their cars longer on the street.

"Meter spaces work best when those rates are a little more comparable (to private lots) so you don't have employees downtown using them as all-day spaces," said Jon Scholes, policy director for the association. "They should be available for folks who have to drive downtown" to shop and eat. The streets also would be less congested, he said, with fewer people circling the block for a street spot.

Councilmember Jan Drago, transportation chair, earlier proposed a smaller increase but said she will probably vote for the higher rates.

"It's still less than parking in a private lot, but it's also $1 more per hour than it is today, and that's a pretty big increase," she said.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com