Parking rates going up in 9 Seattle areas

By the end of March, drivers in Seattle will pay new rates of up to $4 an hour for on-street parking spots.

And several neighborhoods will have meter fees until 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, two hours later than they do now.

The changes are part of the city's strategy to keep turnover in its 13,500 paid curbside spaces high and have one or two empty spots in every block, finding that "sweet spot in parking occupancy," according to city traffic-management Director Charles Bookman. That might reduce congestion and promote retail business, if travelers waste less time and gasoline cruising the streets looking for parking.

It also will bring in an extra $8 million this year, the city predicts.

Transportation managers divided the city into 22 neighborhood zones, and will boost rates in nine, keep them the same in nine and cut them in four.

The top rate will apply to First Hill, downtown and Pioneer Square. The lowest rate is $1 between Seattle Center and Highway 99. Pay-to-park times will be extended to 8 p.m. in eight areas, including Pioneer Square, Capitol Hill, Belltown and the University District. Parking will remain free on Sundays.

Several cities are experimenting with so-called market-based pricing, among them New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and soon Portland. Vancouver, B.C., is dabbling in nighttime meter fees.

Besides encouraging turnover, Seattle has the potential to make more money, of course, especially downtown, where Mayor Mike McGinn has guessed people would be willing to pay as much as $6 to $7 an hour, comparable to private garages.

The City Council's budget set a $4-per-hour limit for 2011, but the city nonetheless predicts it will collect $35 million from parking fees this year. Last year, it collected about $27 million with short-term rates of $1.50, $2 or $2.50 per hour.

Future tweaks might include fees that vary by time of day, or seasonal rates. Belltown, with its nightlife, might be busier after dark, while the Ballard Locks area fills with visitors in summer, for instance.

"Over the next several years, we will find out what works by doing detailed studies of parking occupancy," Bookman said.

The city government has relied on ever-increasing money from parking fees, taxes and a half-million citations a year. Last year, parking raised a total of $70 million, preventing cuts to the $313 million transportation budget.

First Hill cost doubling

The steepest increase is on First Hill, where city studies in mid-November found curbside spaces completely full. The city is raising the $2 hourly rate to $4.

"I wouldn't pay $4 for an hour. I don't ever need to come here," said Mike Sumi, who parked there for lunch with his girlfriend Friday afternoon before his shift in a South End restaurant. He questions the notion that higher prices will make more space available.

"It's two hours max, so you have to come and go quickly already. The people who need to be up here will pay for it. The people who don't, won't."

Patti Gorman said she remembers free parking in most places when she first moved to Seattle in 1974.

"It's just a way to raise revenue," she said, having parked on First Hill to use the bank, then give at the blood bank. "I think people should be able to get around the city and use the city. Making parking expensive is just a burden."

Prices also are rising to $2 in the Cherry Hill area just east of Seattle University. At the $1.50 rate, some people already park on the quiet side streets, which have a two-hour limit for nonresidents. The paid spaces tend to fill in the morning but open up in the afternoon, said Lennie Sanders, who drives there three times a week for physical therapy at Swedish Medical Center. A price boost wouldn't change his behavior. "The time I come here is time I have to spend," he said.

Parking rates were chosen based on peak-time patterns, said Bookman. If spaces are more than 78 percent filled, the price ought to go up. If they are less than 58 percent filled, prices should decline, a city report recommends.

But one revelation was how in downtown and First Hill, spaces filled quickly and stayed that way all day, Bookman said.

Peak time all the time

The Downtown Seattle Association praised the market-rate philosophy, but criticized the use of peak-time data.

"That would be like pricing tickets for regular-season Seahawks games based on the ticket price charged in the Super Bowl," said Jon Scholes, vice president for advocacy and economic development.

Bookman replied, "If we don't manage to the peak period, we will not achieve our policy objective of one to two spaces open on average, for the most critical part of the day."

There are no plans to extend paid parking into other busy neighborhoods, such as the West Seattle Junction or upper Queen Anne Hill.

A city report also acknowledges a major weakness: In some places, 40 percent of parking is unpaid. These include government cars, as well as those with disability placards or license plates.

Scholes suggests limiting disabled parking to four hours, and cracking down on fraud.

"SDOT (Seattle Department of Transportation) knows they're being abused," he said. "You can free up space, and raise revenue, without raising rates," he said.

Residents often threaten to take their shopping dollars to suburbs such as Bellevue, where Bellevue Square Mall developer Kemper Freeman Jr. has always provided free private parking.

"A lot of people tease me for this issue, that it must be reason to celebrate," Freeman said. But only 2 to 5 percent of his clientele comes from Seattle, and he expects Seattle's higher parking fees to have no effect on his mall.

Instead, Freeman called the increase a symptom of "myopic vision" that makes Seattle less accessible as a retail and service center.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com