Ward 1 Residents Question Residential Parking Program

Lisa Duperier sat in a front row seat in Mary's Center on Ontario Road waiting for her chance to describe a parking resolution before Ward 1's Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1C as a potential disaster.

"There are people out in the audience who are going to explode," said ANC Treasurer Katherine Boettrich, over a resolution to establish the "Enhanced Residential Parking Program" within the boundaries of ANC 1C.

If passed, this pilot program in Ward 1 would mean one side of residential streets would be reserved for Zone 1 residential-only parking. Visitors can park on these streets for a period of time as long as they have a visitor's pass.

D.C. residents can purchase their residential parking permits when they register their vehicles at the Department of Transportation. They can also get visitor's parking permits from the DOT or from the police station.

"In Adams Morgan, I think it will create chaos and disaster," said Duperier, president of the Adams Morgan Mainstreet Group, during a monthly meeting of ANC 1C on the evening of Wednesday, Feb. 1.

"I already have 10 people calling me, bidding for how much they will pay me to get my visitor's pass," she said. "If I can get them from other residents, they will pay me a finder's fee."

Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham introduced the "Residential Parking Protection Pilot Emergency Act of 2011" on Sept. 16. It was enacted on Oct. 11. The D.C. Council adopted the "Enhanced Residential Parking Program" on Jan. 7, 2012.

Apologizing for going over her allotted three minutes, Duperier would finish her point—the parking program will cause more harm than good for Adams Morgan.

She said the resolution fails to take into account the impact the parking passes will have on retail stores and non-profits in the area.

During the meeting, residents' sentiments were consistent—the proposed parking program is not the way to go.

"I just don't think this is going to solve any of our problems," said Elham Lipton, 33, a resident of Lanier Place. "I would encourage you guys to opt out of the program. I don't think the visitor's passes are going to be good for our neighborhood. I think it's just gonna increase the number of people that can park on our streets."

Lipton said she's tired of coming home only to find a non-D.C. resident parked in front of her home forcing her to find parking elsewhere—a task she said can sometimes take up to an hour.

"Anyone who lives in the neighborhood knows—you come home from work or you come home from your errands or you wanna go meet someone for dinner that's outside the vicinity of taking the Metro or the bus and you come back and you're battling for parking with Maryland or Virginia license plates."

ANC Commissioner Marty Davis said his only concern with the resolution was that there is "no escape clause" if the people of Ward 1 decide the parking program is not the best solution for parking woes.

"Good ideas can go bad when put into practice," Davis said.

By the end of the meeting, six of the eight ANC commissioners agreed to hold off on the resolution for need of clarification and further review. Wilson Reynolds, chair of the commission, remained firm in his support of the resolution while Davis abstained from the decision.

Reynolds said he felt there had been some confusion, which led people to disapprove of the program. Currently, there is no timeline for implementation of this resolution, but the ANC commissioners are asking that the resolution be amended and that they be given a date by which they should come to a decision.

"I don't like the legislation," Boettrich said. "I've never been in support of it—there I said it."

"I think it's a mess. I think everybody in here deserves parking and just like everybody has said it's going to be unfair for some."