Just last week, D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) introduced legislation that would impose stricter regulations on parking in certain residential neighborhoods, primarily those around active commercial areas such as Adams Morgan. Today we find out that Mt. Pleasant is looking to try out a new parking approach of its own.

In DC Watch’s online newsletter, ANC Commissioner Jack McKay indicated that daily on-street parking permits will be sold to commuters who work in the neighborhood. He writes:

The Residential Permit Parking (RPP) system exists to prevent commuters from using residential streets as free, all-day parking lots, compelling them to pay to park in commercial lots. Fair enough, but what is to be done when there are no commercial lots in the area, and public transit isn’t suitable? This problem arises, for example, with teachers and staff of neighborhood schools. Surely we want them to come to our neighborhood, even if they must come by personal automobile. For most neighborhoods, the severe parking problem comes not during the day, when plenty of parking is freed up by residents taking their cars to work, but at night, when those commuting residents come home.

With Councilmember Graham’s support, Mount Pleasant is about to undertake an experiment to provide daytime-only parking permits for commuters to our neighborhood. A limited number of daytime-only parking permits will be offered, to bona fide Mount Pleasant school and business employees only, for a fee of $160 a quarter, or about $2.50 per workday. Our residential streets will thus serve as a rather inexpensive commercial parking lot, and ideally some of the revenues will be returned to the neighborhood for our use.

Though we still have to see how the program pans out, it seems like a reasonable local approach to a specific parking challenge. Just as we’ve said before, it’s best if different neighborhoods in the District propose solutions tailored to their specific needs rather than impose uniform restrictions.

Photo by adamsjp2010