Photo by Dave Adams
While some parts of the District are trying to foster more car-free living, officials in Logan Circle are hoping to do their motorists a solid. That seems to be the aim of a proposed pilot program for residential parking permits in traffic-heavy Logan Circle.
Next week, Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), who represents the busy neighborhood, will propose designating some streets around the circle as 24-hour permit zones, according to an email from a member of the local advisory neighborhood commission.
Nick Barron, who sits on ANC 2F, told DCist that Evans’ pilot program would designate one side of included streets as available only to vehicles with residential parking permits 24 hours a day, six days a week. Currently, on blocks in permit zones cars without resident stickers are allowed to be parked for up to two hours. Evans’ initiative would keep one side of affected streets under the same rules, while making the other residents-only nearly around the clock. Barron said he is “tentatively in favor” of the program and said most residents he’s spoken with are, too. (A similar program is in effect in some blocks around Eastern Market.)
In a statement emailed to DCist, Evans’ office said the councilmember has long heard complaints from Logan Circle residents about the difficulty of finding on-street parking near their homes. Evans asked ANC 2F to look into the issue at its meeting next Wednesday, when he will introduce the pilot program in greater detail and see if there is wider support for keeping those persnickety out-of-neighborhood cars from eating up all the good parking.
It seems like Evans’ pilot program has a good shot at being embraced by ANC 2F, if Barron’s assessment of the current parking situation in Logan Circle is any indication.
“If you own a car or know anyone who owns a car, you know that parking in Logan Circle is like the last seconds of a game of Tetris, when there’s no more room for the blocks that keep on coming,” he wrote on his website.
ANC 2F meets March 7 at 7 p.m. at the Washington Plaza Hotel.
