Kalorama Park. Photo by Jim Malone
Kalomora residents might not love being neighbors to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, but the addition of the new residents, along with the Obamas, has helped them win a fight they’ve been battling for years.
D.C. officials have begun installing resident-only parking signs on streets in the neighborhoods, according to D.C. Department of Transportation spokesperson Terry Owens. He said that DDOT decided to install the parking signs on the north and the west sides of each residential street “after careful evaluation of parking impacts to residential blocks in Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2D.”
The Current reports that the new restrictions are in response to the two high-profile families taking up residences in Kalorama.
Resident-only parking restrictions are put in place in highly trafficked places like the H Street Corridor, Columbia Heights, and Adams Morgan to ensure that neighborhood residents have reliable access to street parking. Typically, one side of a residential street is labeled for cars with tags for that zone, while the other is open to all drivers (with the usual two-hour restrictions).
For the past five years, Sheridan and Kalorama residents have been asking for this solution to their parking woes, The Current reports. Evian Patterson, an associate director at DDOT, told the newspaper that the neighborhoods are being granted the restrictions now because of their “special circumstances.”
The Obama family’s arrival has closed a block between Tracy Place and Kalorama Circle. And Secret Service vehicles occupy several spaces outside of the Trump’s Kalorama home.
“When you have these protectees come in, this is not people coming who are commuters—this is actual removal of parking,” Patterson said. “We found it to be enough of an impact, coupling that with the impact of proximity to Dupont and other places, that it became a good test case for us.”
The rules will apply from 7 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, according to Owens. The new parking signs are scheduled to be installed through June 9.
