Parking tight in Seattle? Mayor plans to squeeze it more

Almost every night after work, Ebbie Smith circles, block after block, in search of a parking space. She lives in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, where the parking shortage is notorious, and she usually gets home after most of the spots are taken.

Two of her friends racked up close to $1,000 each in parking tickets in the neighborhood, fell into debt and lost their licenses, suspended as a result of the unpaid tickets. It's common for Capitol Hill residents to score a space and leave a vehicle for a while, only to forget where it is.

"I have to be lucky. I sometimes drive around for a half-hour for a spot," said Smith, who is 25 and needs her car for her pizzeria manager's job in Redmond.

As bad as it is now, parking on Capitol Hill -- Seattle's densest neighborhood -- may get even worse under a proposal by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. The mayor wants to reduce the number of required minimum parking spaces for new multifamily housing on much of Capitol Hill and in two other neighborhoods: First Hill and the University District.

The intent: to spur additional affordable housing and advance the city's goal of creating "urban center villages," where people live, shop and work in one area, with fewer cars. City planners also want to update parking codes to reflect 2000 U.S. Census figures on cars per household.

The proposal, the subject of a public hearing tomorrow, would mean that the amount of parking for a typical 80-unit high-rise in First Hill, for example, would shrink from at least 88 spaces to 48. In other neighborhoods, the change would be less drastic.

"Having housing close to jobs is very desirable and so is fewer cars on the freeway," said Mark Troxel, an urban planner with the city's Department of Planning and Development.

"If we can build more (affordable) condos in Seattle, people will choose to buy their first homes here, on Capitol Hill or First Hill."

But ask car owners who live in those neighborhoods, and the reaction is less sanguine.

"That seems a little ridiculous," Smith said. "There's nowhere to park."

Some say they can't, or won't, give up their car and that Seattle is no New York, with its convenient subway system. Some merchants worry that a parking crunch will drive people to the malls, while some residents dislike the urban village concept, saying it makes them feel stuck in one place.

"It's nice to have a car. I mean, hello? So you don't have to walk 10 miles to get home when you miss the last bus," said Dan Gravelle, 22, who lives in the U District.

He has taken a bus to his customer-service job on Capitol Hill in recent months, since he lost his license and his car because of unpaid parking tickets and impounding. He said he has since passed up delivery jobs because they required a car.

Over in the U District, Mickey Gallagher drives four to six times a week to his favorite bar, Big Time Brewery, from his job in Mill Creek or from his home in Snoqualmie. The bus is out of the question.

If parking became tighter, it might hamper his social habits, said Gallagher, a 53-year-old children's librarian. And that would be serious -- he's been coming to the same bar for 15 years because he enjoys the college scene of bookstores and cafes, he said.

"This (proposal) makes for a much more insular community, not so good for the university area."


		Gilbert W. Arias / P-I
	A parking enforcement officer gives out parking tickets to cars on Belmont Avenue near East Pike Street in Seattle. Spaces could become scarcer.

Troxel said there's plenty of parking in the neighborhoods; it's just not free. He said paid parking is a cost of living in an urban area, which he said he accepted as a "fact of life" when he lived in Belltown. There, he paid for a space four blocks away, for a car he used once a week.

"Parking becomes something you know you have to pay for," he said. "I think if you choose to live in downtown, First Hill or Capitol Hill, you know what your parking situation is going to be."

He said developers likely will provide more parking spaces than the proposed minimums, because the market demands more. But because a parking structure can cost $20,000 to $30,000 per space, the proposals are designed to save developers money when they provide fewer spaces, he said.

Although the target areas all have good bus service, some people say fewer parking spaces won't lead to fewer cars, but rather more expensive and hard-to-find spaces. That might be especially true for people on Capitol Hill, which, according to the Department of Licensing, has more than 56,000 registered residential vehicles in the neighborhood's three ZIP codes.

"It's a great place, if you don't have a car and you need to use it every day," said Dawn Cozzolino, 30, a customer service rep who used to live in the neighborhood. "But many people do."

City planners and some merchants think more housing will help the neighborhood's business districts, particularly the Ave in the U District and Broadway on Capitol Hill.

"It would be great if there was lots of parking, but I think, realistically ... these are changes that need to be done to kick-start some development here," said Broadway Video owner Paul Dwoskin.

In the U District, many merchants say they understand the benefit of adding more attractive, affordable housing to the area, especially for University of Washington workers.

But they worry about the parking squeeze. The U District has one of the most generous parking requirements in the city, at least 1.5 spaces per dwelling, largely because of dense student population.

"We fought like dogs to have that extra 1.5 requirement, because parking is so terrible," said Patty Whisler, coordinator of the Ave Group, which includes merchants, service providers and residents.

"This is a really difficult dilemma."

But for people such as Patrick Johnson, 35, a teacher who lives in the U District, the issue is cut and dried. He gave up his car years ago and chose the neighborhood because of its many bus lines. He has enjoyed being able to walk to Safeway, bike downtown and take the No. 48 to see his eye doctor.

"I don't like cars," he said. "If it's harder to park, people would hopefully drive less."

PUBLIC HEARING

The City Council's Urban Development and Planning Committee will have a public hearing on parking proposals tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers, Seattle City Hall, 600 Fourth Ave.

P-I reporter Vanessa Ho can be reached at 206-448-8003 or vanessaho@seattlepi.com P-I reporter Candace Heckman contributed to this report.

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