RECENT COMMENTS
Restricted parking district proposed for lower Church Hill
Marna Bunger is proposing the establishment of a restricted parking district encompassing the 2100-2300 blocks of Marshall Street, the 300 Block of 23rd Street, the 300 Block of 22nd Street, and the 300 Block of 21st Street. The this would impact 73 properties properties on the 11 block faces. The area would be 2-hour restricted parking daily from 7:00 AM- midnight except by permit.
“21st, 22nd, 23rd and Marshall streets are already being used as park-and-ride zones for city workers and VCU scrubs catching the bus. With the upcoming completion of Patrick Henry Square as well as 1903 E. Marshall, our already squeezed out parking will be severely compromised, ” says Bunger.
“The feedback from neighbors has been positive and along the lines of “I’ve been wanting to do this, glad you took up the cause.” I’ve had two landlords contact me stating that they have had a lot of prospects walk away from signing leases because there was no guarantee of parking. One owner, who has properties in Carver, said that his leases renew for second years and the tenants state permit parking is the reason they stayed. So, there are benefits to owner-occupied units and to tenants in rentals.”
Bunger, a resident of the 300 block of 21st Street, hopes to have this on the agenda at the July 18 Church Hill Association meeting.
It’s time to do this up here. Nice job spearheading this, Marna!
Maybe they should require developers to provide parking when they build high-density housing.
I know they need to test the waters but should expand this area. The Fan District Permit concept was brought up before for Church Hill and a major concern in 2012, when Dutch & Co. was opened… especially for homeowners who arrive home from work later than 6:00PM. I suspect the Fan concept, which started in 2008, works and also know that many cities have ordinances concerning on street parking in front of private property, where they will even paint the house numbers on the curbs to mark spots.
People can be selfish or even heartless at times when it comes to parking, especially when it comes to people with limited mobility. Keep in mind that the average property front in Church Hill is 25 feet wide (less for tenements or multi units). The average car is 15-16 feet long and a pickup 20 feet long. That is basically 1 vehicle per house provided if people park bumper to bumper and not try to take up 2 spaces.
Great job so far, Marna. Keep it up. That area is hurting because of the MCV folks parking there.
The 2200 block of East Broad should be included too. Does Marna have contact information?
Anyone who is interested in learning what a PITA this process is and wants to understand more, feel free to email me directly – marna.bunger@gmail.com I’m sure there are a lot of questions and I don’t want to clog John’s server. Cheers!
Great work, Marna!
Called it
How large do these districts tend to be elsewhere in the city? I get the issue posed, but this solution would seem only to push the issue elsewhere in the neighborhood rather than actually solve it.
HW – agreed. I started this process in June 2015 when Pulse was announced. I had a and in-person meeting and few email exchanges with GRTC to try to pull ridership data and figure out where these people were coming from and how GRTC could serve them better. I was pushed off to city parking. So, the city has been aware of the park-and-ride situation and did nothing. We’re solving it the only way we can at this point.
Good. Thanks for doing this. I’m sure we’ll need to expand it.
UPDATE: While we had 51% resident majority, the city came out on 12 diff occasions to do parking spot occupancy counts. W/the except of 21st Street, all roads east in the impacted area averaged 62% average occupancy. In order to establish restricted parking, City Code 27.279 requires 75% of the curb spaces be used 75% during peak periods. THEN 35% of those spots are used by nonresidents. Fun with statistics: 51% Yes; 13% No; and 36% unresponsive (but vocal on other forms of social media). 300 Block of 21st=100% YES; 300 22nd=22% YES; 300 23rd=40% YES; 2100 block of E. Marshall=62% YES; 2200 block=43% YES; and 2300 block 50%. I’d like to thank the members of CrossFit Prelude for all the follow up and door knocking. Only you would have the endurance for this large task. I’m sure when more Patrick Henry Square people continue to park on the street, we’ll be revisiting this very soon. Otherwise, see you when the 1903 E. Marshall tsunami moves east and uphill. CHEERS!