Residential Parking Zone impacts on Miller Park.

Several people on Nextdoor are concerned that the proposed RPZ expansion south of Madison will have knock-on impacts on our neighborhood, and that we should be working to get such an RPZ ourselves.

• People interested in that? Chime in via the comments on this blog post
• Anyone interested in heading up the effort?
• Anyone interested in being an "Officer" for our neighborhood group. One of our co-chairs has left the neighborhood and the other would certainly like some help.

Some comments I've seen:

(from Nextdoor)

Hello, 
Don't know if anyone else was able to attend the SDOT's meeting on the expansion of Zone 2 parking zone. Basically everything South of Madison will be added to the RPZ. As a resident directly North of Madison, this is not going to be pleasant. We need to present a letter signed by at least 10 different residents from different streets in the Miller Park area. Let me know if you would like to help out. I have asked for a format letter from the SDOT. 
Regards, 

So, for the letter to SDOT, are you proposing adding Miller Park to the expanded Zone 2 or Zone 4 RPZ? I would support that. What boundaries: north of Madison, east of 19th (west of 19th is already Zone 4), west of 23rd, south of Aloha?

Are you looking to include your chunk of the 'hood to one of the RPZ's, or ask that the expansion not happen and both areas remain unzoned?

I support more RPZs or expanding current ones; I do not support fighting the Zone 2 expansion.

(comments to me)

I’m going to try to attend the Feb. 9 RPZ meeting at the Bullitt Center

I also propose convening a Miller Park Neighborhood meeting to discuss, once again, an RPZ in our neighborhood. With the Country Doc expansion (including apartments and no parking), Miller Playfield useage, upcoming Meany construction, and new apartments and businesses on 19^th, parking for residents has become more difficult. I’ve even heard that Microsoft employees are parking in the neighborhood and then catching the commuter bus that stops in front of County Doc.

(From a while ago, from a neighbor about Meany School and the RPZ)

I just talked to the Land-Use attorney about Meany's renovation requirements, and because of the scope of the work (no new buildings more then 4000 sq. ft.) they will not be required to do a Type 2 Master Use Permit  (MUP) they may have to do a  Type 1 MUP, but that process doesn't help us. No hearings  or traffic studies required so no official accommodations.  TOPS had to do a Type 2 MUP which is why they had to go through a 90 day hearing process. The attorney is gong to try to find the recorded covenants between TOPS and the Eastlake neighborhood so we can use them as a template for an agreement between us and the school. Perhaps we can get them to agree to these without the MUP hearing process.

Vincent Gonzales, district project manager for Meany's renovation, is asking SDOT if they will do a traffic study of the streets around Meany as part of a collaboration between SDOT and schools having to do with student safety. We were told that Brian Doherty (hope that spelling is correct) is the SDOT liaison to the school district. Beyond the 23rd St. SDOT issues we should be talking to him as well.

It looks to me like the neighborhood is  on its own as far as Residential Parking Zone (RPZ) goes. I just looked up the Capitol HIll RPZ map and there IS at least one route that could easily continue onto our side of 19th.  One rule of the RPZ is that the zone must be at least 10 contiguous blocks which is why we want to modify the existing zone and bring it east across 19th on Mercer. From there we can propose to expand it as far as neighbors want. Certainly at least down and around Meany school.  I'm attaching the web page describing the process. They mention multiple times that it will take at least one year.  We need to add this to our SDOT agenda.  ALso, btw, the Capitol Hill zone is divide into "Area 1" and "Area 2". Area 1 is totally free to residents because it's institutional impact is Group Health. Area 2 residents pay $65./year/car (up to 2 cars), plus $30./year for visitors.  Coming down Mercer will be a continuation of Area 2, but maybe if we can show that we have multiple commercial and institutional impacts we can be  a free zone as well.   We need a neighbor to take this on and see it through which will be a long term commitment (at least one year).

Here is the RPZ web page;

http://shar.es/UoW2q

Seattle Department of Transportation, Residential Parking Zone Program (RPZ), City of Seattle