How Mayor McGinn’s budget could affect Ballard

The Mayor has released his proposed 2012 budget (.pdf) to the Seattle City Council and Ballard will be affected if it is passed as is.

Parking:
Earlier this year, the Seattle Department of Transportation lowered parking rates in Ballard to make parking more accessible. The goal was to have one or two available spots on each block at a given time. After doing research, it has been determined that the $1.50 per hour rate isn’t achieving the goal.

For more information on the proposed parking changes, click here (.pdf.)

Proposed changes for 2012 include raising the rates in the core of Ballard back to $2.00 per hour. Along the edge areas, the proposed budget includes extending the time limits to four hours and keep the $1.50 per hour rate.

From the proposed budget:

Reviewing a block-by-block map of the area, there are obvious areas of both high and low demand.

The highest average occupancy is along Market Street between 24th Avenue and 22nd Avenue.

Even though the Ballard neighborhood is fairly compact, it is anticipated that the longer time limit duration will increase utilization of the edge area and provide relief to the higher demand area by encouraging people to park outside of the more heavily utilized business district core.

The proposed budget includes funding to implement a new pay-by-cell program, which will let you pay for parking via your cell phone. The existing pay stations will continue to be available.

Light Rail/Street car:
The Mayor is proposing a one-time use of $1.5 million “for planning related to high capacity transit in the five corridors identified in the Transit Master Plan.”

Here is a look at the light rail corridor from Ballard to downtown, as mentioned in the Transit Master Plan.

Community Centers:
From the proposed budget:

Under this recommendation, community centers are clustered into five geographic groups (Northeast, Northwest, Central, Southeast, and Southwest), with each team managed and programmed in a coordinated fashion, with partially or fully restored hours at the current limited use community center sites (Alki, Ballard, Green Lake, Laurelhurst, and Queen Anne).

We are continuing to sift through the proposed budget (.pdf) and will update this as we learn more.

There will be two public hearings about the 2012 budget. The first is October 4th, the second is October 26th. Both hearings are at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers (City Hall, 600 Fourth Avenue). If you’d like to speak, sign in time is 5 p.m. The city council will be voting on the final budget in November.