By Joe Veyera
Over the past year, the Seattle Department of Transportation has been working in Ballard as part of the Community Access and Parking Program, as they look to make parking in the commercial area more predictable for customers and visitors.
With a draft plan for changes now in place, SDOT wants to hear what residents think of the potential changes.
Currently, SDOT is proposing to add areas of new parking on 17th Avenue Northwest, and to convert 22nd Avenue Northwest between Northwest Market Street and Ballard Ave Northwest into angled parking on the east side. In an effort to increase turnover and support customer and visitor access, paid parking is slated to be added south of Northwest Market Street on Ballard Avenue Northwest, Leary Avenue Northwest, and Russell Avenue Northwest, along with parts of 20th and 22nd Avenues Northwest, and Tallman Avenue Southwest. Finally, time limits between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m are proposed on some blocks in the Ballard core.
Between now and September 30, residents can fill out an online questionnaire at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ballardparking, submit comments via email to BallardParking@seattle.gov, or attend one of two drop-in sessions at the Ballard Neighborhood Services Center Conference Room (5604 22nd Ave NW) — one on September 3 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., the other on September 10 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Stakeholders can also attend one of three meetings where SDOT staff are scheduled to present and take questions:
- September 10 from noon to 1:30 PM at Ballard Chamber of Commerce luncheon
- September 10 from 7 PM to 8:30 PM at Ballard District Council Meeting
- September 11 from 7 PM to 8 PM at Central Ballard Residents Association Monthly Meeting (tentative)
All comments will be reviewed, with a final parking management plan in place by the end of the year, and implementation in 2015.
For more information on the draft plan, and the proposed parking changes, click here.
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The “orange” proposal is to allow parking on both sides of the two blocks of 17th Ave NW between Market (the 7-11) and NW 57th (the Post Office).
These two blocks are already heavily traveled; narrowing them even further by adding more street parking will make two-way traffic difficult on those blocks and likely lead to problem at the 17th Ave/Market St intersection.
The easiest and best solution to street parking difficulties in downtown Ballard would be to stop allowing builders to build buildings with no on-site parking (making the claim that nobody in the building will own a car!)!
As an alternative, the City could just charge the cars registered at those addresses extra for parking on the street in downtown Ballard, but that would be a lot more cumbersome (although it could be a nice new revenue source).
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