Call to End 72-Hour Parking Limit for Residential Parking Permit Holders

Berkeley City Councilman Jesse Arreguin proposes to change the Berkeley ban on parking a vehicle on the street without moving it for more than 72 hours.

He says the ban doesn't make sense for those who live in Residential Parking Permit (RPP) neighborhoods and have permits and that the law only creates problems for permit-holders who go on vacation or have schedules that make it difficult or impossible to comply with the 72-hour limit.

He's placed an item on next Tuesday's City Council agenda (Oct. 16) asking that his proposal to exempt permit holders from the limit be sent to the City Manager and Transportation Commission to draft an appropriate ordinance.

Berkeley has 14 areas where a Residential Parking Permit is required for vehicles parked longer than two hours. At the same time, section 14.36.050 of the Berkeley Municipal Code makes it illegal to park a vehicle on any public street for longer than 72 hours without moving it.

In Arreguín's agenda item before the council, he says, "The 72 hour rule becomes problematic for RPP permit holders when they are unable to move their cars because they are out of town (vacation), have school or work schedules that do not allow frequent monitoring of completely parked-up areas to find new spots, or other factors, which results in their vehicles being red tagged."

One of the purposes of the 72-hour law – to prevent abandoned or non-operational vehicles from being stored on the streets – is already being addressed in parking-permit neighborhoods because the permit sticker "allows law enforcement to immediately determine that the vehicle is not abandoned and is registered," he says.  

In addition, he says, the 72-hour limit thwarts a chief goal of the Residential Parking Permit plan – to reduce auto travel, improve air quality and promote mass transit.

"Requiring RPP permit holders to move their vehicles every 72 hours, simply to move them, is contrary to this purpose," he says. "Many residents do not use their vehicles on a daily basis, choosing to walk or use transit for their daily activates, and reserving their vehicles for weekly (or less frequent) errands or out of town trips."

Proposed change in qualifications for Residential Parking Permits

Also on the agenda is a related proposal from Arreguín that would amend the Residential Parking Permit system to allow students living in parking-permit areas to qualify for permits even if the vehicle is not registered at the student's Berkeley address. Currently permits are issued only to those whose vehicles are registered at the address in the permit area, but many students have vehicles registered to their family's home address, according to Arreguín.

Proposed new rule for parking on border streets between adjacent Residential Parking Permit areas

Another related item on the agenda comes from Berkeley Public Works Director Andrew Clough, recommending that residents of adjacent Residential Parking Permit areas be allowed to park on both sides of border streets between neighboring permit areas. The law currently provides that permit holders in one area can use the permit to park only on their area's side of a bordering street, except in a few special cases.

The agenda item on Clough's recommended change includes a public hearing followed by a possible discussion and vote by the council.

Arreguín's two proposals are on the council's "consent calendar," part of the agenda where non-controversial items are grouped together and collectively voted on in one vote, generally without council discussion. Before the vote, a council member can ask that a consent calendar item be removed from the group vote to be discussed and voted on separately.

The council meets at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

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Correction: The original version of this article erroneously reported that Arreguín proposed ending the 72-hour parking limit in Residential Parking Permit areas. The agenda item he submitted to the council was for exempting permit holders from the 72-hour limit, not ending the limit for non-permit vehicles in the permit areas. Patch apologiizes for the error. The article has been corrected.