City Study Recommends Considering Parking Meters on Mount Vernon Avenue

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- Finding it hard to park in Del Ray? A recent study of parking in Del Ray by the City of Alexandria makes some recommendations on how to ease the parking crunch. Here's the introduction to the study:

Over the years, the mixed use neighborhood of Del Ray has become increasingly attractive for both residents and businesses. Mount Vernon Avenue is the neighborhood’s main street, which is home to a variety of retail, restaurant, and office uses. The surrounding side streets are primarily residential. While the mix of commercial and residential uses creates a vibrant and desirable neighborhood, this also creates challenges for parking. More recently, the businesses and neighborhood events have expanded to attract people from outside of the neighborhood, which creates an additional burden on the parking demand.

Among the recommendations in the draft summary:

• Shared Parking: Given the low utilization of the existing off-street parking supply, brokering shared parking agreements with private property owners is still a valid recommendation that should be actively pursued. The parking lots identified in Table 1-4B are good options to start with since they are some of the larger lots in the study area and located near many of the uses that are generating a demand for parking. Shared parking could mean working with a property owner to make their spaces available to the public, similar to how the DHS lot operates. The City could partner to help promote those spaces through wayfinding signage. Shared parking could also mean a more involved relationship with the property owner for use of the spaces. Staff should identify key parking lots that are underutilized and are located close to areas with high on-street parking demand to discuss shared parking options. The Business Association would be helpful partners in this effort.

• Extend time restrictions on Mount Vernon Avenue: Currently, the majority of parking restrictions along Mount Vernon Avenue are two hours and end at 5 PM. This means people parking in prime locations along Mount Vernon Avenue could legally park in a space from 3 PM to 8 AM the following day. Table 1-3B indicates that the evening hours for the Mount Vernon Avenue blocks in the core portion of Del Ray are essentially full. Encouraging turnover by not allowing people to park in a space for longer than two hours in the evening may help open up spaces near the restaurants and retail shops that rely on on-street parking at night. This would also limit employees from parking in these spaces which may be better used by multiple patrons. Staff should work with the community to extend the two hour parking restrictions until 9 PM for the blocks of Mount Vernon between Raymond Avenue and Bellefonte Avenue.

• Consider Parking Meters along Mount Vernon Avenue: Another option to encourage parking turnover is to charge parkers for use of prime parking spaces. Parking best management practices often advocate the benefit of pricing on-street parking to ensure one or two spaces on each block are always available. Installing meters in the core portion of Mount Vernon would help ensure on-street spaces are available for those that are willing to pay for the benefit of parking near their destination. However, the change to a metered area would likely have implications for the nearby residential streets as many parkers will park on these streets to avoid paying the meters. Staff should continue exploring the concept of meters on Mount Vernon Avenue, but not implement this until residential restrictions are in place on the adjacent residential blocks.

• Consider Expanding District 11 or Creating a New Residential Permit Parking District: Any changes to Mount Vernon that could encourage parkers to look for free parking on side streets should be coupled with protection for the residents on adjacent side streets. Table 1-3B shows that many of these streets currently have parking challenges which may be caused by overflow from patrons and employees of the nearby businesses on Mount Vernon Avenue. Expanding the existing District 11 boundaries or creating a new district would allow for time restrictions on these blocks to discourage extended parking by non-residents. Staff should work with the community to identify the boundaries of a potential district and restrictions. This should be considered in tandem with meters along Mount Vernon Avenue. Note: At this time, the City Code requires all requests for expanded or new districts be initiated by the residents. Staff will be reviewing opportunities to revise the Code to allow for an administrative option. Implementing a parking district in this area may benefit from waiting until this change to the Code.

• Install Meters at the Farmer’s Market Lot: The surveys indicate that the spaces at the Farmer’s Market lot are essentially at capacity at all times of the day and week. As discussed above, installing meters at this lot to accurately price the value of parking in this prime location, may result in ensuring one to two spaces are consistently available in the lot. Staff should work with the community to pursue the option of meters at this lot.

• Improved Wayfinding and Information – As documented in both the 2010 and 2016 data collection, Del Ray actually has a lot of off-street parking. Some of these lots are already available for the public and more could become available as shared parking agreements are pursued. Providing consistent signage and information directing people to these lots and identifying these lots as open to the public is key to improving usage of these spaces. Staff should identify ways to bring the City’s wayfinding signage program into Del Ray to direct people to available off-street lots and consistently brand off-street parking to make it easy for drivers to see. Staff should also work with existing and new businesses to promote off-street parking locations to their customers through information posted on their websites and inside their stores and restaurants.

Staff will review the results of the 2016 data collection with the community in the fall (they recently presented the study to the Del Ray Citizens Association) and ask for feedback on the prioritization of the recommendations. Staff will then prepare a memo to the Council outlining the next steps and work plan for implementing the proposed recommendations. Implementation of the recommendations could begin early 2017.

See the entire parking study here.

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