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| Six Commissioners are enough for a quorum |
No to lower parking minimums
The ANC rejected a recommendation made in February by its own Transportation Committee (see SALM blog post of March 4) to endorse the reduced parking minimums in D.C.'s proposed zoning update. Under the proposed update, developers of multi-unit apartment buildings would be obligated to provide one parking space for every six residential units in areas well-served by public transit. As it stands now, these developers are often obligated to provide one space for every three units.
During the discussion period before the vote, Commissioner Deborah Thomas (district 04) said the problem was the tickets residents get. When Thomas gets home in the evening, she must "ride around about 50,000 times" to find a place to park her car. Thomas said that, even though she has a resident parking sticker, she often gets tickets for parking in the only on-street parking spaces remaining in the evening, because they are too close to corners or to fire hydrants. Drivers with resident stickers should not get tickets for this reason, Thomas said.
Commissioner Dyana Forester (district 06) said lowering the parking minimums would reduce ANC leverage to compel developers to provide parking.
"We won't be able to weigh in," she said.
The vote was 4-2 against endorsing the new parking minimums.
Voting in favor of endorsing the new parking minimums: Commissioners Ricardo Reinoso (district 05) and Zahra Jilani (district 12).
Voting against endorsing the new parking minimums: Commissioners Thomas, Forester, Juan Lopez (district 07), and ANC Chair James Turner (district 09).
Taking attendance
The following commissioners attended the meeting in full: Reinoso, Forester, Lopez, Turner, and Jilani.
Commissioner Thomas arrived 40 minutes late.
Commissioner Marc Morgan (district 01) arrived on time but left the meeting more than 30 minutes prior to its conclusion.
The following commissioners did not attend the meeting: Jeremy Leffler (district 02), Sedrick Muhammed (district 03), Tony Norman (district 10), and E. Gail Anderson-Holness (district 11)
Below is ANC1B Commissioners' attendance record for the last five meetings, based on my observation. Just like airlines, I define "late" as arriving more than 15 minutes behind schedule. Meetings usually last between two and three hours.
- Morgan (01): Three present, one absent, one early departure*
- Leffler (02): Two present, three absent
- Muhammed (03): One present, four absent
- Thomas (04): One present, three absent, one late**
- Reinoso (05): Five present
- Forester (06): Two present, two absent, one late***
- Lopez (07): Three present, one absent, one late****
- Washington (resigned, 08): Two present, one absent
- Turner (09): Four present, one absent
- Norman (10): Three present, two absent
- Anderson Holness (11): Three absent, two late*****
- Zilani (12): Five present
** arrived 40 minutes late
*** arrived 20 minutes late, left same meeting after 90 minutes
**** arrived 25 minutes late
***** arrived 90 minutes late twice
Mandating more parking only encourages more needless cars. I know of 6 people now who live in buildings with parking and park their cars in the street using their residential parking privileges and then rent out their space for extra income. Thomas should vote on what her area residents want, not based on her frustration that she can't conveniently park her car and then chooses to park illegally but complains she got a ticket. Time to vote her out!
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