Neighborhood Notes - Foxhall: 5 September 2001
We need to start out this week’s column with corrections -
traffic legislation as summarized last week are still bills proposed before the
Council, and not yet law. (Thanks to Christopher Lively for his diligence in
clarifying this).
Bills 14-0250 and 0251 are both by new
Council member Adrian Fenty and have yet to come before any public hearing,
although are expected to in October. Chris raises several concerns about the
practicality of how to enforce any reduction on out-of-state parking from 72
hours to 24 hours. What about cars with a Visitor tag? What about visitors in
blocks that do not qualify for RPP Residential Parking Permit? Is the purpose of
the proposed change to enforce DCMR 18-411 vehicle registration? If so, is this
the most practical way?
Similarly, is the proposed increase in fines
for commercial trucks / buses parked in front of residences to be 24 hours per
day, or just the current restriction in DCMR 18 2405.3E? We apologize if readers
thought this was meant as an outright ban, and it shows the need to always
carefully look at all the implications of any proposed legislative change.
Foxhall Community, along with others in the
area, are also working with Chris on ways to improve parking regulation for RPP.
Ideas being considered include a more tightly defined area for RPP, perhaps as
small as the size of a Single Member District (2,000 residents), as well as less
cumbersome ways for managing visitor passes. We have looked at what is done in
Cambridge, MA as being more workable, where every year a residence can purchase
a numbered pass good for that year. This would have limits upon on the
total number of days per week it can be used, to discourage “selling”
parking privileges to commuters.
© Bob Andrew, Foxhall
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