As before, the streets coming off of 45th near the now defunct Guild 45th theatre will no longer be RPZ. One interesting change (for me!) is that Latona through 5th Ave NE below 42nd (near the John Stanford School) will now be included in the new Zone 34 RPZ. Previous maps had that zone ending at 42nd.
Since I live right in that zone, I had been worried that the commuters coming from the north, parking and walking into the university district would just get pushed down onto my street, making it harder than it already is to find parking (which is already pretty close to impossible on weekdays.) Maybe it will still just push the bump in the rug elsewhere, but at least by moving them westward, it will require the commuters to get a bit more exercise in exchange for their free parking.
Anyone without a zone permit will be restricted to two hours from 7 am to 6 pm Monday – Friday, beginning in early December (signs to start appearing late October). Residents are eligible for up to four permits per address as well as one guest permit, costing $65 and $30 respectively (low income discounts available.)
If you live in a shaded area, you can apply for a permit through the city’s RPZ portal. (I had some trouble getting at that website, apparently it won’t even load unless you include the https:// in the URL.)
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Huh! I’m surprised to see the SDOT make such a last-minute change to the zoning plan.
That said, I think you’ll find being “in the zone” to be beneficial; we have. Besides being able to find more street parking around our house, it’s also reduced the number of abandoned cars in our neighborhood significantly.
And yes, the RPZ website is something of a challenge to use — it’s not the poster child for good web UI usability.
In particular, entering your address for your application can be confusing; make sure you use Prefix or Suffix, but not both. (God alone knows what the “Townhouse” field is for.) However, once you have your address in the way the RPZ portal likes, it autofills the rest of the fields (Zone ID, Zone Description and the Low Income Address True/False setting.)
You’ll also need to make a scan of a utility bill received within the last 30 days, to show evidence of residency. And it’s a 2-stage application; you have to wait until SDOT process the application (2-3 days was our neighborhood’s experience), and *then* you go back to the RPZ portal and pay for your parking permits online.
The good news is, our permits showed up pretty quickly after that. And hopefully the renewal process in 2 years will be a bit clearer than the initial application.
The thing that I worry about is being ticketed for not parking 20ft away from a driveway (or whatever their silly rule is). Neither me nor my neighbors use our shared driveway and sometimes partially block it when things get tight. There’s three sections on my block where the distance between driveways can accommodate 3 parking spots if people park close to the driveways. I just fear that the increased scrutiny of a meter person patrolling the block will equal people getting tickets and ultimately everyone being scared of parking tightly. If there’s less cars, but people taking up more space, is that any improvement?
If you don’t own a car and don’t want a decal (like me), you can still buy a guest permit. But that guest permit costs $65 instead of $30. Apparently SDOT does not want to reward those of us who don’t own cars.