Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Paid-parking kiosks being removed, parking meetings planned for April

Friday by The Farm House
   POINT RICHMOND - The parking kiosks installed on Park Place late last Thursday are slated to be removed today.
     As of 1:30 p.m., one had been removed from in front of The Farm House.
     Richmond Mayor Tom Butt reported (via Nextdoor) that he had been informed by Lori Reese-Brown of the city manager's office today that the kiosks would all be pulled out.
     "The parking meters for the Residential Paid Parking Permit Pilot have been removed and the Pilot placed on hold for the Point Richmond Neighborhood pending additional community outreach to discuss strategies to reduce parking impacts," Reese-Brown wrote to the mayor.
     "I have conferred with numerous Point Richmond residents and we will convene meetings in April 2018 to resolve the issues around parking."
   The four kiosks were installed as part of a paid parking experiment that had been discussed on and off since last fall at both the Point Richmond Neighborhood Council and the Point Richmond Business Association.
Tuesday afternoon
      The experiment was to be limited to Park Place for 90 days.
     But within hours of the kiosks' installation, resident complaints began piling up about a lack of notice that the machines would be installed along with a wave of criticism about paid parking in general in The Point.
     Later this month DenĂ©e Evans of Richmond Transportation Services will be attending both the PRNC and PRBA meetings and is expected to discuss how the city will proceed with the parking issue.
     She is scheduled to speak at the Wednesday, March 28 PRNC meeting at 7:30 p.m. at the Pt. Richmond Community Center. The following day she will be speaking at the PRBA at noon at the Hotel Mac.
   Links to previous kiosk stories published on the Point: PRNC President and Parking Kiosks installed