Parking in Northwest Portland is notoriously difficult for residents, businesses owners and visitors.

It's about to get more challenging.

Starting this month, the largest parking garage owner in the thriving commercial and residential area around Northwest 23rd and 21st Avenues is closing its properties to the public.

Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center has three parking garages and additional surface lots totaling 1,819 spaces in the dense, parking-deprived area.

"We're the last bastion of free parking in the neighborhood," said Megan Turnell, hospital spokeswoman.

For years, Good Samaritan had formal and informal agreements with the neighborhood and nearby businesses to allow free parking on nights and weekends.

But as the city prepares to install about 350 parking meters and expand the area where residents and business owners need a $60 annual parking permit, hospital officials fear being overrun.

NW District parking map.

Starting next week, parking on campus will be limited to employees, patients and their visitors.

The hospital hopes the plan is temporary - Good Samaritan plans to convert its parking garages into commercial lots, charging the public for short-term visits on nights and weekends. The structures would remain free for staff and patients.

Good Samaritan also plans a system to allow residents to buy a $60 annual permit to park nights and weekends.

But the hospital needs a city code change first, and that could take months. Bureau of Planning & Sustainability officials said the agency is working with the hospital on the code change and should have more answers in the next few weeks.

"It's disappointing. But it is what it is," said Gustavo Cruz, president of the Northwest District Neighborhood Association. "There's not much we can do at this point other than encourage the city to move a little bit faster."

Commuter issue

Shutting off access to Good Samaritan's parking garages was a long time coming.

Good Samaritan has 2,650 employees at its Northwest campus and treats roughly 60,000 people a year through in-patient, outpatient and emergency services.

For years, the hospital leased a satellite lot from Con-way, the freight company just north of Good Samaritan that is in the midst of transforming its 15-acre campus into a miniature Pearl District.

But by the end of 2015, Good Samaritan will lose access to 242 spaces at a Con-way lot.

Con-way growing

Craig Boretz, vice president of corporate development for Con-way, said his company plans to develop 2 acres of surface parking near one of its buildings later this year.

But construction on two sites where its workers now park means the company will need the spaces leased to Good Samaritan later this year, at least for now, he said.

The company -- creating a mini Pearl District-style development, including a New Seasons Market and several other buildings -- needs at least 600 spaces for its 1,000 employees, Boretz said.

Once new parking is developed, he said, the company expects to have spaces to lease again - but that might not be until late 2016.

'Getting worse'

Cruz said he's heard only anecdotally that residents and commuters use the Good Samaritan lots.

But Cinema 21, the independent theater around the corner from the campus, tells patrons on its website to park at the hospital garage.

Cruz does see the parking situation getting worse.

"I don't have a driveway or a garage," Cruz said of his Northwest Johnson Street home. "So it's a never-ending challenge to try and find parking in the neighborhood."

Su Cheng, owner of Ling Garden on Northwest 21st, said neighborhood visitors who aren't patronizing her restaurant still use its parking lot.

"We know if they tow the car, that's expensive," she said. "Usually we just try and find the person or leave a note on their car."

A 2012 neighborhood parking plan set the framework for meters and expanded permit zones.

That plan included a poll of 400 residents, asking how to improve area parking A parking garage was the No. 1 response.

Support has been "damaged" since then, Cruz said, because developers haven't provided enough parking.

"Parking is expensive to put in, so most developers don't want to put it in if they don't have to," he said.

Commuter challenge

Turnell, the hospital spokeswoman, said commuters park in the garages for free before heading off to work elsewhere in the central city. "What we've heard is a lot of people are parking there who don't even live there."

Last year, Good Samaritan hired parking attendants to monitor the exits to ask whether drivers had business at the hospital, but some drivers would simply navigate around them, Turnell said.

Now crews are installing gates at the three garages and parking lots, with tentative plans to restrict access starting Monday.

Employees will have electronic sensors that will allow them to enter and exit freely. Patients and visitors will need a validated ticket from hospital staff to exit - or they'll face a $65 fine.

More delays coming

City officials said Tuesday that the parking program will be delayed at least one month from its expected April debut.

Portland Bureau of Transportation officials said more than 2,000 people applied for the new parking permit in the past few weeks. Signs marking the new zones will start going up this month.

The meters - "smart" pay stations like elsewhere in the city - should be installed sometime in May. An initial estimate projects $3 million a year in revenue.



-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@cityhallwatch