SF parking meter plan inches ahead with assessment S.F. TRAFFIC Installation delayed while assessment inches forward

Organized resistance from a group of residents and business owners has successfully delayed - but not shelved - the city's plans to install thousands of new curbside meters in four San Francisco neighborhoods.

"The city is going way too far, way too fast, and people are upset," said Mari Eliza, a Mission District resident and organizer with Enuf, which stands for Eastern Neighborhoods United Front.

The organization's goal is to disrupt the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's plans to blanket the city with more parking meters. There already are about 28,000 meters in operation in the city, and the agency had called for planting about 4,000 more spread throughout Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, the South of Market and the northeast Mission this year.

But right before the agency's governing board was set to consider the expansion plan in early February, staff yanked it back amid people angry over the prospect of losing free parking in front of their buildings.

That outrage, along with pressure from City Hall, prompted agency officials to refine the proposal and work more closely with the affected communities. The outreach was scheduled to begin in April and wrap up in September.

Last week, San Francisco Transportation Director Ed Reiskin issued a new timeline, which now calls for concluding outreach in April 2013.

New appraisal

In the meantime, the agency will conduct a block-by-block assessment that logs the parking dynamics for each one - the number of spaces, what time people park and for what duration, whether RVs and vans housing the homeless hog spaces and the amount of time it takes to find a space. Double-parking also will be tracked.

The new appraisal will go beyond what occurred the first time around, said the agency's spokesman Paul Rose. The survey will be overlaid with zoning and land-use maps.

From that, a new parking plan will be crafted. It may recommend metering some blocks, instituting a permit program, setting parking time limits, or a combination of those options.

The debate over the proposal to add more meters comes as religious leaders are grumbling over plans to start charging at meters on Sundays, come Jan. 1.

"Meters are meant to effectively manage parking, which will help ease congestion, ensure parking availability and speed transit," Rose said. He downplayed the money angle, but revenue from parking meter fees and fines help fund Muni - a top priority in the transit-first city.

Reiskin promised that the concerns of the community would be incorporated into the revised expansion plan.

Eliza and Enuf members are skeptical, given what they view as the agency's earlier attempt to push through the new meters.

The citizens group is conducting its own survey looking at the specific parking needs of each block - tracking whether it's residential, commercial or mixed-use, and at the types of businesses that operate there.

Gabrielle Thormann lives near Alabama and Mariposa streets in the northeast Mission and has lived in one of the city's first live-work projects for the past 13 years. She bought her first car at age 47, five years ago, and with no garage, parks on the street for free. She's a painter - as in art, not houses - and also works as a substitute teacher and librarian for the public schools, a job that takes her to different campuses.

Muni, she said, is not a reliable or convenient alternative in many pockets of the eastern neighborhoods.

The idea of having to run out in the morning to plug a meter in front of her home studio really steams her - not only because of the cost to pay for parking, but also of the added stress level of risking a $55 ticket. "Who wants to deal with that?" she asked

Annual parking permits are not available in her mixed-use neighborhood.

'Plan was half-baked'

Supervisor Malia Cohen, who represents Dogpatch and Potrero Hill, said the city was right to slow things down.

"The plan was half-baked," Cohen said. "Meters may have some benefits when we're talking about merchant corridors, but can have real negative impacts on residents and some businesses."