Georgetown residents discuss possible solutions for parking

Finding decent parking in the D.C. area can be difficult, and planners are now attempting to try a neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach. Sam Zimbabwe, DDOT’s (District of Columbia Department of Transportation) associate director for policy and planning stated that they want to take a look at how they take city-wide policies and apply them at the neighborhood scale. He spoke candidly in regards to the parking situation Wednesday night, at a community meeting at St. John’s Church in Georgetown. Residents, business owners and others gathered together in small groups to confer about possible parking solutions for the neighborhood, such as: adding more parking meters and creating smaller residential-permit parking zones. At the end of the meeting, they stuck stickers onto wall posters to indicate their preferences and left written commentary and suggestions. Quite a few of the residents also complained of not being able to park near their homes. Charles Camp, president of the Georgetown Business Association, said he agrees that people should be able to park on their own property and visitors/tourists should have to pay to park. DDOT’s ultimate goal is to come up with parking solutions for Georgetown, and then test them out. They have similar plans for Dupont Circle and Eastern Market. Meetings much like Wednesday’s, will be held in those neighborhoods sometime within the next couple of months.