Paid Parking

Many of us in our Reston Town Center (RTC) have received information suggesting that paid parking will be implemented in RTC this coming summer of 2016.  I want to do all that I can to insure that RTC employees, patrons, residents, and guests continue to have free (or, at worst, very-low-cost) parking available.

A recent email from the Executive Director of the RTC Association included these sentences:  “With Wiehle being the westernmost Metro terminus, there has been a predictable increase in demand for free daytime parking near that station.  Town Center has naturally been a target for that demand, and that is putting pressure on parking that is designed for our employees, patrons, residents, and guests.”

I added the yellow highlighting because I believe the identification of those four categories suggests my below proposal is reasonable.

Prohibited or pay high fees:

          Vehicles with no connection to RTC, such as parking here solely to use buses or Metro to DC, Dulles, etc., or to meet car pools, etc.

Free (preferred), or low fees (such as $2 per day after first 3 or 4 hours free).  (For these (below) categories, overnight and continuous parking should be permitted in the RTC garages that currently allow public parking at least part of each day.):

          Work in RTC (“employees”)

          Customers of RTC businesses (“patrons”)

          Live in RTC (“residents”)

          Visiting RTC residents or businesses (“guests”)

If you wish to comment to me, you can reach me at rasmussen305@gmail.com.  And/or, if you are the owner of a unit in our Market Street at Town Center Condominium, I  encourage you to join my forum and comment there regarding this or any of my posts.