WASHINGTON — Parking tickets will cost more and some meters will have extended hours of enforcement under a budget the D.C. Council is expected to approve Wednesday.
The proposed fine for a parking ticket would increase $5 — from $25 to $30.
“We have not changed the parking fine in many, many years,” says D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson. “Even at $30, our fine will be below what the suburban jurisdictions are.”
Around D.C.’s parking meter hot spots, drivers would have to feed the meters until midnight. The current cap is 10 p.m.
The changes would take effect in “high density areas,” where the meter already goes until 10 p.m. The areas include:
- Adams Morgan
- Georgetown Historic District
- Penn Quarter/Chinatown
- U Street NW Corridor
- Downtown Central Business District
- Maine Avenue and Water Streets SW
- The National Mall
- Wisconsin Avenue NW (from Van Ness Street to Western Avenue)
“We looked at extending the meters in some of the high-density areas,” says D.C. Council member Jack Evans, Ward 2.
“It seemed like a reasonable thing to do — if they’re (10 p.m.), why not be midnight?” he says. “Again, it brings in some more money.”
The budget as a whole, just shy of $13 billion, is a record high in D.C.
It works out to be more money per resident than any other city, county or state in America spends, according to Evans.
It does so without tax increases.
“We’re doing almost everything the mayor proposed and then some in terms of some additional social services, while at the same time we’re able to avoid raising the taxes,” Mendelson says.
