On-Street parking management area considered near Ashburn Metro Station
In preparation for the arrival of Metrorail Silver Line service in Loudoun County, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors is considering establishing an On-Street Parking Management Area in the vicinity of Moorefield Station, adjacent to the Ashburn Metro Station.
The proposed program, which would include metered parking near the station, is designed to promote the use of the Ashburn Station South garage by Metrorail riders in order to preserve neighborhood parking for use by current and future Moorefield Station residents and businesses.
The Ashburn Station South garage will provide 1,500 parking spaces and has vehicular and pedestrian access to Silver Train Street and Croson Lane.
The Board will need to consider two components to implement this program: establishing the parking management area and setting the rates for metered parking within the area. Public input is invited throughout the process.
Community Meeting: Jan. 27
To provide residents in the area and the greater community with more information about the proposed program, Loudoun County will host a virtual community meeting on Thursday, Jan. 27, at 6 p.m. The meeting will include a detailed presentation and an opportunity for residents to ask questions. For information on participating in the community meeting, visit loudoun.gov/moorefieldstationparking.
Establishment of Parking Management Area: Feb. 15
The Board is scheduled to consider the establishment of the On-Street Parking Management Area at its business meeting Tuesday, Feb. 15, which begins at 5 p.m.
The proposed area, in proximity to the Ashburn Metro Station, will consist of a new network of publicly maintained streets with approximately 400 current on-street parking spaces and is proposed to expand to more than 800 on-street spaces. The on-street parking program will mitigate the risk of Metrorail riders monopolizing the on-street parking spaces intended for residents and retail patrons,
If the establishment of the parking management area is approved by the Board at its Feb. 15 meeting, residents will be able to purchase a parking pass at a cost to be determined by the Board that would exempt Moorefield Station residents from the metered parking rates. Residents would not be required to purchase a parking pass; they would have the option of using their designated private parking spaces instead of on-street parking.
To view the meeting agenda, read staff reports, and to watch the meeting live, visit loudoun.gov/meetings. Information on how to provide comment, or to sign up to speak during the meeting is online here.
Public Hearing Regarding Parking Rates: March 9
To establish hourly rates for on-street metered parking, the Board of Supervisors must amend the county’s parking meter ordinance. The proposed parking meter rates at Moorefield Station are $1.25 per hour (off-peak hours) and $1.75 per hour (peak hours). The daily cost of parking in the Metro garage will be $4.95.
Members of the public may provide input to the Board on the proposed parking rates during a public hearing scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., March 9. To view the meeting agenda, read staff reports, and to watch the meeting live, visit loudoun.gov/meetings. Information on how to provide comment, or to sign up to speak during the meeting is online here.
For more information about the proposed Moorefield Station On-Street Parking Management Area and to sign up to receive email and text updates, visit loudoun.gov/moorefieldstationparking.
Comments
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Over the past few weeks, our community received notice of a parking plan that would place a severe hardship on working families, and retirees. While at the same time turning our family friendly neighborhood into extended parking for Metro riders, and as yet to be confirmed business customers. This hardly seems equal or fair, and none of us residents and homeowners ever envisioned such a scenario. This proposed parking fee is a triple tax on homeowners and working families, and the price point is extremely excessive, as we already pay our property taxes, as well as a special metrorail development zone tax. It is a quadruple tax, or even a quintuple tax, when you include sales taxes on gas and groceries that we buy every day, and those sales taxes also go to road construction and maintenance in our County. Furthermore, we also pay property taxes to the County for our vehicles. Surely, the idea of a sixth tax to pay for parking on the VDOT and HOA roads in front of our own homes must be considered absurd, and capricious!
In total seriousness we need to know: When does this tax gouging stop? Is there no limit to what the County can demand of our families? Doesn’t anyone in the County’s government think it is unreasonable and unconscionable to force working families and retirees to pay hundreds of dollars to park near our own homes, on top of all the other taxes we already paid and will continue to pay?
The County’s financial consultant-contractor put in no noticeable effort to consider the needs of working families or retirees in their new parking payment plan. It is very clear that the main objective of the consultant-contractor’s financial study was to increase and maximize the parking revenues for the County, at the further expense of tax paying homeowners, working families, and retirees. On January 11th, there was no parking scenario that truly considered the needs of our community before proposing this harsh new tax on parking in our neighborhood.
In other words, the proposed parking district needs to be much more Resident, and Family, and Retiree friendly. For example, it would be more community friendly, to designate Resident Only Parking on the VDOT and HOA streets with homes in our community in the Broad Run District.
To add some context, we all know that the undeveloped lots between Westmoore / Metrowalk and the Metrorail station may become a mix of commercial and entertainment similar to One Loudoun. There are also approved and proposed mega-sized developments to the east and west of our community. All of this growth is centered on the Metro station. Of course, that is why many of us moved here, and because Loudoun County is a wonderful place to live. The proposed resident parking permit tax is published as $62 annually per vehicle, and many families have multiple vehicles. This is a sky high increase compared to our current parking fee, because right now it is zero ($0), not counting our established HOA fees. Also, many residential areas near Metro stations have no fees for resident parking, by only studying Fairfax County the consultant-contractor did us all a dis-service. Loudoun is not Fairfax, and Ashburn, and Broad Run are not Reston, or Vienna.
The County staff and the consultant-contractor were mistaken not to engage our community for ideas that work well for our needs before foisting a terrible plan upon us mere weeks before the metrorail’s opening. Also, the comments from the General Services staff on January 27th during a community engagement meeting that “it doesn’t make any difference” to him is condescending, and disrespectful because his office and salary is taxpayer funded, and what happens to County residents, and our community, should very much make a difference and be a priority to County staff. Clearly, if finding solutions that work for our community mattered to the County’s consultant-contractors and staff then our community concerns would be swiftly addressed, to our satisfaction; and we would not be forced to repeat our concerns time and again, and we would not have to continually remind everyone involved of the thousands of dollars each homeowner and taxpayer already paid, and must continue to pay, to subsidize the metro station and business district development plan. Sadly, in this case, our County’s residents’ concerns for our community do not seem to matter to our County’s staff responsible for planning and implementing the new parking management area. (Our concerns are clearly stated in the community meeting on January 27th, and in the online petition: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/say-no-to-parking-meters-in-westmoore)
This unexpected, and rushed process, requires us to ask some questions of our elected representatives. Is this drastic and unaffordable parking tax intended to deter residents from parking near our own homes? Or is it just to gouge us residents and taxpayers? Keep in mind the proposed businesses and developments don’t exist yet. So their parking zone payments will be minimal for now. In fact, it could be years before the development of the commercial district is complete. Therefore, our many and multiple types of tax payments are already subsidizing most of their infrastructure, in addition to the Metro parking. Our community’s estimated contribution to the parking enforcement area is $6,000 out of $255,000. This estimate needs to be audited for accuracy, because the finance contractor surveyed our community during working hours when many residents are not at home. Our community’s potential parking costs will be much more than $6,000 because there are well over 100 cars parked here daily, and more residents are moving here every week. Forcing our community to use an unregulated app to pay to park near our own homes exposes our personal and financial data to potential breaches, via the parking enforcement contractor, and the app’s corporate owner.
My point is that this community’s costs for parking should remain at zero ($0) especially in light of our many past and future tax contributions that are subsidizing infrastructure for business developments, and Metro riders. Our community should not be treated as a piggy bank to subsidize the startup or growth of this new parking revenue stream, nor for the enforcement contractor, and not the parking app.
All parking and enforcement costs for the contractor and the parking app should be paid by the businesses and metrorail customers’ parking and not by homeowners, residents, or our guests.
The proposed resident only parking district should include the following with regards to Loudoun County residents’ and taxpayers’ parking concerns:
1. Free residential street parking permits (at least 2 per household) for homes on VDOT and HOA streets in the Moorefield Station parking district. We already paid several years of the metrorail development zone tax. Why should we pay extra to park near our homes, on streets that we already paid our taxes to build and maintain?
2. Tickets and Fines, for unauthorized vehicles to add to the incentive for the Metro / Business patrons to park in the garage and keep residential parking available for Westmoore and Metrowalk residents.
3. Guest parking permits for Residents on VDOT and HOA streets, at least 5 guest passes per home (with designated guest parking areas and related signage “Guest and Resident Parking Only with Permit” and a street parking option with guest/resident passes). Again we paid for this development and roads with our mortgages, and property taxes, and metrorail taxes so we should not ever have to pay extra to have our family and friends visit us at our homes. It is an absurd and unacceptable idea.
4. Signage throughout the community stating “Residential Parking Only, Permit Required” for all street parking.
5. No metered or kiosk or app paid parking in Westmoore and Metrowalk Communities. Metered / Kiosk / App parking will encourage non-resident parking rather than deter it and will further reduce already limited parking spaces for our community’s residents.
6. Loudoun County’s Board of Supervisors and employees can and should make all necessary revisions to the County’s ordinances, regulations, and policies to include the desired remedies stated by the citizens who are directly harmed by this parking district proposal, while also achieving the County’s stated goals of protecting the residential community from encroaching by Metro rider vehicles.
7. This can’t be said too many times, We already pay extra to live here and directly subsidize the Metro and infrastructure for future businesses and developments – therefore it would make sense for residents to get some direct benefit from our revenue; at the very least to maintain our current access to free parking for ourselves and our visiting family and friends.
8. The County board, and employees should not penalize our community, residents, and guests. The current parking plan will financially harm and inconvenience our community with parking fees, unregulated apps, and unlivable restrictions due to metrorail commuter and commercial parking concerns. We understand and support the need to control on-street parking related to the Metro station, yet we are firmly opposed to any proposal which establishes metered or kiosk parking in a residential-only community. Many of us lived in other neighborhoods near business districts, and metrorail stops, where residents are not penalized or taxed for parking near their own homes.