Bethesda Parking Rates May See Hike; Lots, Garages May Charge on Saturdays

Parking in Bethesda’s lots and garages may no longer be free on Saturdays if a council resolution, introduced Monday, is passed. Some in the business community are raising concerns that the proposed new fees may deter shoppers and diners from visiting Bethesda, and compound traffic and parking woes expected with the impending and

The Saturday fees – along with increases in long-term parking rates and monthly parking passes – were included as a part of County Executive Isiah Leggett’s recommended fiscal 2012 operating budget, set forth March 15.

The proposed fees must first be hashed out at a public hearing and a council committee session before the full council takes a vote in May.

Leggett’s proposal would increase long-term parking rates in Bethesda's lots and garages – rates charged after the first three hours – from 65 cents to 75 cents an hour. Parking for the first three hours would remain $1 an hour. Parkers in county lots and garages would be charged from 7a.m. to 10p.m. Monday through Saturday – currently, parking is free on the weekends in lots and garages.

Monthly passes would also be bumped up from $120 to $140, and daily parking permits and carpool permits would also increase.

Leggett is also proposing parking hikes in Silver Spring, though he isn’t proposing Saturday charges there. The fees would generate $650,000 annually for the Bethesda parking lot district – not general tax funds. If approved by the full council, the fees would take effect July 1.

But with the fall merger of Walter Reed Army Medical Center with the National Naval Medical Center, along with the impending construction of a large parking garage that will take out a 270-spot surface parking lot at the corner of Woodmont Avenue and Bethesda Avenue, some say the proposed fees couldn’t be coming at a worse time.

“The proposal to change anything in terms of parking in Bethesda is so poorly timed right now because Bethesda as a central business district and as a shopping and dining destination is going to be under an incredible amount of pressure in the next several years,” said Patrick O’Neil, chair of the Greater Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce.

Hikes in parking fees would make it difficult for Bethesda to be competitive with other destinations, O’Neil said. “People could easily opt for lack of parking hassle, lack of charges, lack of worrying about whether they are going to overstay their parking meter, to choose other places.”

Businesses worry that if the fees are approved, customers might spend less on dining or shopping and more on parking.

“I think the general public is getting a bum rap if they have to pay on Saturdays,” said Howard Wasserman of on Norfolk Avenue. “…I think people are still going to come to Bethesda, but their bottom dollar, the volume of their spending capacity may go down if they take into consideration how much it costs them to park.”

A public hearing is set for April 26, and a worksession before the council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee is tentatively scheduled for April 28. The full council is expected to take a vote on the resolution in May.