Parking permit price hike hits some Oakland neighborhoods
OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) - It's going to cost thousands of Oakland residents nearly twice as much to park their cars in front of their own homes.
Effective this month, fees for residential permit parking are going up from $35 to $82 dollars for first-time permit-holders, and $59 per year for renewals.
"Every little increase - you take note of that," said resident Michael Kan of the permit price spike.
The "C" sticker on the bumper of the SUV used to cost him $35 a year. It allows him to park on the street in front of his Rockridge home, but starting this month, the fee for him will increase to $59 a year to renew his permit. The fee is now $82 dollars for people who are getting a permit for the first time.
The fee increase affects people who live in one of Oakland's 13 residential permit parking zones. Most of them are neighborhoods, like Rockridge, that have homes, businesses and transit located in close proximity, where residents and visitors have to share the same street parking.
Residents who buy a permit can park as long as they want. Visitors are limited to 2-4 hours, or they get a ticket.
Kan says he can handle the increased cost, but he and his neighbors would like to know why it's going up so dramatically. The last time the fee went up was in 2009.
"What has happened in six years that the parking fee has gone up exponentially? I would like to have that kind of raise," Kan said.
"We looked at other jurisdictions: Berkeley charges $55, San Francisco is over $100," Councilman Dan Kalb said. "So it's not unusual to pay a decent amount once a year. It's an annual fee, not a monthly fee."
Kalb said it costs the city $82 to process each of those permits.
"It's been artificially low - $35 - for a long time and we've been losing money on that, having to dip into our general fund," Kalb said. "We really can't afford to do that. People want us to spend more money on libraries, more money on police."
Kalb referred KTVU to a report from the city's revenue division that itemized the costs. The bulk goes to staffing: an accountant and public service representative is involved in processing each permit - at a cost of $69 per permit. Materials cost $3 per permit.
The $82 total also includes a $10 cost per permit to maintain curbs and signs for the program.
Kalb added that the cost was originally going to be $82 for all permits, including renewals, but he was able to get the council to agree to lower the renewal price to $59. "I said I don't want to charge $82 just for people to park on their own block, so it was a compromise."
Kan said he appreciates Kalb's efforts to lower the renewal fee, but is, overall, "skeptical" of the city's numbers.
"I'm all for the program being supported," he said, but he also said he wonders if there's a way to cut the costs that are passed along to residents like him.