Butchers Hill Parking Issues

We have a parking problem in Butchers Hill - there simply are not enough parking spaces to accomodate our needs. We are offering two solutions for your consideration to alleviate the shortage.

Angle Parking (by authority of the Baltimore City Dept of Transportation)

• Butchers Hill will gain 116 new parking places by converting Collington, Chester, and Fairmount to one-way with reverse angle parking on one side.
• Fells Prospect has already successfully petitioned for RAP on Chester and Collington.
• Streets being surveyed by the City are Fairmount, Gough, Bank, Collington, Chester, and Ann.
• If a street is selected for angle parking, it would become one-way, angle parking on one side and parallel parking on the other.
• Fairmount would be East to West, Collington South to North, and Chester North to South.
• Any adult resident of a household is eligible to sign (or not) the petition
• 70% of the residents on each block must sign ("vote for") the petition for angle parking to take effect.
• Choice between straight in or reverse angle parking
• Prefer reverse angle for safety reasons
• Can be 60 degree or 40 degree angle, We prefer 60 degree - more parking places
• Some Aspects of Reverse Angle Parking: Safer to pull out instead of backing out, Headlights don't shine directly on houses, Unload trunk directly to sidewalk, Very similar procedure to parallel parking with one less step, Diagonal lines will be drawn, "Other" side of the street will continue to be parallel parking. Children getting out of car blocked by car door from street.
• The Neighborhood Design Center, as part of developing a Butchers Hill Master Plan, will work with us on environmental aspects of landscaping with Reverse Angle Parking
• FYI Here's how DOT calculated increases. On a block face that is potentially going to have reverse angle parking a measurement is made of the side of the street. They allow 22 feet for a car parked parallel and nine feet for angle parking. A simple example is that a continuous curb that is 220 feet would hold 10 cars parked parellel or 24 cars parked at an angle, a pick up of 14 spaces.

Residential Permit Parking ("RPP") (by authority of the Baltimore City Parking Authority)

• We are the only neighborhood looking at RPP (Fells Prospect and Upper Fells Point are not)
• About 40 Baltimore City neighborhoods currently have RPP
• Butchers Hill ("BH") must petition for RPP
• Signing a petition is the same as "voting" for RPP. If we have enough signatures, we are asking the Parking Authority to determine if we are eligible for RPP (see below for eligibility requirements)
• 60% of the total residences (not block by block) in BH must sign the petition for us to continue to the survey.
• The City will survey our whole neighborhood every two hours from 7:00am to 10:00pm
• PA will look at actual addresses associated with license plates to determine if a vehicle parked in BH is registered in BH
• If 80% of the available parking places in BH are utilized for a good part of the day and 25% of the parked vehicles are non-BH residents, we are eligible for RPP
• Non-permit holders will be limited to two hour parking
• Each Household is entitled to up to four decals (permits). Eligibility requirements include:
• Drivers license and vehicle registration (four maximum) must be within BH or....
• Proof that applicant is in the military service or....
• Proof that applicant is a student (current transcript, student ID, etc)
• Exclusions: residence not authorized by the City zoning code or occupied by more that the number of people authorized by the City zoning code
• We will request an RPP program from 7am to 12 midnite, weekdays only. This request is from a vote taken at the June 4th general meeting.
• Up to two visitor passes may be issued (purchased) per household (per vote June 4th).
• Eligible vehicles are passenger cars, motorcycles, and multipurpose passenger vehicles.
• Eligibility for decals will be deducted for each usable off-street parking pad and garage. If an off street site is being used for another purpose (i.e. storage) it must be converted back for parking usage
• $20 annual fee per vehicle
• Getting your decal: Once the petition is approved, there is an on-line application and payment process. The Parking Authority will bring decals to the neighborhood one time where they will be distributed after verifying vehicle registration information. Later, applicants must go to the Parking Authority offices on Lombard Street.

Call Barry Glassman with questions (H) 410-558-1080 (C) 410-236-5957