PPA is tightening control of residential parking permits with price hikes and caps

The Philadelphia Parking Authority will more than double the price of a yearly residential parking permit to $75 and cap at three the number of permits each household can buy in an effort to better manage curbside congestion, officials said.

Those changes are scheduled to take effect Sept. 1. The base permit price has been $35 since 1983, when Philadelphia’s neighborhood parking program began.

“These are needed reforms,” said Rich Lazer, executive director of the PPA. “There are only so many spaces on the street,” and the number of residential permits in circulation far exceeds parking capacity, he said.

Urban planners and transportation economists have long argued that residential parking permits are sold for far less than they are worth, allowing people to store their vehicles on the streets of dense city neighborhoods. Using the limited resource of public rights of way to confer an inexpensive private benefit amounts to a hidden taxpayer subsidy for drivers.

At $75, a residential parking permit would remain relatively cheap, considering inflation over the last 41 years.

Under the new price structure that begins next month, a residential parking permit will cost a flat $75 for each car, but a residence can have only three, meaning additional cars wouldn’t have access to unlimited parking on blocks where the program is in effect.

For low-income households, a first street-parking permit will be free, then $60 each for up to two additional cars, Lazer said. Eligibility is based on the city’s guidelines for assistance programs such as LIHEAP, or home heating assistance, he said. (That is $29,500 or less for a household of two, or $45,000 or less for a family of four.)

In 2013, PPA introduced tiered pricing for the residential parking permits. Currently a permit for the first vehicle in a household still costs $35 a year. The second vehicle in the same household is $50 annually, and the third is $75. Permits for four or more vehicles in the same household cost $100 each.

But only 320 households hold four or more residential parking permits, according to PPA figures. The vast majority have one or two at most, and more permits have been sold than there is space in the city’s 39 permit-parking zones.

Drivers without a permit can park vehicles for one, two, or three hours in those neighborhoods before incurring fines.

Overcrowded curbs, especially in neighborhoods with overlapping residential and commercial uses, contribute to traffic congestion, delay SEPTA transit buses, complicate safety measures like bike lanes, spur opposition to multifamily housing development, and discourage on-street eateries.

“We have dysfunctional politics around all these issues, and a lot of it can be traced to street parking,” said Jon Geeting, engagement director for Philadelphia 3.0, a political organization that advocates an urbanist agenda and government reform. People fight reductions in street parking, and elected officials are often reluctant to do it.

“It’s good that PPA is making some moves forward,” Geeting said. “This is progress.”

The ordinance authorizing the changes to permit fees was sponsored by Councilmember Mark Squilla, whose First District includes many of the city’s most crowded neighborhoods that also are home to plenty of real estate development

A key aim of the pricing revamp, Lazer said, was to combat an explosion in temporary street-parking permits, partly driven by Airbnb and other short-term rentals. Prices for those permits were hiked dramatically at the beginning of this month.

“They’ve been an issue forever, even before short-term rentals,“ Squilla said. “People are always reaching out about how to get temporary additional parking — for a nurse, for family who’s visiting, for an event. It’s a balancing act. How do you do that without punishing the people who live there?’”

He said the new approach gives people some flexibility but not at a price that encourages overuse.

Now, a one-day temporary permit costs $7. A 15-day permit is $75. A 30-day temporary permit is $150 and a 60-day permit can be had for $300.

Before that change, temporary permits were available for 15 days at $15 and 30 days for $30.

The ordinance allows the parking authority to raise permit fees every three years but not by more than the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index.

A 2021 report by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission recommended changes to the annual permits, such as increasing the price overall, targeted price increases for permits in dense neighborhoods with a limited supply of spaces, capping the number of available residential parking permits in some permit zones, and restricting or barring sales to households with access to off-street parking.

“We didn’t go as drastic,” Lazer said. “You don’t want to shell shock folks. But we feel this change is [heading] in the right direction, and we will be able to manage the curb more efficiently.”