Evening star., 1947-06-09
'busiinessAsked
For S5O,000,O
To Ease PARKING
Porking Agency Plan
Coils for investments
By Privote Interests
By Rudolph Kouffmonn II

By Rudolph Kouffmonn H
A long-range blueprint to show
Washington how it can get rid OF
it's downtown parking problem was
given to the public today.
1t came in the form of a 36-page
report by the cityis Mo-
tor Vehicle Parking Agency that
was made public at a special lunch
con sponsored by the Washington
Board of Trades traffic and city
planning committees.
The result of nearly 18 months
work, it puts squarely up to Wash
ington businessmen and investors an
estimated $4,000, 900 investment in
private parking garages to help keep
values from trickling of
into outlying sections Of the Dis
trict and nearby Maryland and Vir-
ginia because traffic is slow and
parking spaces scarce.
McGavin Drafted Report.
The investment, the report con-
tends, is one that can mean legiti-
mate profits too, if properly made
under the parking agency's guidance
The report was drafted by Charles
T. McGavin, chief economic analyst
of the District Highway Department
and nationally known parking ex-
pert. The report has been laid be-
fore the Commissioners with the
endorsement of P. Y. K. Howat AND
members of the 7-man parking
agency.
In addition to sounding a chal-
lenge to Washington business to
solve the knotty parking problem
it urges the District and Federal
Government to take certain steps
to relieve the parking situation.
1t calls for:
!. Enough parking garages in the
downtown retail area to house an
additional 1880 cars; enough ga
RACES in the private Office building
area to house an additional 2,57O
cars and responsible Federal Off
cial" to mend the parking mistakes
made in the Federal building area
after a building by building survey.
5000 Federal Spaces Needed.
The report cites a shortage of
more than 5000 spaces in Federal
areas and urges that the mistakes
OF the past not be repeated as the
Federal building plan is carried out
In permanent form.
2. A system of large parking lots
at the rim of the downtown area
where motorists could park all day
on a single ticket emitting them
to a shuttle bus or streetcar ride
the remainder of the way to work
and back. The success of this pro-
posal would hinge largely on the
attitude of the transit company.
3. Extension of parking meters
into the Federal Triangle, through
out the private Office building area,
up Connecticut avenue as far ais
Circle and in congested out
lying shopping areas.
4. A system of express buses oper-
ating on express streets to tempt
people to leave their cars at home.
The report does not specify the
New ZOning Rules Urged.
5. Strengthening of the zoning
regulations to require off ff-street
parking in large new commercial as
well as large new residential struc-
lures and to require off-street load
ing platforms for certain businesses.
The zoning Commission and Ma
tional Capital Park and Planning
Commission already are studying
these proposals.
The report lists no specific loca-
lions for parking projects because
the agency does not want to tip off
owners on its intentions.
1t stresses that private enterprise
should have the chance to meet the
parking garage needs of the city,
but that If private efforts fail, a
resort to publicly operated garages
will have to be made.
A generation of business men have
failed to meet the problem, the re-
port says, but success is possible
now that the agency's surveys and
land acquisition powers can be
thrown into the balance.
90-Day Trial Urged.
Business must guard against say
ing, why don't THEY solve the
parking problem" and starting talk
ing, 1--WE must solve the parking
the reports warns.
1t adds that downtown business
men must realize they are in group
with outlying areas
when it comes to parking, and group
cooperation, not competition, is
called for.
The report urges 90-day- trial
1T using the Polo Grounds in West
Potomac Park and the big vacant
lot just south of the Municipal Gen.
5er as terminals for shuttle bus
line just to see how the agency's
shuttle bus plan will work.
The agency may be doomed to
disappointment on this plan, how
ever, because it has been indicated
the Capital Transit Co. is willing
10 60 along on the Polo Grounds
only and there is some National
Park Service opposition to using
he Polo Grounds.
Park officials feel that once the
lot were established they would have
4 hard time getting rid of it.
The only other rim" project car
ried in the report and revealed for
The first time would convert the
Western Market at Twenty first and
< streets NV. into a parking gar
age. The District could lease it to
4 private operator under the plan.
Some lot-shuttle projects, the re-
port says, may grow out of the slum
redeyelopment plans of the National
Capital Park and Planning Com
and the city's new Land
Redevelopment Agency. 1t calls on
the planners and the land agency to
Keep parking in mind when they
come to neighborhoods at the edges
Of the downtown area.
D - ~