By Chris DeMoville

The Uptown Community Parking District (UCPD) held districtwide elections in November, and the Bankers Hill Neighborhood Parking Committee elected two new members: Peter Raymond and Curtis Allen.

Raymond is a longtime Bankers Hill resident and the owner of Raymond’s Boutique Salon. One of his personal aspirations is to build community support and find funding for a Bankers Hill legacy sign.

Allen is the owner of Brooklyn Bicycles on Fifth Avenue. They join returning members Doug Scott, Tom Fox and John Knoll.

UCPD thanks everyone who participated in the elections, and expresses gratitude to departing board members Char Lou Benedict and Megan Garth, who decided not to run for re-election. Benedict is a former board president and member of the UCPD Executive Committee. When not busy volunteering, she runs Sixth Ave Web Design.

By working with our community partners and colleagues at the city of San Diego, UCPD staff has received preliminary approval to convert parallel to head-in parking along 17 blocks in Bankers Hill.

These conversions could potentially add over 100 new parking spaces around the Sharp Reese-Steely Downtown medical clinic at Fourth Avenue and Fir Street, First Avenue, and the residential area between First Avenue and Interstate 5.

We are currently in the process of noticing affected addresses for input on these potential parking additions.

These parking conversions would not have been available without the help of Councilmember Chris Ward and his community representative, Brittany Bailey. A big step in the process involved changing Municipal Code 86.0104. These changes expedite the process by removing the need for City Council to approve parking conversions.

As we move into the new year, UCPD staff is working with Jake Sutton and the Bankers Hill Business Group to gauge interest on potentially changing time-limited parking enforcement and meters from two-hour maximum stay to four-hour maximum stay.

This proposal came to the committee from several area business owners, who have pointed out that Bankers Hill is home to a wide variety of professional services that often require longer than two hours to finish. By pushing the time limited parking and meter max stay from two to four hours, we could potentially save a few lucky patrons to Bankers Hill businesses from that dreaded yellow citation envelope.

—Chris DeMoville works for the Uptown Community Parking District as project coordinator for Bankers Hill.