What are the parking rules for public meetings at City Hall? The city is looking into it
Richmond residents attending City Council meetings used to be able to park for free in a city-owned lot a few blocks away from City Hall.
A few years ago, that lot was turned into an off-street bus transfer station, eliminating the most obvious free parking option for people traveling by car.
That mostly left paid on-street parking as the fallback. But the combo of hourly time limits and unpredictable meeting lengths means going to a public meeting to engage with the local government can cost a few bucks and risk a $30 parking ticket.
At least one meeting attendee has gotten a ticket recently, which prompted Councilor Reva Trammell (8th District) to raise the parking issue at the last Council meeting. If residents have to pay to make their voices heard at Council meetings, Trammell argued, some might simply choose not to come.
“Coming to do any kind of business downtown should be free,” Trammell said in an interview Friday.
Victoria A. Ifatusin
Though most paid parking spots downtown stop requiring payment after 6 p.m. — the same time that regular Council meetings start — some of the zones closest to City Hall now require payment until 8 p.m.
It was that change that led to the ticket Trammell was concerned about. She said it shouldn’t be complicated for the city to set those zones back to 6 p.m. to better align with the Council meeting schedule.
“That’s something that can be solved right now,” Trammell said.
After an inquiry from The Richmonder, city spokesperson Ross Catrow said the city is reviewing its policies on parking near City Hall during public meetings.
“Historically, parking enforcement has been suspended around City Hall during City Council meetings,” Catrow said. “The city is currently reviewing this practice.”
Catrow said the city waived the parking ticket mentioned by Trammell.
Graham Moomaw
The non-enforcement policy doesn’t appear to have been clearly communicated to the public. There are no signs near City Hall saying the parking rules aren’t enforced on Council nights, meaning people could be paying to avoid a ticket even if ticketing is suspended.
Council leaders are also looking into the issue.
“City Council was recently made aware of parking concerns affecting public meeting attendance,” the Council said in a statement to The Richmonder. “As resident participation is a priority, Council leadership will be asking [the] city administration to review parking enforcement on meeting nights and report back with findings and recommendations.”
The city owns several parking lots and garages in the downtown area, including a paid parking deck near the shuttered Richmond Coliseum a few blocks from City Hall. Those facilities don’t offer free parking for City Hall visitors. City employees and Council members park in a garage beneath City Hall that isn’t open to the public.
Though the Council’s regular Monday-evening meetings start at 6 p.m., they hold informal prep sessions starting at 4 p.m. where discussion can occur on business coming up that night. The Council’s standing committees also hold early-afternoon meetings at times when the paid on-street parking rules are in effect.
The parking policy could also impact other public bodies that hold meetings at City Hall.
The Richmond School Board meets there on Monday and Tuesday evenings, and also appears to have been operating under the assumption the paid parking rules wouldn’t be enforced on School Board meeting nights.
The Planning Commission — which handles land-use issues that sometimes draw strong neighborhood interest and sizable crowds — has its meetings on Tuesday nights.
Catrow noted there are some free on-street parking areas “within several blocks of City Hall.” He said residents can use the city’s parking map to find the free areas.
He stressed that taking the bus to City Hall is also free, as is the bike parking on the Broad Street side of the building.
“Importantly, City Council meetings are also hosted via Microsoft Teams — including public comment and public hearings on papers — for people who can’t make the meetings in person,” Catrow said.
Contact Reporter Graham Moomaw at gmoomaw@richmonder.org
