Background

The Marina is a unique district in San Francisco known for its residential and recreational character. For a long time, free parking has been available near the water to facilitate the recreational use of the Marina Green. Any use of this free parking for non-recreational uses might be considered misuse. The free parking in the Marina Green lots is relatively unrestricted with the only controls being the 10pm to 6am curfew and the reservation, on weekends, of a number of “red-paint” spots for people renting berths in the harbor.

 

Fort Mason Center recently introduced paid parking (controlled via manned gates) in the lower Fort Mason parking lots to generate income for their needs. The idea of controlled parking in the free lots outside Fort Mason and throughout the Marina Green comes up from time to time. Such controls could be via meters, manned gates, sticker machines, or time limits. The prospect of an income stream from this valuable piece of real estate is one rationale for paid parking. FMC might welcome parking controls outside their gates because unrestricted parking nearby certainly undermines their financial objectives.

 

Recently, another rationale has come up to institute paid parking or time-controlled parking in the Marina Green lots. It has been proposed as a method to deal with three misuses of the current free parking system: commuters, company busses, and campers. Commuters from Marin working downtown or anywhere nearby do use the Marina Green as an informal park-and-ride lot on weekdays. Similarly, company busses have started transporting employees from the Marina Green lots to their company sites down the peninsula. Campers - people who appear to live out of their vehicles parked in the shady spots near the restrooms - sometimes take up parking places for long periods on weekdays and on weekends.

 

Lastly, as discussed elsewhere, an EIS is underway to extend the historic streetcar line from Fisherman's Wharf to Lower Fort Mason [ Historic Streetcar Extension ]. Free parking for recreational uses in the Marina Green lots would be obliterated if a streetcar line is extended through the tunnel under Fort Mason.  

 

Issues

o       Controls. Any increase in controls (paid parking or time limits) in the Marina Green lots will shift demand onto the neighborhood streets. The paid parking instituted in FMC has already been felt outside. Spots are rarely empty in front of the gates, across from the Safeway, and residents as far away as Webster & Beach have reported that they have difficulty now finding spaces outside their homes. The impact of any additional controls will depend on whether they are paid or time limits, and whether they are on weekends or on weekdays.   

o       Commuters. It has been estimated that as many as 100 commuters arrive on any weekday. The drivers usually park between the FMC gates and Webster then typically walk up to take the 30x on Chestnut. This particular misuse is not new. In the past, it has not been a large enough problem to sway the tradeoffs mentioned above. 

o       Company busses. This is a new and egregious misuse of the free parking provided for recreational use.

o       Campers. This is a gray area. Someone might suggest there is misuse through overuse, but (other than for the sleeping overnight aspect) one cannot argue that camping is not recreation. Existing controls are in place to cover overnight stays: no parking in the Marina Green lots after 10pm and no sleeping overnight in vehicles on public streets. Also, there are not a large number of campers at any one time.       

o       Historic Streetcar Extension. It would be a tragedy if the City decides it wants the historic streetcar extension more than it wants to preserve the recreational use of the Marina Green. The lots would become a parking facility to serve the streetcar line and existing recreational users of the Green would be forced to find someplace else to go. Parking demand would be extremely bad on weekends. The neighboring streets, which have no time limits on weekends, would be overwhelmed by cars coming from other parts of the Bay area. The essential characteristic of the Marina District, now a gem in the City’s crown, would change from predominately residential and recreational to predominately parking-congested residential.    

 

MCA Values input from its members. Please send any comments or questions on this topic to info@sfmca.org with the word "Parking" in the subject.