We return now to the second installment on the community organizations in Hillcrest. While last week focused on business and urban development, this issue looks at resident and parking groups in the area. It should come as no surprise that there are no quiet, meek groups in Hillcrest. All loudly fill a needed niche in the most bustling region of Uptown. And while there’s no shortage of disagreement among Hillcrest organizations on an ocean of issues, a mutual respect appears to exist among these highly effective volunteer-based organizations.
— Hutton Marshall, Uptown Editor
Uptown Community Parking District (UCPD)
The UCPD creates and implements parking strategies and improvements throughout Uptown. This can range from “smart meters” to trolleys to parking garages to creating apps to help people find parking. It gets funding from three things: parking meters, fees from developers removing parking meters, and Car2Go’s payments to the City, since their customers can park in metered spaces free of charge.
Community parking districts don’t get all of this money for themselves though, they have to split it with the City, which takes a little more than half of the revenue from the aforementioned sources, plus an extra undisclosed amount for administrative fees.
While the UCPD spans several communities across Uptown, it’s likely discussed more in Hillcrest than anywhere else. Parking is an often-debated issue throughout the other areas of the UCPD (Bankers Hill, Mission Hills and International Restaurant Row/Five Points), but Hillcrest and parking have a deep, abiding relationship unparalleled by other parts of town.
A board of directors oversees the UCPD, which also employees Elizabeth Hannon, its chief operating officer, and Ben Verdugo, its operations manager.
In semi-plutocratic fashion, the amount of representation a community gets on the parking district board depends on the amount of revenue the community’s parking meters bring in. For example, Hillcrest brings in more money than the others, thus it occupies seven of the 14 seats on the UCPD’s board of directors. No single community is allowed more than 50 percent of the board’s seats.
The UCPD recently passed its budget for the upcoming year, which has some exciting plans (you know, exciting for parking strategies). Smart meters are expected this fall, which will likely have the highest impact on improving Uptown parking for a number of reasons. For those unfamiliar with smart meters, they differ drastically from the antiquated coin gobblers we’re used to. Smart meters not only accept credit cards, they also allow for real-time tracking and reporting. This will likely supe up the bane of the parking world, meter maids, but it will also allow the parking district to implement much more effective parking strategies.
Moreover, it will also allow the UCPD’s app, ParkHillcrest, to show in real time where spots are available.
Hannon said the parking district will also partner with local universities to do a GIS map of parking in Hillcrest, which is changing and evolving rapidly.
Hannon said UCPD also plans to experiment with meter hours in the same way currently being done Downtown, which changed meter hours from 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. to 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. The goal of variations like this is to try to find a sweet spot where meter turnover and occupancy are at their highest.
As far as Hillcrest-centric parking hoopla is concerned, the DMV recently opened up their lot to public parking for weekends and most weekday evenings, and the future site of the Hillcrest-Mission Hills Library has been turned into a 35-space paid lot until construction begins in 2016 (see news briefs on page 7). The ParkHillcrest Trolley is another proud project of the UCPD, which shuttles Hillcrest parkers from the DMV to the intersection of Fifth and University avenues.
Many in Hillcrest would be surprised to learn that the HTC is only seven years old. Serving as the local residents’ group, the HTC now has a stout voice on many local issues, engaging the community a bit more politically than other Uptown community associations.
HTC Chair Luke Terpstra said this focus on advocacy over other activities is deliberate — based on a decision that it would be the best use of the HTC’s meager resources. To compare the HTC to nearby residents groups — which Terpstra loathes doing — HTC is unique in that, aside from its community cleanups and monthly meetings, it doesn’t put on any community events. Terpstra said this is largely due to the Hillcrest Business Association’s prowess in producing events. Speaking of which, read about the looming Cityfest in our news briefs on page 7.
Regarding the HTC’s advocacy on community issues, it has tended to focus on urban development issues lately. Specifically, it’s devoted a significant amount of time to the SANDAG Bike Corridor through Hillcrest and the Uptown Community Plan Update’s potential impact on Hillcrest’s building height limit.
The HTC, like other Hillcrest organizations, are supportive of the idea of bike lanes, but aren’t so gung-ho when parking spaces become potential casualties in the process. HTC hopes SANDAG listens to the community input before implementing the project, especially when it comes to being open minded about alternatives to the plan. On that note, local architect Jim Frost will present an alternative to the SANDAG bike plan at the next HTC meeting on Aug. 12.
The HTC also organizes quarterly cleanups in Hillcrest, known as the Hillcrest Clean T.E.A.M. (Together Everyone Achieves More). Their busiest cleanup — unsurprisingly — comes immediately after Pride weekend. To find out more about the work they do and how to get involved, visit hillquest.com/cleanteam.
As surprising as the HTC’s young age is the informal way it goes about choosing issues to tackle. Terpstra almost describes the HTC as a filter through which the popular opinions of residents can pass. Many residents showed up talking about bike lanes, for example, so the town council decided to address bike lanes.
Similarly informal is the manner in which the HTC goes about supporting or opposing projects, which is by a simple majority vote of whoever showed up at that week’s meeting. Even if it happens to be the first time you curiously stumble into an HTC meeting, so long as you live in Hillcrest, you get a vote.
While it’s far from run by a military, Terpstra said a key part of the HTC’s cohesion is always keeping in mind the HTC’s mission and goals. He requested they be reprinted here:
“Mission:
To provide a voice & enhance the quality of life for Hillcrest renters & homeowners while supporting actions that benefit our neighborhood.
Goals:
Provide a forum that gives voice to the community
Inform the community of relevant issues and stimulate involvement
Effectively interface with our elected representatives”
And thus we reach the end of this seven-month series highlighting the community organizations in our coverage area. Thanks for reading.
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