QV Crier Spring 2022

Shining a Light on a Lot of Change

In 2003, QVNA introduced paid, off-street parking at below-market rates. This year, we’ve changed a lot, but QVNA parking is still below market.

By Lucy Erdelac

The late 1990s marked the first change to our streetscape—enter the homefront garage. To accommodate each driveway curb cut, 10 or more feet of space was pinched from formerly available on-street parking.

QVNA volunteers surveyed neighbors and measured on-street parking capacity. The result, encouraging neighborhood cozy-car parking: “Park as close as you can to the car in front and beyond to help make space for someone else.”

In 2003, as an alternative to disappearing on-street parking, QVNA leased its first of two parcels of land under I-95 and hired a parking management company. In 2014, the adjacent parcel was leased, paving the way for QVNA’s neighborhood lot that today offers 180 spaces for paid off-street parking at a below-market rate.

Yet today multi-family buildings, both here and throughout the city, are designed with few—if any—parking spaces for residents and guests.

Then the onset of the pandemic ushered in city-sanctioned streeteries. While streeteries have kept restaurants open and their staff employed, there is also the undeniable reduction of available on-street parking.

Meanwhile, at the corner of Front and Christian…

Fortunately, with the renewal of both the land lease and the lot management contract on January 1, QVNA can still provide neighbors with convenient-tohome, off-street parking at a below-market rate. But, as expected, the cost to rent the land and to manage the lot has increased. As a result, the association raised its monthly rate for off-street parking.

On March 1, parking space rental increased from $125/month to $150/month. The association absorbed the lot’s higher expenses for January and February in order to give advance notice to current parking lot customers.

Creating change for good.

Despite the $25 rate increase, the QVNA parking lot remains the greatest parking value in the area and one of the lowest in the city. Neighboring lots’ monthly parking rates span $225 to $350+. The QVNA Board’s decision to keep our rate this low stems from our mission: to help improve quality of life for residents.

That’s why, separate from the rate increase, 2022 also brought three parking lot improvements:

1. In January, QVNA installed new, brighter lighting to help provide a safer environment for drivers and pedestrians in and around the parking lot. In addition, we reduced our carbon footprint by using energy-efficient LED lights.

2. In March, new equipment was installed at the lot entrance, replacing the decades-old telephone system that had controlled the gate. Our new technology provides user-friendly benefits, including the ease of communication with Parkway customer service.

3. QVNA contracted to increase the frequency of litter and debris removal— multiple times each week.

With the lease and the contract in hand, QVNA can continue to provide the option for convenient, low-cost, offstreet parking to interested neighbors. ■

Interested in monthly parking? Please see www.qvna.org/parking.