Parking in Dupont/Logan circle area

[Anonymous]

Op - the point of all these responses is, yeah, sure you will find a spot every day. But maybe once a week it is going to be a PAIN (think Thursday or Friday nights). And the rest of the time it is probably fine (you'll find a spot within a block or two - but depends on where you live) but slightly irritating on a daily basis. Vacations are annoying (because of street sweeping). Getting things from car to house is annoying (like big grocery trips). Having a baby would be annoying; young kid slightly less so.

A single person without a kid who only uses their car periodically - no problem! Not that much trouble.

A single person without a kid who uses car daily - mildly irritating, with periodic "high level of irritation".

Couple with child that uses car on a daily basis to take kid to work, trips to Costco, target, giant -- seriously annoying.

OP said they use their car daily. Didn't mention kids. I would look for a place with parking. House value will also have more room to go up with parking. Lack of spot is a killer beyond a certain price point.

[Anonymous]

Make sure, if you are trying to rely on street parking, that your address qualifies for a resident parking pass! Most new places do not qualify.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op - the point of all these responses is, yeah, sure you will find a spot every day. But maybe once a week it is going to be a PAIN (think Thursday or Friday nights). And the rest of the time it is probably fine (you'll find a spot within a block or two - but depends on where you live) but slightly irritating on a daily basis. Vacations are annoying (because of street sweeping). Getting things from car to house is annoying (like big grocery trips). Having a baby would be annoying; young kid slightly less so.

A single person without a kid who only uses their car periodically - no problem! Not that much trouble.

A single person without a kid who uses car daily - mildly irritating, with periodic "high level of irritation".

Couple with child that uses car on a daily basis to take kid to work, trips to Costco, target, giant -- seriously annoying.

OP said they use their car daily. Didn't mention kids. I would look for a place with parking. House value will also have more room to go up with parking. Lack of spot is a killer beyond a certain price point.

Pretty much all of this. We live in Adams Morgan. We don't move our car after 4pm on Thursday until Saturday morning. We make sure we find a spot by 4pm Saturday afternoon. Car usually doesn't move Sunday night until Thursday. Works for us.

[Anonymous]

OP, why will you need your car so much if you're living in what is probably the most convenient hood in all DC?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, thanks for the info, OP here. My job requires me to drive out into the burbs (including parts of the burbs not metro accessible) a couple times a week in addition to time in the office in DC.

Sounds like we will need a designated parking spot for sure. I am not big on any kind of irritation haha.

Can someone clarify this posters comment: Make sure, if you are trying to rely on street parking, that your address qualifies for a resident parking pass! Most new places do not qualify.

I thought if you have a dc address you will get a permit in that zone? not true?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, thanks for the info, OP here. My job requires me to drive out into the burbs (including parts of the burbs not metro accessible) a couple times a week in addition to time in the office in DC.

Sounds like we will need a designated parking spot for sure. I am not big on any kind of irritation haha.

Can someone clarify this posters comment: Make sure, if you are trying to rely on street parking, that your address qualifies for a resident parking pass! Most new places do not qualify.

I thought if you have a dc address you will get a permit in that zone? not true?

Some new condo and rental buildings built in the last 3 years received certain construction variances from the city under the condition that residents of those apartments would NOT be allowed to get a street parking permit. The variances allowed the developers to build more apartments or not include a parking garage. So long as you don't live in a brand new faux-"luxury" building, you should be fine. You can always call the DC DMV to ensure that the building qualifies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the street and time you are parking. We live on a 1-way street right off 14th street, and there is usually lots of parking with the exception of (1) street sweeping mornings (M,T, spring, summer, fall); and (2) Thursday, Friday, Saturday evenings; and (3) Saturday and sunday daytime. Some streets are busy all the time. Like P street and Q street between Logan and Dupont. While you can live in the area without renting a parking space, if you're coming home at 5:30 every night, you will definitely have a couple days a week that you need to circle for parking. Also, you have to have a vacation parking plan during street sweeping months because you can't leave your car out for a long weekend. So if you go out of town for 2 weeks, you either need to find a friend's house to park at, or park at the airport. Another big thing we considered was having a young kid without on-site parking. It would be doable but a pain to have to park 2 blocks from the house and lug home our haul from Target or Giant (when we do a big run every few weeks) with a kid in tow. We decided access to paid parking was a must-do for us, given all that.

We looked at some places without parking, and checked craigslist. There were usually a spot or two available within a couple blocks for $300 a month. Metropole near whole foods I think was the same price. But consider that if you're doing this for work every day, you have to walk a block or two just to get to your parking spot. That would get old for me.

Also consider that housing prices are affected by lack of parking. While not at all a big deal with a 1-bedroom condo, row houses will have trouble gaining value relative to others with parking. There reaches a price point where people expect to have parking (like, if you're paying $1.5m for a rowhouse, you want parking). We found that the rowhouses that sat longer on the market often didn't have parking.

+1. I could have written this. Very accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, thanks for the info, OP here. My job requires me to drive out into the burbs (including parts of the burbs not metro accessible) a couple times a week in addition to time in the office in DC.

Sounds like we will need a designated parking spot for sure. I am not big on any kind of irritation haha.

Can someone clarify this posters comment: Make sure, if you are trying to rely on street parking, that your address qualifies for a resident parking pass! Most new places do not qualify.

I thought if you have a dc address you will get a permit in that zone? not true?

Some new condo and rental buildings built in the last 3 years received certain construction variances from the city under the condition that residents of those apartments would NOT be allowed to get a street parking permit. The variances allowed the developers to build more apartments or not include a parking garage. So long as you don't live in a brand new faux-"luxury" building, you should be fine. You can always call the DC DMV to ensure that the building qualifies.

NP here, also you need to live on a block that has zoned parking. If the block on which your address is located only has metered spots, for instance, you aren't eligible for a RPP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, thanks for the info, OP here. My job requires me to drive out into the burbs (including parts of the burbs not metro accessible) a couple times a week in addition to time in the office in DC.

Sounds like we will need a designated parking spot for sure. I am not big on any kind of irritation haha.

Can someone clarify this posters comment: Make sure, if you are trying to rely on street parking, that your address qualifies for a resident parking pass! Most new places do not qualify.

I thought if you have a dc address you will get a permit in that zone? not true?

Some new condo and rental buildings built in the last 3 years received certain construction variances from the city under the condition that residents of those apartments would NOT be allowed to get a street parking permit. The variances allowed the developers to build more apartments or not include a parking garage. So long as you don't live in a brand new faux-"luxury" building, you should be fine. You can always call the DC DMV to ensure that the building qualifies.

NP here, also you need to live on a block that has zoned parking. If the block on which your address is located only has metered spots, for instance, you aren't eligible for a RPP.

Or if you are on one of the rare unzoned streets (like we are, and it's not metered, thank God for that small favor) you can't get a RPP which completely sucks when you are required to move your car for street work, sweeping, tree trimming, etc. because you are not able to park anywhere else and it becomes, at least for us, a huge stressor to find a place to put our car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, thanks for the info, OP here. My job requires me to drive out into the burbs (including parts of the burbs not metro accessible) a couple times a week in addition to time in the office in DC.

Sounds like we will need a designated parking spot for sure. I am not big on any kind of irritation haha.

Can someone clarify this posters comment: Make sure, if you are trying to rely on street parking, that your address qualifies for a resident parking pass! Most new places do not qualify.

I thought if you have a dc address you will get a permit in that zone? not true?

Some new condo and rental buildings built in the last 3 years received certain construction variances from the city under the condition that residents of those apartments would NOT be allowed to get a street parking permit. The variances allowed the developers to build more apartments or not include a parking garage. So long as you don't live in a brand new faux-"luxury" building, you should be fine. You can always call the DC DMV to ensure that the building qualifies.

Actually verify. It isn't just some, it is most. I can't think of a building built in the past few years that didn't get a variance of this type.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is nowhere near as apocalyptic as the pps make it sound. We live in between DuPont and Kalorama and I can always find a spot within 5 minutes of seeking one out. In these areas, most people rent/own in older buildings that did not have garages. It's not the end of the world. Our building abuts an alley where you can park temporarily to unload heavy items or whatever. Also, you'll probably only be needing your car when you want to get out of town (the weekend), so it's not like you'll be negotiating finding a spot every evening. We never need the car for groceries, work, entertainment, etc.

Do you have children? We lived in eastern Dupont prior to having kids and I agree with previous PP that it was a bloodsport. At bad times we had to drive around for upwards of 10 minutes and park several blocks away. We were childless and did not need to use a car daily. If you don't have kids these are minor inconveniences. If you have young kids and use your car daily for work then this is a huge hassle.

OP if I were you I would research parking options at the same time as researching your place, make sure it is there before you buy or sign a lease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, thanks for the info, OP here. My job requires me to drive out into the burbs (including parts of the burbs not metro accessible) a couple times a week in addition to time in the office in DC.

Sounds like we will need a designated parking spot for sure. I am not big on any kind of irritation haha.

Can someone clarify this posters comment: Make sure, if you are trying to rely on street parking, that your address qualifies for a resident parking pass! Most new places do not qualify.

I thought if you have a dc address you will get a permit in that zone? not true?

Some new condo and rental buildings built in the last 3 years received certain construction variances from the city under the condition that residents of those apartments would NOT be allowed to get a street parking permit. The variances allowed the developers to build more apartments or not include a parking garage. So long as you don't live in a brand new faux-"luxury" building, you should be fine. You can always call the DC DMV to ensure that the building qualifies.

NP here, also you need to live on a block that has zoned parking. If the block on which your address is located only has metered spots, for instance, you aren't eligible for a RPP.

Or if you are on one of the rare unzoned streets (like we are, and it's not metered, thank God for that small favor) you can't get a RPP which completely sucks when you are required to move your car for street work, sweeping, tree trimming, etc. because you are not able to park anywhere else and it becomes, at least for us, a huge stressor to find a place to put our car.

You can get your side of the block zoned. You just need to collect signatures and fill out an application with DDOT. Our neighbor led the efforts in our U Street neighborhood a few years ago and it helped immensely with guests who came to visit (I didn't own a car).

Here's the DC residential parking permit digital map: http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=7dc4845a81de41f3b182a978d88370b5&extent=-77.048,38.9006,-76.9847,38.9288
Here's how to petition to get your block zoned: https://comp.ddot.dc.gov/Documents/Petition%20for%20Residential%20Permit%20Parking.pdf
General FAQs on Residential Parking Permits: https://comp.ddot.dc.gov/SitePages/Residential%20Parking%20Permits%20(RPP).aspx

[Anonymous]

PP, you've gotten some good info so far. A lot depends on precisely where you are. I'm Northeast of Dupont Circle, near 17th Street and parking can be a disaster at nights (particularly weekend nights) because so many people are coming to the bars/restaurants of Dupont/Logan. I would never drive daily, returning 5:30 or later and plan to park on the street. We survived without a parking spot for years because we can both metro to work. But I would never, for example, drive to the grocery store at night because there is no way I would have easily found a parking spot when I got back home and it just wasn't worth the hassle. There were definitely nights where we had to circle for 15 or 20 minutes to find a spot far away.

We rented a designated spot recently because one opened up behind our building and it's been a total life-changer.