Marsha Rippy can't stand the idea of new zone parking decals.
Under a system proposed by the county treasurer, on-street parking in one of Arlington's 22 zones would be determined by stickers separate from the county car tax decal. Right now, zone parking information is included on the county decal.
Residents in county parking zones have expressed appreciation for the zone system at recent County Board meetings. County staff, meanwhile, see the system as a useful way to reserve parking on county streets for county residents.
Rippy, a Pentagon employee and a south Arlington resident, sees the proposal as another way the county will be hitting the pocketbooks of its taxpayers.
"I'm going to have a Virginia state sticker, an Arlington County sticker, and a zone sticker," Rippy said. "I have to pay real estate tax on my driveway, and I have to pay property tax on my car to park it in my driveway."
She saw the new zone-parking proposal as another way the county would collect taxes, without even letting Arlingtonians write off their county payments, and passed on her frustration in a missive to her civic association and other Arlington friends.
The letter grew out of her frustration with the county's peculiar nomenclature, she said. "If they call it [a tax], we could take it off on state and federal tax forms. Instead, they call it a 'service,'" she said. "I would support it if they called it a tax."
<b>Tied Up in Knots</b>
<bt>The new parking sticker system is based on a proposal by County Treasurer Frank O'Leary. A change is needed, he said, because the current system is "seemingly a good idea that proved in practice not to be."
The county has 22 parking zones, determined by how fully a street is parked, and how many parked vehicles do not belong to area residents. Out of approximately 150,000 cars licensed in Arlington, 17,400 require zone stickers.
Put in place 10 years ago, Arlington's system combined proof that county car owners had paid taxes and registered their car with proof that they had the right to park in zoned parking areas. "So in zone three," O'Leary said, "you got a county decal, with the words 'zone three' printed on it."
That was simple when the program started, he said, because there were only two parking zones. But the number of zones today require stickers for each, along with designations for cars owned by members of the military stationed in Arlington, and those owned by civilians.
Altogether, that's 46 different decals, O'Leary said. That complexity, combined with a fall backlog in issuing decals, led him to "decide to cut this Gordian knot," he said.
<b>One Decal for All</b>
<bt>Under O'Leary's proposal, his office would issue one county decal to all Arlington car owners — the proposed design for next year would feature the oft-reprinted photo of firefighters unfurling a flag from the Pentagon roof on Sept. 12.
Zone parking stickers would be mailed to everyone registered to receive them next year for free, he said. After that, zone parking would become the province of the county's Traffic Engineering Department, which handles parking meters, parkulators and parking signs as well.
The change in decals would save the county some $30,000 a year, O'Leary said. In return, it would cost "about a dime apiece" to print the nearly 18,000 zone parking stickers. Would the county charge Arlingtonians for the zone stickers? "The decision has yet to be made," he said.
Terry Bellamy, director of traffic engineering, said his department wouldn't know for some time. "It's still early in the process. We asked the treasurer to do it once more," he said. "This year's gonna be a big year for parking."
<b>Fee For All</b>
<bt>In north Arlington neighborhoods around the Clarendon-Wilson corridor, residents are pleased with zone parking — so pleased, they may want more of it.
"We're asking to explore the possibility of expanding streets subject to zone parking near the Ballston Market Common," said Peter Owen, president of the Clarendon-Courthouse Civic Association.
"It's still very preliminary," he said. "But the underlying point is, there should be plenty of parking on your own street. We will give up the right to park a mile away, in return for the right to park in front of our house."
That's half the point, O'Leary said. "We only charge people when they're receiving something no one else is," he said. "Not everybody can have a [zone] permit, so if they want it, it's only right to pay."
Such thinking makes some sense to Rippy. "The reason they made [her street] zoned, is that we couldn't park; there were all these cars with Maryland tags and DC tags," she said. "Why make the property owners pay for parking for DC and Maryland residents?"
But she still expressed frustration with the fee she pays for her county decal, another example of a misnamed tax, she said.
O'Leary shared her frustration. "We dropped that in the 1980s, and then it was reinstated two years ago," he said.
Decal fees bring Arlington County $3.5 million in revenue every year, but O'Leary said the frustration and bills it brings to taxpayers aren't worth the money. "I'm opposed to the concept. They can't deduct a fee, so I think it's a cruel joke," he said.