Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Friday she will veto a City Council bill that would have imposed parking restrictions on some Hampden streets.
Rawlings-Blake had initially signaled support for the measure — which would have created new parking restrictions around the Rotunda shopping center — but had a change of heart after meeting with residents and business owners who said they opposed it. The bill would have limited visitor parking in parts of north Hampden, including on stretches of Elm and Union avenues, 37th and 38th streets and Pleasant Place, to two hours. The restrictions were to be in effect 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"While I believe the council's heart was in the right place, the parking restrictions proposed by the bill are premature and disruptive," the mayor said in a statement.
In February, the council voted 9-3 to create new restrictions around the Rotunda, which is undergoing major renovations to add nearly 400 apartments, a grocery store, restaurants and a new movie theater. The idea was to ensure neighbors wouldn't be crowded out of street parking.
Rawlings-Blake's pledged veto was quickly praised by opponents of the bill who argued the restrictions would merely shift parking headaches to other residents not in the special zone and signal to visitors they aren't welcome in Hampden, a neighborhood known for its shops and restaurants.
Will Bauer, vice president of the Hampden Community Council, said the group voted overwhelmingly to oppose the bill.
"We reached out to the mayor in a last, desperate chance," Bauer said. "There was a complete, overwhelming amount of opposition. It's not neighborly. It creates no new parking. It pushes a problem somewhere else. It reeks of entitlement."
City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, who introduced the bill in June, said the push for the parking restrictions began with the Rotunda development, not the popularity of the businesses on The Avenue, as 36th Street known. Residents in northern Hampden, who wanted reserved parking spaces, said they have also been squeezed by workers from the Johns Hopkins complex on Keswick Road.
Clarke on Friday lamented Rawlings-Blake's decision to veto the bill, which Clarke said was designed to protect "against the congestion of additional traffic and parking as the Rotunda development draws ever closer to completion."
The veto is Rawlings-Blake's fourth in her five years as mayor, all in the past year.
"Although the apparent season for vetoes, this one is unique: It directly jeopardizes the quality of life for scores of city residents where they live," Clarke said in an email. "These residents deserve a commitment now, from the mayor and her Parking Authority director, to a quick turnaround of permit parking expansion once the inevitable parking congestion becomes evident to even the most dubious of mayoral advisers."
Brian Murphy, one of the residents who would have received a reserved parking space under the bill, accused Rawlings-Blake of allowing business leaders to influence her veto at the expense of those who live in the community.
"The business council used their influence," he said. "Right now, parking in Hampden is difficult. Our concern is how much worse is it going to get?"
Kevin Harris, a spokesman for Rawlings-Blake, said the mayor met with both opponents and supporters of the bill, including Clarke, before making her decision.
Joe Preller, the owner of the Hampden Hill Apartments, praised the veto. He said the 28 residents of his apartments would have been limited to 11 spots under the proposal.
"These people were making preparations to move," he said. "They had been able to park on the street for years. How the City Council passed this is beyond me. I give the mayor a lot of credit for doing the right thing."
lbroadwater@baltsun.com
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