Port Townsend’s city council voted to pause the proposed downtown parking pilot program during their meeting on March 17.

The vote was not on the agenda, but was proposed by Mayor David Faber during his presiding officer’s report.

Council member Monica MickHager made the motion to direct staff to cease the work on the program until later directed.

“This is a much different parking program presented than what we discussed,” she said. “It wasn’t the program I thought we were getting.”

The motion was approved unanimously. The council did not set a date for the proposal to return for consideration.

In September 2024, the council approved an 18-month pilot parking program to increase turnover downtown and incentivize people to walk or use public transportation. The council directed staff to put together a proposal for what it could look like downtown. The program was meant to produce data on parking to inform a future, and more widespread, rollout of parking enforcement. 

City staff and Police Chief Thomas Olson presented the proposed program on Feb. 10, which suggested that most of the downtown streets be included in the pilot. Olson also recommended a $2 per hour parking fee between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily, and an increased parking fine from $15 to $65. 

Following the meeting, city staff were directed to gather more data to support alternatives and present them to the council. 

The public largely opposed the proposal online and in public comments during meetings, bringing up concerns about the scale of the pilot program and its potential affect on accessibility, businesses, workers and residents in the downtown area. 

Scott Walker, a longtime proponent of parking management in the city and a member of the Local 20/20 Transportation Lab, which promotes transportation systems that minimize the need for motor vehicles, raised concerns with the proposal at the Feb. 10 and March 17 meetings. 

“I appreciate your willingness to begin thinking about managing parking downtown, but what has transpired so far is absolutely not the way to make a significant community direction change,” Walker told council on March 17. “The good part about this process so far has been that you got everyone’s attention. It is very clear that the rollout of proposed management is without support.”

Walker recommended the city take a step back and work with the transportation lab to develop a  “simple and small pilot project so we can gain some data on whether and how to proceed with this contentious issue.”