Resisting attempts by the federal government to limit automobile access to downtown Washington, city officials said yesterday that they have denied permission for five federal agencies and courts to prohibit parking near their buildings for security reasons.
Implicit in the city's denial is the belief by District officials and many residents that, piece by piece, they are being cut off from their city through street closings and parking restrictions.
In addition to closing Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House and two streets nearby, federal authorities recently shut off access to two streets on the Senate side of the Capitol. Parking has been eliminated or restricted in many places, and traffic congestion has increased downtown.
"If you think about it, now that Pennsylvania Avenue has been closed, they have raised the target profile of every federal building in Washington," said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), a member of the House Government Oversight subcommittee on the District, which yesterday held a hearing to discuss the impact of closing Pennsylvania Avenue between 15th and 17th streets NW.
City Administrator Michael C. Rogers said: "It's not just Pennsylvania Avenue. We've had requests from other federal agencies to take out meters in front of their buildings."
District officials said the Secret Service, the Justice Department, the FBI, the U.S. Tax Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals had asked the city to ban street parking in the wake of the April 19 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.
"We told them all no," said Larry King, director of the D.C. Public Works Department. The city government was concerned about the loss of parking revenue, King said, as well as the impact on tour buses and businesses whose customers park nearby.
King said that without city permission, the FBI prohibited curbside parking along E and 10th streets NW, forcing tour buses to park elsewhere. Parking now is banned around the perimeter of the FBI headquarters.
About a third of the 245,000 parking spaces controlled by the District government are near federal buildings, city officials said. Removing such spaces cuts into the city's lucrative parking program, which collects up to $50 million a year from meters and tickets.
"Every time a parking space is taken out, it's an economic impact, particularly if there are businesses on that street," Rogers said. "Clearly, we're going to have to work with the executive branch to work through this."
Rogers said the street closing President Clinton ordered May 20 has cost about $745,000, a rough estimate based on loss of parking revenue, police overtime, higher Metrobus subsidies and the conversion of parts of H, I and 15th streets into one-way streets downtown.
The cost of using off-duty police officers to direct traffic near the White House could be $450,000 by July 14, when police assistance is scheduled to end.
White House officials have said the District would be reimbursed from the federal Treasury for most of the costs; not all of the money has been paid.
Asked about $62,000 lost so far in parking revenue, Rogers replied: "We think it should be reimbursed. It has not been yet."
Metro officials testified that the transit agency projects losses from the rerouting of buses around Pennsylvania Avenue that range from $30,000 to $200,000 a year in the most pessimistic scenario. The additional costs come from having to add buses and drivers to provide the same service as before the closings. Federal transportation officials are supposed to work out details of reimbursement with Metro.
The hearing, presided over by committee Chairman Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), gave business leaders a chance to vent their frustration about the closings. Several spoke of the division created by the street closings near the White House.
"The closure has created two cities by severing the old central business district from the east end and the . . . rest of downtown," said Margaret O. Jeffers, executive vice president of the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington.
"Commuters from the west are tremendously disadvantaged if their offices are located in the east end."