HOMEOWNERS have blasted officials for wanting to charge them a massive $100 annual fee just for having a driveway.
Drivers were up in arms when lawmakers explained their plan to leech property owners for money to fund public transportation.
3
3
3
Homeowners with driveways that include ramps cut into public sidewalks would need to pay to address San Francisco’s $322 million budget deficit, lawmakers said.
If the fine were to be approved, it would generate approximately $15 million for the city in the first year and $16.5 million annually thereafter, SF Chronicle reported.
“This is a more equitable way to use public space,” Luke Bornheimer, executive director of the cycling nonprofit Streets Forward, told the outlet.
The idea was first proposed by the Muni Funding Working Group, but was shut down by government officials.
“The idea is not on the table,” a spokesperson for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said.
Agency staff told the Chronicle that there would be administrative and legal barriers that would make the $100 fine too hard to enforce.
“There were many rounds of brainstorming,” said City Controller Greg Wagner.
“As is often the case, some ideas were more feasible than others.”
Although the city claims it isn’t seriously considering the idea, research suggests that it did at one point.
During working group meetings to brainstorm ways the city could save and make money, members reportedly discussed charging for parking meters, sales tax and priced loading zones for delivery drivers.
Specialists at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency produced a “revenue narrative” for each of their proposals, including one for the driveway fees.
In the report, the specialist wrote that San Francisco “likely has more private driveway curb cuts than any other city of its size and density, since most east coast cities of similar density make more use of back alleys for trash and car access.”
The report also mentioned that the curb cuts are “essentially privatization of public space.”
“Charging an annual fee to the owners of curb cuts would put a fair price on this privatization of public space, encourage owners whose curb cuts no longer lead to active driveways to return those curb cuts to the public, and generate significant revenue for the agency.”
The fee would require approval from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors.
What is the proposed fee?
The proposed fee would charge homeowners $100 for having a driveway that cuts into a public sidewalk. The rejected proposal was intended to help alleviate the $322 million budget deficit.
If it were to be considered a tax, voters would also need to approve of it.
“What kind of nonsense is this?” former Mayor Willie Brown said after laughing about the proposal.
“If any member of the working group wants to donate $100 a year to fund Muni, they can do that,” he continued.
“They shouldn’t have the rest of us donate by being penalized for having a driveway.”
