Chevy Chase Village and Saks

The owners of Saks Fifth Avenue approached Chevy Chase Village about eliminating the requirement that Saks provide a free hour of parking to anyone who parks there. (Saks is located within the boundaries of the Village.) This requirement was part of the agreement years ago to permit the expansion of the original Saks building without adding more parking.

Saks feels that too many people are parking there and then going to their doctor's office in the Barlow or Chevy Chase buildings across Wisconsin Ave. In other words, people are using the right to park free for an hour exactly as originally intended. The main problem according to Saks is that people cannot park close enough to the store entrance.

Pat Harris of Holland and Knight, the attorney for Saks, said that Village residents would continue to receive an hour of free parking as an incentive for the Village to sign off on the idea. Village residents nevertheless torpedoed the proposal during public discussion at the Board of Managers meeting last night. Villagers are probably worried that people will start parking on their streets if they can't park at Saks. Many Chevy Chase Village residents prefer to walk to Friendship Heights anyway.

Moreover, can anyone seriously believe that the County would willingly write into the zoning amendment that only people living in Chevy Chase Village would still have the right to park free for one hour? It doesn't even pass the laugh test. Stand-up comics and politicians live for this kind of material.

In any case, the villagers would have to depend on the goodwill of Saks to continue allowing them to park there. My guess is that wouldn't last long after the ink was dry on the zoning amendment. In any case, the Village wasn't being offered anything they didn't already have, so the incentive wasn't really much of an incentive.

The price of even limited freedom to park is eternal vigilance.