Steve Burns – WMAL

ROCKVILLE, Md. – (WMAL) Paid parking in the suburbs is spelling doom for businesses in Rockville, and Reston is worried it’ll soon spread there.

“I mean, we used to do so much better,” California Tortilla franchisee Bob Daly told WMAL. “(Buying the franchise) is one of my biggest regrets. It’s not making any money, really.”

Daly and his neighbors at Rockville Town Center claim they’ve been steadily losing business to places like Rio Washingtonian and Downtown Crown that have free parking and offer much more convenience. At the same time, Reston Town Center is planning to start charging for parking in the coming weeks, and businesses are getting concerned.

“That’s what the expectation is, there’s going to be free parking,” Daly said. People come to the suburbs to avoid the parking headaches of the big city, but are coming to find the same problems, he said. With the loss of customers, “it could mean the difference on whether I’m making a living doing this or not.”

One of Daly’s neighbors, Ben & Jerry’s franchisee Mark Sosin, echoed the same sentiments.

“If they keep going down the road they’re going on, the businesses won’t thrive anymore,” Sosin told WMAL. “Some of the tenants are really hurting because they’re competing with other businesses that don’t have parking fees.”

Sosin said it could have a domino effect for the economy of the city and county once boarded-up storefronts start becoming the norm in what otherwise appears to be a new development. He and Daly, along with other business owners, said they’re actively working with the city to ease restrictions on parking meters.

Meanwhile, Reston Town Center’s developer will begin charging for parking later this summer – $2 an hour on weekdays, with weekends remaining free.

“Customers are not going to appreciate this, because a lot of other shopping centers around here are free,” Vapiano GM Yasser Meshki told WMAL. “Boston Properties as a company is not really interested in listening to these things. It’s a big company trying to make extra bucks.”

Boston Properties had claimed they need to charge for parking in order to keep Silver Line commuters from parking there for free all day. Meshki said there are other solutions, like gates that stay closed until mid-morning, as Tysons has explored.

“If (all Reston Town Center business owners) would speak with the same voice, even Boston Properties would have to maybe step back and re-think this.”

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