Chapter 285
2004 -- S 2273
Enacted 07/02/04
A N A C T
RELATING
TO PUBLIC PROPERTY AND WORKS --
DEPARTMENT
OF TRANSPORTATION
Introduced
By: Senators Tassoni, Issa, Roberts, and Gibbs
Date
Introduced: February 05, 2004
It
is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:
SECTION
1. Chapter 37-5 of the General Laws entitled "Department of
Transportation"
is
hereby amended by adding thereto the following section:
37-5-7.1.
Parking cash-out programs. – (a) Each employer of fifty (50) persons
or
more,
located within one-quarter (1/4) of a mile of Rhode Island public transit
service who
provides
a parking subsidy to employees, shall offer a parking cash-out program.
"Parking cash-
out
program" means an employer-funded program under which an employer offers
to provide a
RIPTA
monthly transit pass to an employee instead of the parking subsidy that the
employer
would
otherwise pay to provide the employee with a parking space.
(b)
A parking cash-out program may include a requirement that employee participants
certify
that they will comply with guidelines established by the employer designed to
avoid
neighborhood
parking problems, with a provision that employees not complying with the
guidelines
will no longer be eligible for the parking cash-out program.
(c)
As used in this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1)
"Employee" means an employee of an employer subject to this section;
(2)
"Parking subsidy" means the difference between the out-of-pocket
amount paid by an
employer
on a regular basis in order to secure the availability of an employee parking
space not
owned
by the employer and the price, if any, charged to an employee for use of that
space.
(d)
Subsection (a) shall not apply to any employer who, on or before August 1,
2003, has
leased
employee parking, until the expiration of that lease or unless the lease
permits the
employer
to reduce, without penalty, the number of parking spaces subject to the lease.
(e)
It is the intent of the general assembly, in enacting this section, that
cash-out
requirements
shall apply only to employers who can reduce, without penalty, the number of
paid
parking
spaces they maintain for the use of their employees and instead provide their
employees
the
monthly transit pass described in this section.
(f)
Any city or town in which a commercial development will implement a parking
cash-
out
program may grant to that development an appropriate reduction in the parking
requirements
otherwise
in effect for new development. At the request of an existing commercial
development
that
has implemented a parking cash-out program, the city or town may grant an
appropriate
reduction
in the parking requirements otherwise applicable, based on the demonstrated
reduced
need
for parking, and the space no longer needed for parking purposes may be used
for other
appropriate
purposes.
SECTION
2. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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LC01548
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