Residential permit parking is coming to Capitol Hill.

Tuesday the Salt Lake City Council approved a new fast-track process that will allow the neighborhoods to impose residential parking restrictions in time for the upcoming legislative session.

Many Capitol Hill residents had worried that all the construction and lost parking at the State Capitol would force legislative parking into their residential streets.

The council gave the city's transportation department the authority to pick streets and neighborhoods that would qualify for the residential parking, which forbids nonresidents to park there.

"There are many in the Capitol Hill area that are very concerned about the upcoming legislative session," Councilman Eric Jergensen said. "This will allow the process now to go forward."

At the Capitol, state officials have been wrestling with the parking problem. They've kicked around the idea of installing street parking meters. But the governor's office has rejected that idea since it would be a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Many feel that once the Capitol construction is over the parking issues will remedy themselves.

"This is just for two more legislative sessions, so we just need to find a way to take the pressure out of the boil," D'Arcy Dixon Pignanelli, executive director of the Department of Administrative Services and a member of the Capitol Preservation Board, said. "Then, in 2008, we should take a breath and enjoy the new Capitol and then assess what we have."

Rep. Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, who represents the Capitol Hill area, says he would like to have a collaborative parking plan worked out between state and city officials. But with state officials not sure what they want, Becker said it seems appropriate that the city should move forward to shelter their neighborhoods.

"A lot of residents don't have off-street parking, so if somebody's parking in front of their house, it can pose a significant problem," Becker said. "If the state isn't going to do anything in concert with the city then they should do something to protect themselves and the residents."

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