§ 37-5-7.1 - Parking cash-out programs.
SECTION 37-5-7.1
§ 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 parkingsubsidy to employees, shall offer a parking cash-out program. "Parking cash-outprogram" means an employer-funded program under which an employer offers toprovide a RIPTA monthly transit pass to an employee instead of the parkingsubsidy that the employer would otherwise pay to provide the employee with aparking space.
(b) A parking cash-out program may include a requirement thatemployee participants certify that they will comply with guidelines establishedby the employer designed to avoid neighborhood parking problems, with aprovision that employees not complying with the guidelines will no longer beeligible for the parking cash-out program.
(c) As used in this section, the following terms have thefollowing meanings:
(1) "Employee" means an employee of an employer subject tothis section;
(2) "Parking subsidy" means the difference between theout-of-pocket amount paid by an employer on a regular basis in order to securethe availability of an employee parking space not owned by the employer and theprice, if any, charged to an employee for use of that space.
(d) Subsection (a) shall not apply to any employer who, on orbefore August 1, 2003, has leased employee parking, until the expiration ofthat 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 enactingthis section, that cash-out requirements shall apply only to employers who canreduce, without penalty, the number of paid parking spaces they maintain forthe use of their employees and instead provide their employees the monthlytransit pass described in this section.
(f) Any city or town in which a commercial development willimplement a parking cash-out program may grant to that development anappropriate reduction in the parking requirements otherwise in effect for newdevelopment. At the request of an existing commercial development that hasimplemented a parking cash-out program, the city or town may grant anappropriate reduction in the parking requirements otherwise applicable, basedon the demonstrated reduced need for parking, and the space no longer neededfor parking purposes may be used for other appropriate purposes.