Ani Khachatryan on New Parking Fee Proposal: 'I Expected a Much Higher Price Scale'

In the small center of Yerevan, Ani Khachatryan, a member of the Yerevan City Council from the coalition partner, the Republican Party faction, considers the proposed annual fee of 160,000 AMD for parking spaces as too low. In an interview with Factinfo, Ms. Khachatryan mentioned that she had expected the tariff to be significantly higher.

As previously reported, the press secretary of the Yerevan Mayor communicated about the latest proposal aimed at increasing the parking fees for red zones. In Area A, which includes 40 streets in the small center, it is suggested to set the fee at 300 AMD for one hour, 2,000 AMD for one day, 5,000 AMD for one week, 18,000 AMD for one month, and 160,000 AMD for one year.

According to Khachatryan, this issue has not yet been discussed within their faction, so she can only speak for herself, stating that she has previously opposed the current parking fees. "Parking spaces in the center cannot have these prices," she asserted.

“I support the proposal; I expected a much higher price scale, but under the current circumstances in Armenia, this is reasonable at the moment. The faction will later express its opinion. I believe these prices should have been set long ago,” said Ani Khachatryan.

When asked if the increase in parking fees was included in their electoral program, she replied negatively, indicating that such a point was not part of their plan. “However, I have often mentioned that there should be a price difference between parking spaces in the center and those outside the center,” she noted.

In response to the observation that experts have assessed this project as unconstitutional due to its discriminatory approach towards residents of the Small Center, Khachatryan replied that the project is still under discussion and needs to be revised.

“In any case, I believe that additional solutions will be defined for residents of the center regarding parking solutions. This is part of a transport reform, aimed at addressing transport issues in the city, which will ultimately alleviate traffic congestion in the center and make public transport what we envision it to be,” Khachatryan believes.

When asked if she owns a car and if she is willing to pay this amount, for example, when attending council meetings, Khachatryan answered that she owns a vehicle, but does not plan to pay that fee. “I will park in Zone B and then use public transport to get to the city hall,” she explained.

Regarding the absence of similar projects presented by the Civil Contract party during the electoral campaign, she stated that such proposals are usually created during the working process. “This is a variation for solving a certain problem. Of course, I cannot say why the Civil Contract party did not mention this, but we all planned to relieve the center in our programs; this is one of the ways to solve that issue, and these solutions emerge during working processes and discussions,” she remarked. “As for including it in the electoral program, it's not very practical to write such points in the electoral program, as I mean, it's hard to phrase it correctly since it wasn’t a fundamental point. In other words, we wrote that there should be relief in the center, and now one of the options is this. A resident of Yerevan, who is now complaining, didn’t anticipate that one of the solutions would be this. I believe if it isn’t justified, it might not pass, but it needs to be attempted.”