With robotic arms extended, cranes are expanding Alaska Junction upward yielding joint condominium and retail buildings, a mini-explosion of residences and shops that will attract even more traffic to the current congestion on Alaska Street, California Avenue, and the blocks that hug them.

Part of the allure of the traffic mania is due to free street parking. Some pull into a spot and leave their car there for several hours, and even all day, to the chagrin of residents and shop owners who prefer to see a spot vacated now and then.

The Seattle Department of Transportation's Community Parking Program is starting to address the problem in West Seattle. Options include two-hour parking limits, and installing pay stations, or kiosks.

Project manager, Mary Catherine Snyder, said that, while her department does not want to spoil the fun, it does want to begin to address those getting a free ride into a coveted parking spot and clogging up spaces.

"Our goal is to balance competing needs of businesses, residents, customers, and employees," Snyder said. "Our neighborhoods are changing, and we need to be receptive to their growth."

She said that the Community Parking Program will invite the public and businesses to participate in decision making on the future of parking at the Alaska Junction, followed by Morgan Junction, Admiral Junction, and then Alki, which will come into play in 2012.

The program will start with a "neighborhood kick-off" in late summer, a meeting to include the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the Alaska Junction Association, and others wishing to participate.

Recommendations discussed at the kick-off will be studied by a hired consulting firm. The firm will count spaces and determine how long cars stay in them. Then the consultants will come back to the public and the Seattle Department of Transportation with its recommendations toward the end of the year.

Snyder said that if kiosks, and the prickly plan of their neighborhood boundaries, are agreed upon, they would be installed in just three months, which means spring of 2009.

"Pay station revenues go to the city's general fund, not to SDOT," she said. The general fund includes fire, police, and other safety departments, and libraries.

"Next year, with Transit Now and Bridging the Gap, bus links will expand service through this initiative," she added.

Rick Sheridan, director of communications, Seattle Department of Transportation, said he senses that, due to a lot of media coverage, the eventuality of pay parking in West Seattle has been over-stated. "People are focusing on the kiosk element of the plan," he said. "This ignores our basic holistic approach."