Downtown living has its perks, such as being able to walk to neighborhood bars and restaurants, seeing the historic architecture and living close to a variety of people.

But it does have its downsides and one of the biggest is the lack of parking.

Richmond is no different, and the best way city officials strike a balance between city dwellers and visitors is to create restricted parking districts.

The districts require residents to purchase a decal annually for their car that shows parking enforcement they're residents. Visitors, however, are restricted to one- or two-hour parking.

The biggest example of this is the city's Fan District where, after several years of having a single parking district, the city recently voted to divide the district in half.

A large reason the Fan had such a parking district in the first place was because of the influx of students from Virginia Commonwealth University, which sits up against several neighborhoods, including the Fan, Carver, Jackson Ward, Oregon Hill and Monroe Ward.

But students were only part of the reason for the parking change, according to Richmond City Council president Bill Pantele (2nd), who represents the area.

"VCU's growth clearly put much more pressure in the neighborhoods surrounding it for parking even though the Fan has a restricted district," he said.

"So there'd been some discussion about perhaps making the parking district bigger in the Fan, but that led to the second thing. It was reported that there were issues of persons on the western end of the Fan District driving several blocks and parking in the eastern district."

After about a year's worth of discussion, Pantele said, the Fan District Association decided to divide the district into two zones.

The Carver community, which is near VCU's Siegel Center, lobbied for months before council finally approved a parking district for the area in January. Residents complained that every time there was an event at the center, they'd have nowhere to park to get to their homes.

"They're necessary because in the residential areas, single family homes can become overwhelmed with cars," Pantele said.

And more parking districts are to come.

Jackson Ward is in the early stages of putting one together, he said, and the communities of Oregon Hill and the Randolph are also considering it.

"With so many new restaurants opening, new residences, and with VCU growing, there's going to be more parking pressure. The purpose of a restricted district is to give preference to residents," Pantele said.

"Visitors can still come. They just can't leave their car there all day long. The districts are the one legal restriction in high parking impact areas where you can get that balance."