ACTION REQUESTED:
Title
New Communication from the City Manager and Public Works Director with a Request to 1) RECEIVE and FILE the Attached REPORT BACK, and 2) Approve the Attached New RESOLUTION AMENDING RESOLUTION NO. 07-677, pertaining to Parking Rates at City-Owned Parking Facilities. (With Memo and Traffic Regulation Attached, For Information Only) (Refer to FR-35)
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BACKGROUND:
At its meeting on December 10, 2013, Council considered this item under First Reading #35 and approved placing it on the January 14, 2014 Regular Meeting Agenda, at which time it was deferred to February 25, 2014 to allow the Downtown Advisory Commission to give input. Additionally, we had the opportunity to allow Traffic Commission to provide input.
At its meeting on February 13, 2014, the Downtown Advisory Commission moved to support the Staff recommendation to equalize the parking deck and parking meter rates at $1/hour with an additional recommendation that such an action needed to be accompanied with a robust public education plan about cost and availability, and that the City needed to reiterate that parking was still free (except for in decks) on nights and weekends. The motion was approved unanimously.
At its meeting on January 21, 2014, the Traffic Commission moved to support Staff’s recommendation to City Council for the change to parking fees to make them equal. The motion was approved unanimously.
Council asked Staff to Report Back on several items regarding the affect decreased parking rates would have on the City’s budget. The following supplemental information and the attached table are offered in Report Back:
1. Impact that the decreased parking rates would have on the City’s budget and what affect it would have should that source of revenue cease?
The rate changes that Staff is proposing at the City’s facilities are in two parts: off-street and on-street parking. The hourly parking deck rates are proposed to be lowered and the hourly on-street meter rates are proposed to be raised, so that both rates are at $1.00 per hour. With those offsetting rate changes the revenue, and its impact on the City’s budget, should be minimal. The desired result will be to help make the covered off-street parking in the City’s decks more attractive to longer term parkers.
Over the last three years, the revenue from the hourly parking fees in the four City-owned parking facilities has averaged $303,967 annually. This would not be collected by the City, if this source of revenue were to cease.
2. Impact that eliminating parking meters would have on City staff?
Currently, the City has two full time Parking Meter Technicians who maintain the parking meters and collect the meter revenue. The 2014 budget for Parking Meter Collection is $113,264. The last three years, the revenue from the parking meter collections and meter hood rentals averaged to $327,195 annually. As part of this revenue, $31,483 was from the new on-street parking around the Museum. If the parking meters were removed, the on-street parking would need to be controlled with timed parking “zones” to allow turnover. Once eliminated, the meter collection and repair effort of the parking meter technicians would transfer to enforcement of the time zones.
3. A request for Staff to review similar cities to see how much they utilized their systems.
To help assess the City’s proposed rates multiple peer cities were contacted. Attached is a spreadsheet showing the cities contacted and their parking rates for on-street and off-street parking. The rates vary widely. Peoria’s existing and proposed rates are within the rate ranges listed.
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Information from the First Reading:
In 2012 Walker Parking Consultants (Walker) performed a study to help the City determine which type of multi-space parking meters to sample for the on-street parking around the new Museum. As part of this study, Walker reviewed the City’s current rate structure for both on-street and off-street parking. They found that the City’s hourly off-street parking rates were very high as compared to the on-street rates, and consequently encourage downtown visitors to park on the street and not in City parking facilities. The study recommended that the City raise the on-street rates and consider lowering the hourly parking deck rates to encourage parking patrons to use the City decks.
Therefore, staff is recommending:
• Changing the parking deck rates from minimum half-hour increments to minimum hourly increments and lowering the rates by $0.50 per hour. This will result in the hourly parking rate for all City-owned parking facilities to be $1.00 per hour, with a maximum of $6.00 for all day. The decreased fees will go into effect on February 1, 2014 April 1, 2014.
• Parking meter rates will be increased to a rate of $1.00 per hour, administratively, as part of the effort to correctly adjust the downtown parking rates. The meter rates were last changed in January 2002. Attached (for Information Only) is the Traffic Regulation which will accomplish this increase.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: Financial impact should be minimal. The decreased revenue from hourly parking in the parking decks should be offset by the increased revenue from parking meters.
NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERNS: None
IMPACT IF APPROVED: The hourly parking rate will be decreased to $1.00 per each hour for City-owned parking facilities. Parking meter rates will be increased, administratively, to $1.00 per hour.
IMPACT IF DENIED: The hourly parking rate will remain at $0.75 per each half hour for City-owned parking facilities.
ALTERNATIVES: NA
EEO CERTIFICATION NUMBER: NA
WHICH OF THE GOALS IDENTIFIED IN THE COUNCIL’S 2011 - 2026 STRATEGIC PLAN DOES THIS RECOMMENDATION ADVANCE?
1. Financially Sound City Government
2. Responsive, Efficient City Organization
WHICH CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR(S) FROM THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN DOES THIS RECOMMENDATION IMPLEMENT?
1. Grow employers and jobs.
2. Invest in our infrastructure and transportation.
3. Have an efficient government.
DEPARTMENT: Public Works