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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-10-20 DTPC PacketT H E B I R T H P L A C E O F MINNESOTA DOWNTOWN PARKING COMMISSION AGENDA Thursday, October 20, 2011 8:30 AM Conference Room 213, City Hall 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA 3. APPROVAL OF SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 MINUTES 4. NEW BUSINESS 4.01. Trinity Lutheran Church's Lutefisk Dinner Parking 4.02. 5. OTHER BUSINESS 5.01. Update on City Council Decisions 6. ADJOURNMENT ,pater THE BIRTHPLACE. OF MINNESOTA TO: Downtown Parking Commission FROM: Bill Turnblad, Community Development Director DATE: October 6, 2011 RE: Parking Ramp Use for Trinity Lutheran Church's Lutefisk Dinner BACKGROUND Trinity Lutheran Church will be holding their annual Lutefisk & Swedish Meatballs benefit on Thursday, November 3rd this year. Preparation for the event will be on Wednesday, November 2nd Parking will be difficult this year, since the church's 4th Street lot may be under reconstruction in preparation for the Post Office relocation. Therefore, the church has requested the purchase of parking space in the municipal ramp for the two -day event. DISCUSSION On November 2nd about 30 to 40 vehicles will need to park in the ramp. These are the vehicles of the volunteers who will prepare the food, and set up the venue. About 1,000 meals are sold in an average year for this benefit. If everyone came in separate vehicles, that would be 1,000. The meals are served in seatings starting at 11:30 am. There will be two lunch seatings and three dinner seatings. The standard discount for a bulk purchase of parking ramp vouchers (25 or more) is $0.25. So a single voucher would cost $2.75 instead of $3.00. That entitles the vehicle owner to park the vehicle all day in the ramp. The city has never sold 1,000 vouchers for a two day period before, so there is no precedent for comparison purposes. Staff suggests a fee of one dollar per car, which would be about $1,000. Reasons for this suggestion are: 1. The vehicles for folks having lunch or dinner will probably only be parked an average of an hour or so each. So a dollar per vehicle for an hour seems reasonable for a large bulk sale such as this. 2. This is a shoulder season between summer and the Christmas season. So the ramp has no parking pressure. Lutefisk Dinner Parking October 5, 2011 Page 2 of 2 3. Filling the ramp four times over the course of two days in early November is a definite benefit for the city. 4. On a normal November 2nd and 3rd, the ramp would do well to sell 50 hourly tickets over the two days, in addition to monthly patrons and Lowell Inn business. So for the two days of normal sales we would raise about $150 in revenue from hourly patrons. 5. $1,000 for hourly patrons instead of the normal $150 seems sufficient. RECOMMENDATION Planning staff suggests charging $1 per vehicle during the two -day event. Also, we suggest that the ramp arms should remain in the "up" position for both days. This would save the city 2,000 ticket coupons (one issued upon entrance, a second pre - validated ticket upon exit), staff time to validate 1,000 tickets, the cues as vehicles leave after each seating, and the staff time necessary to sort out the confusion as people leave and insert the wrong coupon in the exit machine, as well as refunding folks who pay to exit when they realize they should have used their pre - validated ticket. Staff suggests that the payment would be after the two -day event is completed. We would invoice the church within a month of the event for $1,000, or less if they can document that fewer than 1,000 cars used the ramp. Ticket sales by the church are numbered so they will know exactly how many tickets will be sold. We recommend using an assumption that two meal tickets will be sold on average for each vehicle parked in the ramp. And, the church will know how many total volunteers will serve in the event. It is not certain yet whether the 4th Street parking lot will be under construction. If it is not, the $1,000 parking fee will not be charged, and the ramp will function as normal. PARKING COMMISSION ACTION The Parking Commission should decide: 1) whether the $1 per car fee is acceptable for this large bulk sale; and 2) whether paying after the event based upon documented usage is acceptable, or whether payment should be a flat $1,000 fee in advance of the event. bt Commissioners present: City staff present: City staff absent: Submitted by: Stillwater Downtown Parking Commission Meeting Minutes September 22, 2011 Dratt Aimee Peletier, chair/business; Jeff Johnson, vice -chair /resident; David Korte, secretary /resident; Gerald Helmberger, resident; Sherri Hopfe Franke, business; Daren Anderson, resident; Dave Junker, resident Doug Menikheim, councilman; Dennis Pasket, parking enforcement officer, John Gannaway, police chief; Shawn Sanders, Public Works Director Bill Turnblad, community development director David Korte agenda discussion action call to order Aimee called the meeting to order at 8:35 a.m. approval of agenda A motion was made and seconded to approve the agenda as presented. The motion passed in a unanimous voice vote. approval of July minutes A motion was made and seconded to approve the July 21, 2011 meeting minutes. The motion passed in a unanimous voice vote. (There was no August meeting.) David will forward the approved minutes to the Stillwater city clerk. request for no parking on Pine Street east of 2nd Street Shawn presented a request from Bill Fredell that one side of Pine Street east of 2nd Street be posted as a "No Parking" zone. Shawn mentioned the Traffic Safety Committee would also be reviewing this request. Bill's request comes from his concern over traffic volume in this area resulting in what he see's as a decrease in the number of opportunities for cars to pass by each other. After discussion a motion was made and seconded to have the police chief send a letter to the corporate offices of Cub asking that they request their employees not to park in this area. The motion passed in a unanimous voice vote. John will send a letter to Cub's corporate office requesting their employees not park in this area. parking ramp directional signage This item will be tabled until the next meeting due to a lack of background information. David Korte stated he thought the commission had discussed this issue back in February. Bill will bring this to the next meeting. update on city council decisions John, with supporting documents from Bill, updated the commission on the following recent city council actions pertaining to parking commission recommendations: • The city council approved the request for a Residential Parking Permit in the Parking Ramp for this summer at $25 per month. The Parking Commission had not made a recommendation due to the quick turnaround time required; city staff had recommended denial. • The city council approved the recommendation of the $468 fee by the Parking Commission for "Fall Art & Jazz Festival." • The City Council approved the recommendation of the $828 fee by the Parking Council asked the Parking Commission to revisit the residential summer pass issue next spring. agenda discussion action 2 Commission for the Harvest Fest. general discussion Doug and David Junker presented topics for general discussion and possible action at future meetings. Among the topics were, summer parking permits in the parking ramp, Summer Tuesday's, and the feedback from the Community Symposium's sessions. next meeting The next meeting will be Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 8:30 a.m., Conference Room 213, City Hall. Bill will send out an agenda and supporting documents before the meeting. Before the next meeting David will send out a draft of the meeting minutes. adjourn A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting at 0900 a.m. and passed in a unanimous voice vote. 2