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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-11-15 DTPC MINDOWNTOWN PARKING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES November 15, 2018 REGULAR MEETING Chair Andersen called the meeting to order at 8:32 a.m. Present: Chair Anderson; Commissioners Glynn, Hopfe, Johnson, Lettner, McAllister, Peltier; Council Liaison Junker Absent: None Staff: Community Development Director Turnblad, Police Chief Gannaway, Officer Pasket, Zoning Administrator Kohlhaas APPROVAL OF AGENDA Chair Anderson accepted the agenda as presented. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Commissioner Johnson clarified that the September 20, 2018 minutes erroneously attributed Commissioner Johnson with accepting the agenda for that meeting rather than Chair Anderson. The September 20, 2018 minutes were otherwise accepted as presented. NEW BUSINESS Downtown Parking Commission By-Law Changes Turnblad introduced this item for informational purposes by describing the City Council’s adoption of Resolution 2018-204 on September 18, 2018, which rescinded all former by-laws and incorporated revisions into a single resolution for all boards and commissions. Resolution 2018-204, in addition to City Code Section 22-8, now form the basis for the Downtown Parking Commission’s authority, responsibilities, and work framework. Downtown Parking Commission November 15, 2018 Page 2 of 8 Chilson Parking Mitigation Kohlhaas introduced this item by summarizing his staff report dated November 15, 2018. The Chilsons own the building at 224 Main Street South and are converting a second-floor apartment into a short-term home rental unit. Jeff and Tammy Chilson were present at the meeting. The proposed use requires 1 parking space. The previous use required 1.5 parking spaces. Though the proposed use requires less parking than the existing use, parking mitigation is still required as part of the short-term home rental licensing process. The Chilsons have requested that the public parking system be used for the deficit space. Commissioner Anderson asked if there is any parking on-site. Jeff Chilson said that there are no parking spaces on-site and clarified that while he had a verbal agreement with a neighboring property owner to park on their property, that agreement would not be used for the short-term home rental unit. Council Liaison Junker asked if the Chilsons would try to get a residential parking permit for the short-term home rental unit. Jeff Chilson said that yes, they would try to get a residential parking permit for a nearby surface lot. It was noted by the Commission that the proposed use does not have a larger parking requirement compared to the existing use and would not likely result in an impact on the public parking system. It was also noted that, though the 20% maximum for parking mitigation has been exceeded, staff have been directed to study parking capacity for the downtown area during winter 2019. Therefore, Commissioner Peltier moved to approve the request with the two conditions included in the staff report. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Hopfe and passed unanimously. Francis Parking Mitigation Kohlhaas introduced this item by summarizing his staff report dated November 15, 2018. Katherine Francis owns the building at 120 Main Street North and have agreed with a tenant who will operate a salon business in the first-floor space. The proposed use requires 12 parking spaces. The space’s previous use as a retail space required 9 parking spaces, resulting in a request for mitigation of 3 parking spaces. There are no on-site parking spaces available. Francis has requested that the public parking system be used for these deficit spaces. Turnblad clarified that the parking calculations used for this case do not include spaces to be constructed for the Hotel Crosby project which will be available to the public. Council Liaison Junker asked how many spaces that will be. Turnblad clarified that there will be 52 additional spaces available to the public as part of the Hotel Crosby project. Commissioner Peltier stated that the Commission should also consider parking impacts from St. Croix Boat and Packet in future calculations for parking mitigation. Turnblad noted that parking for St. Croix Boat and Downtown Parking Commission November 15, 2018 Page 3 of 8 Packet is typically not distributed evenly throughout the downtown, but is instead concentrated to the south near the business. It was noted that, though the 20% maximum for parking mitigation had been exceeded, staff have been directed to study parking capacity for the downtown area during winter 2019. In addition, the salon’s standard hours of operation do not overlap with high-capacity times during the evening for the public parking system. Therefore, Commissioner Peltier moved to approve the request with the two conditions included in the staff report. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Glynn and passed unanimously. Francis request for 15 minute designation Turnblad introduced this item as a request by Katherine Francis, property owner of 120 Main Street North, for a 15-minute designation to be placed on a parking space on the 100 block of Main Street North for loading and unloading. Francis submitted a written request describing a ticket they received while they were loading outside the property. Turnblad provided context of “aggressive” parking enforcement that has taken place in the downtown area. Turnblad also noted that there is only one parking space with a 15-minute designation north of Myrtle Street in the downtown area, and encouraged a system-wide study of parking in the downtown area to consider distribution of designated spaces such as these. Council Liaison Junker asked how many parking spaces in the downtown area have a 15-minute designation. Commissioner Glynn said he thinks there are 14 total. Turnblad provided an updated map of the downtown parking system. Commissioner Peltier noted further updates could be made to the map. The Commission discussed time-designated parking spaces in other areas of downtown including along Nelson Street East near Tin Bins. Pasket noted that tickets are usually not issued for vehicles that use their hazard lights while loading and unloading along Main Street, and that they encouraged businesses to load and unload using alleys when available. Council Liaison Junker noted that the Commission commonly receives requests for 15-minute designations on public parking spaces, and that spaces with that designation should be distributed throughout the downtown area. Chair Anderson stated that the Commission should not set a precedent of approving a 15-minute designation for a parking space every time a business owner receives a parking ticket. Commissioner McAllister asked if there is a system in place to contact downtown business owners for issues like this. Turnblad said that City staff do not have a system in place, but there are existing networks through other organizations that might be utilized. Downtown Parking Commission November 15, 2018 Page 4 of 8 Council Liaison Junker stated that summer 2019 is a good opportunity to get parking issues settled considering the timing of construction projects underway in the downtown area. Turnblad noted that there are delays in some projects which now may not be completed until the end of summer 2019. Commissioner Hopfe asked for an update on the Plaza project and parking along Water Street. Turnblad requested that that topic be moved to the Updates section of the meeting. Commissioner Lettner said it would be good to get a statement from the officer who issued the parking ticket in question. Chair Anderson moved to deny the request for a 15-minute designation for a parking space on the 100 block of Main Street North. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Glynn and passed unanimously. Hotel Crosby request for 15 minute designation Turnblad introduced this item as a request by Shirleen Wright, General Manager of the Crosby Hotel, for designation of three 15-minute parking spaces in front of the hotel along Main Street North. The spaces are intended for guests to use while checking into the hotel before they move their vehicles to the parking ramp, though the spaces would be available for the general public as well. Turnblad noted that the original request was for three spaces designated as loading zones, but he recommended that the request to be changed to 15-minute designations. Wright was present for the meeting. Commissioner McAllister asked for clarification on the location of the spaces. Wright said that the spaces will be directly in front of the front entrance to the hotel, and that the spaces would be available for valet or self-park before moving to the parking lot on 2nd Street North. Wright also said that the front door would be staffed most of the day. Commissioner Lettner asked about signage. Wright said there will be signage directing guests from the front of the building to the parking lot. Turnblad noted that many guests initially navigate to the front entrance upon arrival to the hotel. Chair Anderson said he thought the request is conceptually good, though three spaces was too many. Turnblad recommended that there be at least two 15-minute designated spaces. Council Liaison Junker agreed that two spaces is a good amount. Commissioner Peltier said that the Commission may later have to revisit the issue if they find that a particular arrangement of 15-minute designated spaces doesn’t work. Chair Anderson asked if there will be signage specific for the valet service. Wright said that they did not plan to place such a sign at this time. Commissioner Glynn asked about the typical hours for a 15-minute designated parking space. Pasket said they are typically in effect from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Council Liason Junker said that the effective hours for these spaces must be longer, and Chair Anderson said they should be in effect at all times. Downtown Parking Commission November 15, 2018 Page 5 of 8 Pasket said that if only two 15-minute designated spaces are to be approved, they should be the first two spaces south of the driveway to Johnny’s TV at 242 Main Street North. Commissioner Lettner asked if staff receive many complaints regarding parking in spaces with 15-minute designations. Pasket answered that they do not receive many complaints regarding these spaces, and that they are often unenforceable. Commissioner Lettner motioned to approve the designation of two 15-minute parking designations for spaces recommended by Pasket. The motion was seconded by Commissioner McAllister and approved unanimously. Commissioner Peltier noted that other valet services in the downtown area are rarely full but vehicles are still parking in the public parking system for those uses. Turnblad noted that they should revisit use of valet services in the downtown area. Jx Event request Turnblad introduced this item by providing context for the property and previous parking mitigation plans. Uses within the building have changed and parking mitigation requirements have previously been reduced for this property through an agreed-upon annual review of event attendance. Furthermore, some portions of the building operated at a 75% discount for parking mitigation in recognition of the proximity of nearby public parking areas. The request is to apply the 75% discount to the lower level of the building, which has a puzzle room and a restaurant/catering business. Turnblad stated his hesitation to support the request because it would be unique for these uses in the downtown area to receive a discounted parking mitigation requirement. Commissioner Peltier asked how many spaces would be mitigated. Turnblad answered that there would be 39 spaces mitigated during the high-season and 31 spaces mitigated during the off- season. Chair Anderson said he recalled the original discount also being approved in recognition of the sporadic nature of event scheduling, which does not necessarily apply to puzzle rooms and restaurant/catering businesses. Commissioner Peltier said she is not comfortable discounting parking mitigation requirements for uses on the lower level of this property. Chair Anderson moved to deny the request to apply the 75% discounted parking mitigation for uses on the lower level of the building. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Peltier and passed unanimously. Downtown Parking Commission November 15, 2018 Page 6 of 8 UPDATES Parking Capacity Improvement Study Turnblad introduced this item following a discussion during the September 20, 2018 meeting of the Downtown Parking Commission regarding the need for consideration of a parking study for the downtown area and the 20% maximum for parking mitigation as a share of the public parking system. Turnblad asked for feedback that will inform the work scope of the study, after which he will issue a Request For Proposals to consultants. Turnblad described the RFP as necessary considering current staffing/resource levels and as a way to generate community buy-in to the project. Turnblad also explained that the study could be funded using parking enterprise funds. Council Liaison Junker noted that it would be useful to include financial information regarding the parking mitigation program to inform further discussions of the study in December 2018 or January 2019. Turnblad indicated that information is readily available. Commissioner Lettner asked for a general timeline the study would take to complete. Turnblad said it depends on the scope of work. Commissioner Peltier said the study should answer questions regarding how many employees park downtown and what times they park there. Chair Anderson added that the study should also answer how many residents park downtown and what times they park there. Turnblad said that staff conducted a study of land uses including residential parking in the downtown area in summer 2017, and that information regarding residential parking should be combined with employee and visitor parking. Commissioner McAllister said the study should also include information regarding businesses with parking requirements which have been grandfathered in under previous zoning rules, and thus do not require parking mitigation. Commissioner McAllister also added that the study shouldn’t count on the construction of another parking ramp within the next 4 or 5 years. Council Liaison Junker noted that some anticipated changes of use should be considered, such as the proposal to use the Armory building for residences with parking accommodated on-site. Council Liaison Junker also noted that employees are an important piece to consider and that the time of day is also important, for example office uses during the day compared to hotel or restaurant uses at night. Commissioner Peltier described the need for door-to-door communication with businesses in the downtown area. Turnblad explained that the staff study of uses in the downtown area took 6 months during summer 2017. Turnblad added that door-knocking alone will likely take more than 3 months, and that he expected a 50% response rate would be considered a success. Commissioner Peltier asked if an open-house would be useful for gathering data. Commissioner Peltier also noted that it is important to consider, when developing the scope of work, what the data will do for the Commission and what solutions they might inform. Council Liaison Junker added that numbers and counts remain useful on their own. Downtown Parking Commission November 15, 2018 Page 7 of 8 Commissioner McAllister asked how precise the study needs to be and if analytics would be useful. Council Liaison Junker noted that a 50% response rate for door-knocking seems low. Commissioner Hopfe said that business owners don’t always know about the parking habits for their employees. Turnblad clarified the difference between a market study and a parking study, and stated that tax data is obtainable for employee counts for downtown businesses. Commissioner McAllister emphasized that the study should inform the Commission how to approve requests for parking mitigation going forward considering, in part, that the 20% maximum used in the past has now been exceeded. Council Liaison Junker suggested using a sector-based approach splitting the downtown around Myrtle Street or Chestnut Street. Turnblad explained that staff have past studies from the 1990s and 2000s that have used this approach. Council Liaison Junker suggested those studies are likely outdated. Commissioner Hopfe said the study should also consider other reasons people come to downtown besides working and shopping, such as visiting parks. Turnblad suggested that he gather comments from the meeting and reach out to numerous consultants that may be interested in conducting the study. Turnblad would then extend invitation to a few consultants to come to the January meeting of the Downtown Parking Commission for further discussion of this item. Lift Bridge/Chestnut Street Plaza Project Turnblad gave an update on the status of the Chestnut Street Plaza Project. Plans for the project are incorporated in the Downtown chapter of the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which must be approved by the Metropolitan Council before it can be adopted and implemented. Turnblad explained that MnDOT has around $2 million in bonding funds that may be available for completion of the plaza project, which would be designed in 2020 and constructed in 2021. Turnblad said he will bring a copy of the plan to the December meeting of the Downtown Parking Commission for further discussion. MISCELLANEOUS The Commission noted that the December meeting of the Downtown Parking Commission will include discussion of redistribution of designated parking spaces in the downtown area including 15-minute, 30-minute, 3-hour, loading zones, ADA, and other designations. Council Liaison Junker expressed the need for consistency in this process. Chair Anderson expressed the need for justification for any changes since some businesses may experience loss of a time-designated Downtown Parking Commission November 15, 2018 Page 8 of 8 parking space. Commissioner Johnson said some of the responsibility should be on individual property owners to bring requests to the Commission. Chair Anderson said that the Commission can take some responsibility for overall redistribution and setting standards for the downtown area. Turnblad expressed the need for engagement and communication with downtown stakeholders before final changes are approved. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 10:03 a.m. Respectfully Submitted, Bill Turnblad, acting secretary