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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-08-20 DTPC MIN DOWNTOWN PARKING COMMISSION MEETING August 20, 2020 Chair McAllister called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. Present: Chair McAllister, Commissioners Anderson, Glynn (arrived at 8:48), Lettner, LePage, Council Liaison Junker Absent: Commissioners Hopfe and Johnson Staff present: City Clerk Wolf, Community Development Director Turnblad, Police Chief Gannaway, Zoning Administrator Tait, Parking Enforcement Officer Pasket APPROVAL OF MINUTES Possible approval of minutes of July 16, 2020 meeting Chair McAllister said it incorrectly states that Chairman Anderson called the meeting to order. Motion by Commissioner Lettner, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to approve the July 16, 2020 meeting minutes as corrected. All in favor. OPEN FORUM There were no public comments. NEW BUSINESS Starcade Parking Mitigation Plan Community Development Director Turnblad said the applicant requested this item be tabled. Parking Study Work Plan Mr. Turnblad provided background on the Parking Study done by HKGi. The City Council has reviewed the study and directed the DTPC to put together a recommended work plan to implement the nine strategies in the report over the next several years. Councilmember Junker summarized the Council discussion: the study was very general and didn’t offer solutions to go with the strategies, so they felt they didn’t get as much value from the study as anticipated. Mr. Turnblad said he views it as positive that the Council and Commission are already familiar with the issues of the current system. This is the first step toward a plan that will offer solutions. Regarding the recommendation to convert on-street parking to two hours, Councilmember Junker shared that the Council felt the study lacked evidence that this has helped in other cities. The other big topic was the need to work with businesses on employee parking. Mr. Turnblad pointed out that the number of parking spaces that need to be moved to make the system work well is fairly small. The Commission should tweak the nine strategies and put together a timeframe to take little steps over the next few years to create those extra spaces needed in the core downtown area. He led discussion of prioritizing the strategies in the study and suggested that Strategy #1, Utilization Counts, is of medium urgency. The counts are important to see if the plan is going in right direction, but the points of greatest parking need are already known. Commissioners agreed. Regarding Strategy #3, On Street Time Restriction, Councilmember Junker said he doubts that the City Council will approve implementing two-hour on street parking within six months, without good data supporting the change. Downtown Parking Commission Meeting August 20, 2020 Page 2 of 4 Mr. Turnblad said, speaking personally as an advisor, what he heard from several Councilmembers was fairly narrowly focused. A person parking downtown to eat in a restaurant might need more than two hours. That leads directly into the reason the City wants to free up those on street parking spaces. He personally believes the two-hour limit is very important. The way to direct users to appropriate parking areas is to be restrictive about on street parking. Councilmember Junker agreed he can support the two-hour parking but the other four Councilmembers perceived a lack of data in the report to support the conversion. Commissioner Anderson asked, do the Councilmembers need the data or do they need the reason for the change? The City does not enforce after a certain time and everybody abuses it and there is zero buy-in from restaurants whose wait staff park on the street all evening. The Commission is in favor of reducing the hours at least in certain zones to push users to the outer parking lots. He does not understand why the Council needs data. It’s an easy concept to grasp. Mr. Turnblad remarked that the HKGi cost for the study was $15,000 and the next higher estimate was $85,000 which likely would have produced a more in-depth study. Commissioner Anderson commented there needs to be an education campaign to help the Council and the public understand the parking issues. Chair McAllister agreed. Given the effort needed for buy-in, she is not sure six months is a reasonable timeline for implementation of Strategy #3, although this is a high urgency priority. Commissioner Glynn stated the best time to start an educational effort is in the off season to give restaurants and retailers a chance to get used to it rather than trying to change between May and October. Chair McAllister suggested Strategy #2, Wayfinding & Signage, is medium urgency, somewhere in the middle of the rollout of the plan. Other Commissioners agreed. Strategy #7, Employee Parking, is one of the biggest issues and also one of the biggest opportunities to partner with downtown employers. The issue will involve discussions with all of the downtown businesses - which will help in executing the rest of the plan. Councilmember Junker said the Council noted that buy-in from businesses will be dependent on providing employee parking areas that are well-lit, safe and clean. Mr. Turnblad said another thing the Council discussed was data - how many employees there are. He questioned the importance of collecting this data, and suggested it may be good enough to know where the restaurants are and to acknowledge that evenings and weekends are key crunch time for parking. He feels the City doesn’t need data so much as source and destination research. He suggested that Strategy #5, Parking Ordinances & Requirements, seems to be low priority. Commissioners agreed. Councilmember Junker reminded the Commissioners they had strongly supported raising the charge to $5 in Lot 2. When the consultant mentioned converting Lots 3, 4, and 5 to pay lots, it caught him off guard because he did not recall Commission discussion of that. Commissioner Anderson said he didn’t think the Commission discussed charging for Lots 3, 4, and 5. Converting free lots to pay lots encourages people to park on street - which is counter to what the Commission is trying to do. He would not support converting any free lots to pay lots. Chair McAllister commented she is comfortable raising Lot 2 to $5 and labeling this medium urgency. Regarding Strategy #4, Enforcement & Technology, Mr. Turnblad said that an easy fix that is not too expensive would be to use a license plate recognition system. This would be a major change from what is done right now. He added that a new Police Chief will come on board soon when Chief Gannaway retires. Commissioner Lettner agreed that enforcement should be high urgency, but first the City needs to educate the users and make efforts to change their behavior. Commissioner Anderson suggested that license plate recognition technology could first be used as a data collection tool. Then the City can decide when to use it as an enforcement tool and give tickets. Downtown Parking Commission Meeting August 20, 2020 Page 3 of 4 Parking Enforcement Officer Pasket remarked he has repeatedly heard about enforcement being too hard on people and drawing complaints. Current enforcement is lax. If more tickets were written, there would be more complaints. There must be a balance between enforcement and non-enforcement. It’s nearly always the shop owners and the employees who park on the street, not the customers. Numerous shop owners park right in front of their store and pay the ticket just for the convenience. He urged the Commission, if it chooses license plate recognition, to make sure the Council will support it and will be able to live with the fact there will be a lot more tickets written. Councilmember Junker responded that if a high percentage of the tickets are issued to business owners and employees, that is what the City is trying to eliminate for guests to have better access. He doesn’t have as much sympathy for a business owner or employee who gets a ticket as he does for a guest. Mr. Turnblad went on to suggest that Strategy #6, Customer Service and Strategy #9, Event Parking, may be low priority due to this year’s cancellation of events, and the philosophy that customer service is a constant core value, not really a strategy. Chair McAllister said the Commission might consider working on event parking in the slow season as it is a big body of work that will take time and partnership. Mr. Turnblad agreed that off season planning is important but event parking discussions will probably happen NEXT off season due to workload. This is medium priority. In the coming weeks, he will itemize specific tasks necessary for each of the strategies. Once the Commission has determined what the tasks are, it will need to determine what it will cost in terms of time, money and finding funding sources. The Commission will probably discuss it for two more meetings before sharing the work plan with the Council. Police Chief Gannaway stated this will be his last Parking Commission meeting as he is retiring September 30. He cautioned the Commission against an enforcement approach that distinguishes between visitors, employees, and business owners. Enforcement is not to generate revenue, it’s done for behavior modification and must be applied equally and evenly to everyone. UNFINISHED BUSINESS There was no unfinished business. UPDATES There were no updates. ADJOURNMENT Chair McAllister adjourned the meeting at 9:51 a.m. Respectfully Submitted, Julie Kink, Recording Secretary Heidi McAllister, Chair ATTEST: Beth Wolf, City Clerk