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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-05-11 DTPC MIN - Special Meeting DOWNTOWN PARKING COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING May 11, 2021 Chair McAllister called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Present: Chair McAllister, Commissioners Anderson, Hopfe, Council Liaison Junker Absent: Commissioners Glynn, Johnson, LePage and Lettner Staff present: Community Development Director Turnblad, Police Chief Mueller APPROVAL OF MINUTES Possible approval of minutes of March 8, 2021 special meeting No vote was taken, as there was not a quorum present. NEW BUSINESS Parking Capacity Work Plan Community Development Director Turnblad led a discussion of the strategies for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Commissioner Anderson commented on Strategy 3, On-Street Time Restrictions. If public outreach about changing to two-hour parking on Main Street is to take place in January-March 2022, planning should begin soon. Councilmember Junker said when the parking study was submitted to the City Council last year, the Council did not appear to be in favor of going shorter than 3 hours for Main Street parking. Commissioner Hopfe noted there will be an impact, for instance if people want to shop and then dine somewhere, if there are waiting lines at restaurants then they risk a parking ticket. Commissioner Anderson questioned how many parking spaces would actually be impacted. Councilmember Junker answered there are 416 on-street three-hour parking spaces - 21% of the City’s entire 1,948 spaces. Mr. Turnblad pointed out there are 100-150 Main Street spaces from Nelson to Mulberry, less than 10% of the total. The Commission and Council can decide where to start the two-hour parking. Police Chief Mueller informed the Commission of a change in the Police Department’s operational posture. He will be assigning three officers downtown full time, potentially another Parking Enforcement Officer and some Community Service Officers, as part of a long term plan to have a stronger presence downtown. For this reason, he feels it is appropriate to postpone implementation of an LPR system until 2022 at the earliest. Downtown Parking Commission Meeting May 11, 2021 Page 2 of 2 Chair McAllister said the Commission looks forward to working with the Police Department to change the behavior of parking violators who know how to get under the radar to avoid enforcement. Mr. Turnblad reviewed other strategies set for 2022 and 2023. He elaborated on Strategy 9, Event Parking. The plan is to start developing a menu of options for organizers of large events to choose from, so the City sets the parameters, rather than the event organizers. A dedicated shuttle bus, for instance, could be very difficult to staff and maintain, so perhaps the City would identify vendors who have available capacity to do shuttles to and from specified lots, and then event organizers would have to hire from a list of those vendors. Councilmember Junker pointed out that special event traffic can be comparable to crowds for a normal weekend downtown which is always busy. Commissioner Hopfe asked if there is a point where the Council would limit events May 1 to October 1 until the parking capacity can handle it again, for instance after a second parking ramp is built. Councilmember Junker said he doubts the Council has reached the point of a moratorium, but personally he thinks the City is maxed out. There needs to be a balance between downtown residents, employee and visitor parking. He doesn’t think it’s feasible for the City to host an event every weekend and several during the week. Mr. Turnblad added that maybe an interim step would be to allow events only every other week. Chair McAllister stated that from an economic development perspective, in the past the City tried to attract events to support downtown business, but now with the trail system opening, the trail users may be taking the place of event goers as far as supporting business. It remains to be seen. Mr. Turnblad said staff is a little apprehensive that the trail system opened up during COVID and therefore the City may really be swamped when COVID releases its grip. However, the opposite could also be true - numbers may be higher due to COVID. By 2023 some patterns should emerge. He continued reviewing the strategies proposed for 2024. Chair McAllister remarked the Commission previously discussed having some way to interface with the public and stakeholders. Before finalizing this plan, it might be helpful to better understand the general stakeholder groups, and their considerations around each item. Mr. Turnblad replied that maybe in 2021 or 2022 the Commission should work on identifying constituents. Councilmember Junker said he is not sure how the Council will react as the Commission starts to work on each strategy. The Council and the Commission need to be on the same page. Mr. Turnblad agreed there needs to be general agreement with the Council on the plan as a whole. Then each year during budgeting time, staff looks at the work plans for the next year and develops a proposed budget for Commission review. If an item is not in the work plan, it’s hard to get dollars approved for that project. Every year the Commission refreshes the goals for that year. Police Chief Mueller said he envisions a more engaged police force downtown. The police shouldn’t be involved in setting parking rates or determining parking spaces needed; their purview is to enforce the law, not to legislate. However, they can become involved in identifying the groups that will be impacted. ADJOURNMENT Chair McAllister adjourned the meeting at 7:58 p.m. Downtown Parking Commission Meeting May 11, 2021 Page 3 of 6 Heidi McAllister, Chair ATTEST: Beth Wolf, City Clerk