HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-15-09 Parking Commission Minutes
Bozeman Parking Commission Meeting
May 15th, 2009 at 7:30 a.m.
Upstairs Conference Room of City Hall
Parking Commissioners in Attendance:
Chris Pope
Tammy Hauer
Pam Bryan
Lisa Danzl-Scott
City Staff in Attendance:
Shannon Fish, Parking Clerk
Paul Burns, Parking Manager
Laurae Clark, Treasurer
Rich McLane, Lieutenant
Guests in Attendance:
Brian Caldwell, Thinktank
Lee Hazelbaker, Streamline Bus
Action Items:
N/A
0:00:05 7:36:35 7:30 – Call to Order
Chris pope called the meeting to order at 7:36 a.m.
0:01:34 7:38:04 7:31 – 7:40 – Approval of April 2 and April 24 minutes
There were two sets of minutes submitted for approval.
The April 2nd meeting was a full meeting, Pam made a motion and Lisa seconded those minutes. The
minutes were approved.
The April 24th minutes were about that garage signage. Pam made a motion and Chris Pope
seconded. The minutes were approved.
0:03:14 7:39:44 1. Snow load update
Susan Stodola sent Paul a memo from 2005 that was issued by the structural engineers, DCI of Spokane.
The memo stated that the roof can hold up to 40 psf or 27 inches with cars and 65 psf or 44 inches
without cars. This will be important information when we revisit the snow removal contract in the late
summer and should greatly reduce the expected cost.
0:06:53 7:43:23 2. Grand opening plans
The grand opening is set for May 29 at 5pm with a ribbon cutting by the Green Coats and food and
refreshments provided by Mackenzie River Pizza and the Leaf and Bean.
Sponsorships have been pledged or received from NWE, Qwest, Morrison-Mairerle, Martel
Construction, Carl Walker Parking and Protection Tech. No small businesses funding should be needed.
Flyers will be spread throughout downtown and merchants will offer a discount for customers showing a
parking spitter ticket. We will also distribute free one-day parking validation tickets to downtown
residents and employees. Invitations will go out via email.
Costs will approximately be: $625 Moose Radio, $250 food, $450 newspaper, totaling $1325. In addition
we will distribute 500 free one-day validation tickets.
0:15:38 7:52:07 3. Protection Tech updates
After many performance complaints to Protection tech a technician Manager arrived Last Friday to
resolve our issues. He also installed new software that brought down the APM'S. This led to a loss of
cash revenue. We also had 2 gates broken in the early hours of May 9th. All was restored on May 12th.
The most important fix was the Black Avenue exit/entrance which now works great.
0:17:31 7:54:00 4. Signage update
Paul is waiting to install new Exit and Entrance signs at Mendenhall and Black accesses. He is also
waiting for delivery of large way finding signs for the east and west sheer walls. Paul is making
arrangements for the Blue P signs to be installed.
Today Paul believes that the signage in the stairwells should be held off for a little bit.
Chris Pope and Pam want to put this initiative on ice for a little bit, Chris made a motion that we don't
do the instruction signs in the stairwells on the recommendation of the Parking Manager. And due to
the amount of other activity that these signs will be put on hold till the next meeting. Lisa made a
motion and Pam seconded. The motion was approved.
0:18:48 7:55:18 5. Sweeper
The garage is a dirty, dusty place. James and Paul are looking to purchase a sweeper to be used often.
James would pay 50% from his FY 2009 budget; the other 50% would come from parking. However there
is no parking funding available.
0:32:21 8:08:51 6. Mural update
MSU has dampened its enthusiasm for the project. Professor Jeff Conger is unsure the scope is doable
and unsure if it really fits into the curriculum. Paul will meet with the person funding the project while in
Denver next week. Plan B is to contact individuals interested in the project, but that would be harder to
manage and probably more expensive.
0:36:33 8:13:03 7. Retail fence update
The fence is in place even though there wasn't money for it. Paul felt that without the fence the retail
spaces were at risk and the garage was incomplete.
Paul will be in Denver May 16-19 and in Fort Collins on May 20. Paul will meet with Protection Tech
management and Dennis Burns from Carl Walker, among others. Sid Bush from James' staff will be the
eyes and ears for the garage during Paul’s absence.
0:38:54 8:15:24 9. Painting west end of first floor
Paul proposes that we paint over two spaces on the west end of the first floor to allow for more vehicle
maneuvering. When cars get backed up at Mendenhall exit, it shuts off access to Black Exit. Eliminating
the spaces may allow for better egress traffic during mass exits such as after a show at the Ellen Theater.
Paul is moving forward on painting STEP in red on curbs near west stair exit on first floor and east stair
on second floor due to a dropdown hazard. Eventually that will be needed in additional locations.
Qwest did some work in the alley, but the cabling is still hanging down and disappearing into the ground
in the middle of the alley. It should be done by May 22, but paving by the Grand Opening is doubtful. We
will have to push the dumpsters away from Grand Opening site.
The East elevator shaft continues to pump water. The North elevator shaft often has water, and the
west elevator remains dry. There was hydrostatic pressure on the basement floor, but new pump
systems in the east elevator shaft seems to have eased that somewhat. Hopefully paving the alley and
creating drainage to east and west will keep water from the basement.
0:49:04 8:25:34 8:10 – 8:25 – Street report, Rich (change to city ordinance, re:
skateboards)
Regarding the garage gates one of the sergeants did talk to someone about the breaking of the arm. The
recommendation was to have someone pay for the damage instead of charging them with a crime.
Patrols have been stepped up quite a bit. There have been some skateboarders that have gotten in
trouble at the garage.
Rich looked at the ordinance that is in place and it states that we can tell people to not ride their
skateboards. There is a problem though if we had to go to court with one of the situations. It is very
clear that there are no skateboarders allowed in the garage, the districts or on the sidewalks and streets
of downtown. The description of a skateboard was also described in this ordinance. Prior to this
ordinance skateboards were not allowed on any roadway. Rich is making it so that people who are
exercising or obeying the laws on the roadways obey the same laws that a bicyclist does. This will be
presented in June at the commission meeting.
North Tracy used to be diagonal parking. Rich is noting that he would never recommend this again. They
even had to tow a vehicle due to the car sticking out into the traffic lane once the parking was returned
to parallel parking.
The boot ordinance update is that it has not been touched at this time. Rich is hoping to work through it
this summer. Rich can still get a few offenders with this in place possibly this summer.
Rich has some personnel flexes going on. Brian McCormick is starting on Monday. He will be training
Monday through Friday. He will then go to the off shift and we will have 6 day coverage at the point that
he is on the streets.
Connie Lien is retiring on the 22nd. Kathy Middleton is being promoted to that position so that will
open up the 3/4 time for Kathy's old position. This will not be till July or August.
Rich is looking at the budgets and is using general fund money to refit one of the older cars to have it for
the other officers to use.
1:05:18 8:41:48 8:40 – 8:55 – Permit/transient revenue, Laurae
Currently there are 127 permits sold in the Garage. 20 of those are the Baxter permits and they have not
been used at all. 74 are in general parking and 53 are in the basement. Laurae estimates that half of
them are monthly parkers. Our transient revenue from April 13 till May 12 was $1521.35 and we have
sold $87.50 in validation tickets.
Chris Pope stated that we need to hit the downtown area hard to get more permitees into the garage.
We need to hit the marketing side and get people aware of this facility and get them into it as soon as
possible.
1:14:06 8:50:35 8:55 – New business/Public comment
Chris Pope noted that there are terms expiring at the end of next month for Parking Commissioners.
Chris Pope, Larry and Tammy are the ones that are expiring. Chris has started conversations and there is
going to be a need to get some serious work done on board development. Chris Pope wants to step
down as chair and possibly have a revolving chair. He would like to be able to switch his end date with
Steve Schnee. Chris would like everyone to think about possible one person that we could bring on to
the Parking Commission. Chris did not that there are time restraints and he would like to see this done
as soon as possible. It was mentioned that Chris Naumann could be a possible candidate. Chris would
like to table this conversation till the next meeting and at that point we can talk about some more
possibilities. He would like to see more people on the board that are from the Downtown area though
for sure.
Brian Caldwell is scheduling the final closing to close out the retail space on June 2. They are going to
have a restaurant on Tracy and there is a 1st and 2nd offer on the spaces. The things that have come out
recently are that the architecture of the retail spaces is generic. Brian needs to install an opening on the
South face of retail one which is in the corridor by the west stair tower. There is a cluster of 4 windows
and he would use that framing to make an opening that would have a nice clean draw down door. Brian
does not believe that it is an issue to have approval for this and he just wants to get a sense if there is
concern from the parking commission on this idea.
The second item is related to Laurae's comments about revenue. With the 20/20 plan there is a big
target on the cash-in-lieu ideas. People are saying that it is a deterrent to the downtown businesses.
Brian is proposing that you can lease spaces in the garage to satisfy your parking requirements for the
cash-in-lieu portion of it. Brian would like any parking requirements to be an annual lease for a parking
garage space.
Chris Pope suggests that the Planning department comes to the commission with an idea for a
perpetual lease for the parking garage. Brian stated that it is the parking commission’s authority and
would like our ideas.
Chris Pope would like this on the agenda for the next meeting.
Brian would like to talk about signage inside the garage for the retail spaces at a future meeting.
Lee Hazelbaker, from Streamline, will have an operations meeting this morning with Streamline. The
question has come up about widening the entrance to the bus lane. His question is do we have an
objection to them pursuing that? It would be a matter of sitting down with someone to find out which
side of the sidewalk needs to be removed to allow the buses to fit better.
Lee Also noted that there are people crossing in front of busses and people are getting into a
predicament where the cars pulling into the garage are going too fast for those that are getting off of
the bus.
1:40:34 9:17:04 9:00 – Adjournment Chris Pope adjourned the meeting at 9:17 a.m.
Respectfully Submitted:
Shannon Fish