Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-09-13 Parking Commission Minutes Bozeman Parking Commission Meeting October 9, 2013 7:30 a.m. City Hall Commission Room Parking Commissioners in Attendance: Ben Lloyd Chris Naumann Kelly Wiseman Ben Bennett Ryan Olson City Staff in Attendance: Scott Lee, Parking Manager Laurae Clark, Treasurer Ashlie Portnell, Parking Clerk Daniel Tolar, Parking Department Guests in Attendance: Rick Noonan Chris Kukulski Anna Rosenberry Action Items: None. I. Call to order, 7:30 a.m. Chris called the meeting to order at 7:30 a.m. II. Approval of September 2013 minutes Chris asked for a motion to approve the August 2013 minutes. Kelly motioned to approve the August 2013 minutes. Ben B seconded. The motion was carried unanimously. III. Public Comment— State name and address. Please limit comments to 3 • minutes. Rich Noonan of 113 W Cleveland St came in to talk about the parking issue on his street. He lives on the edge of the MSU parking district. He lives on a block that is not in the district. The people, who live nearby in the district, do not want to get parking permits for their vehicles, so they park on the other streets/blocks,because permits are not required. Rich and the other neighbors on his side of the street have now lost all parking available in front of their homes. Rich is requesting that they be allowed to purchase parking permits without actually being added into the parking district. Chris stated that the BPC will have a discussion about the issue and put it on the BPC agenda for next month. Chris asked Scott if he would get in touch with Rich when a resolution has been reached. Scott agreed. IV. Disclosures (new item) Barbara Prowse attended the BPC meeting in August 2013 to talk about the ADA citation that was issued to her. Her appeal of her ticket was denied. The executive committee had a meeting and decided that her citation would be reduced to a warning. Last week Barbara called Chris N. stating that she received a letter in the mail from the City of Bozeman saying that her ticket had . increased. The letter had been sent to her stating it was changed to a warning, but the system was not changed, and that is why she received a notice. Chris spoke to Ashlie in the Finance office and explained that the citation should be changed in the system. Barbara was contacted again and told it was taken care of. V. Manager's Report(info) — Including finance report Scott presented the August and September financials to the BPC. Currently we are running over budget in expenses as there were a lot of expenses at the beginning of the year. Scott went over what has been spent so far this year,what was budgeted and what we actually spent. Transient revenue for the parking garage is ahead of budget. December and January permit payments will substantially increase the garage permit revenue numbers. `i I VI. Surface Lot& Parking Garage Rate increases (ACTION) Scott and Chris N. presented a 2013 Comparative and Lot Lease Rates from our sister cities. Chris spoke to Anne Guest who runs the parking facilities in Missoula. She explained that she ! has tried over the years to do a percentage increase, and eventually switched to doing a set dollar amount increase every other year. Ryan, Ben Band Kelly all like the$5.00 increase every other year. The $5.00 amount is just a recommendation, as the BPC reviews and decides on the rates annually. This recommended information should be available to the public, but will not be in a chart format which may make the public thinks that is for sure what they will be paying for their permits in the future. Chris motioned to increase the parking garage permits to $45.00 for general permits and $55.00 for basement permits effective January 1, 2014. Kelly seconded the motion. The motion was carried unanimously. VII. Presentation of Future of Downtown Parking — Chris (Discussion) Chris presented the Strategic parking report to the BPC. A group organized by Chris (including business owners and others with an interest in downtown parking) met once and came up with these three objectives and several solutions to each. Objective#1: Increase parking use and efficiency of existing parking inventory-on street, public lots, private lots and structured parking. Objective#2: Expand overall inventory of on-street, surface lots and structured parking. Objective#3: Develop a more robust parking revenue system to finance parking capital projects in addition to on-going and future maintenance needs The BPC needs to review and decide what the best solutions are. Chris wanted the BPC to be thinking about these objectives and the possible solutions as this will be an agenda item in the future. Discussion ensued on how to come up with revenue for future garage maintenance needs. Chris Kukulski suggested another option of creating a parking special improvement district (SID) or doing a general assessment of tax revenue for parking. It was suggested that the surface lots could become pay lots. People could still purchase permits to park in the lots, but everyone would pay to park in the lot. Chris N likes the idea of creating an SID. Maybe the BPC could come up with a five year plan of the financial needs of the parking garage and surface Iots. Ben B likes the idea of an SID as well. Chris N likes the option to turn the surface lots into pay lots (no two free hours), which would allow people to park longer than 2 hours without receiving a citation. This will be an agenda item for the next two or three BPC meetings. Scott will create some reports and documents and present it to the BPC at the next meeting. Chris asked Anna Rosenberry what she thinks. She stated that the BPC should do a cost of service study. The study would look at a couple different levels of service options for the future. The BPC should come up with an accumulation of cost and revenue requirements. Anna offered to help Scott with this. VIII. Capital Improvements Program (ACTION) Scott met with Anna Rosenberry, Chris Kukulski and Chuck Winn to talk about the Capital Improvements Program for FYI 5-19 (CIP). This is the second year that the BPC has been involved in the program. Anna Rosenberry helped Scott create the Parking Fund Capital Improvement Plan which was presented to the BPC. Scott put in items that he thought should be on the list. Anna explained that the BPC needs to review the list and move to un-scheduled the items that they do not have the funds to complete at this time. The Parking CIP cannot have a deficit in the final year of the plan. Scott asked Anna to explain to the BPC how the Improvement plan works. Anna stated that it is based on a 5 year projection, starting 2015. The Enterprise fund needs to pay for its own capital for the projects. Anna explained that there isn't a portion of operating revenue currently budgeted to help fund any future projects at this time. Until you have enough annual revenues to meet all operating expenses and have a reserve, you don't have money to fund anything else. Ryan suggested adding handhelds that would also take pictures be scheduled on the plan. Scott asked for permission from the BPC to remove and un-schedule some of the items on the list. It will be presented again in November. Ben L asked what the time frame is for it to be completed. Anna said it needs to be completed by December 15th, once it's blessed from the BPC then it goes to the City Commission as part of the citywide CIP. Scott will remove and un-schedule some items and present it to the BPC at the November 2013 meeting for approval. IX. Appeals Process Ryan asked Scott how the appeals process currently works. Scott explained in detail the appeals process to the BPC. There has been an average of 200 appeals per month the last few months. Scott explained that more tickets are being issued per month due to having a fourth officer on staff, and expanding the officer routes throughout the entire city limits. Scott mentioned that MSU has a committee that meets about twice a month and goes through each appeal--one at a time, and the committee as a whole makes the decision. Chris asked if the officer that issued the ticket gets the appeal. Scott said yes they do, and that he also reviews the appeal and makes the final decision. It was suggested that the appeals should go to two officers for review and a final decision, but that the officer who wrote the ticket be in on discussion. Scott likes that idea. Scott will come up with a new appeals process and present it at the November 2013 meeting. X. New business Scott mentioned to the BPC that Madison Engineering has inquired about putting a hotel on the east side of the American Legion Building(currently vacant lot). They enquired about leasing spaces in the garage on a long term basis. They have already contacted the City Engineering Department. They asked to buy spaces on Main Street in front of the building and have been told they cannot. XI. Adjournment Chris adjourned the meeting at 9:30a.m. Respectfully Submitted Ashlie Portnell, Parking Clerk