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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-14-16 FinalBPC MinutesExhibit 1 BOZEMAN PARKING COMMISSION January 14, 2016, 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. City Commission Room, City Hall Minutes Committee Member- Ben Bennet: Present Committee Member - Pamela Bryan: Present Committee Member - Kelly Wiseman : Present Committee Member - Ryan Olson: Present Committee Member - Dennis Bechtold: Present Committee Member - Ben Lloyd: Absent Committee Member - Chris Naumann: Present Staff - Thomas Thorpe : Present Staff - Chuck Winn: Present Staff - Kristen Pitcher: Present Staff - Laurae Clark: Present Staff- Cyndy Andrus: Present 07:33:28 AM I. Call to order, 7:30 a.m. Ryan called the meeting to order. 07:33:44 AM II. Disclosures of Ex Parte Communication None III. Changes to the Agenda The agenda form had a correction. Public comment section should be listed as Number V. 07:34:29 AM IV. Approval of December 2015 minutes Eric Nelson’s name needs to be corrected to Eric with a c not a k. Ben Bennet stated he had opposed the motion to approve an additional lease in the garage for the Lark hotel— the motion was not approved, unanimously. Exhibit 1 Chris made a motion to approve the minutes with those corrections. The motion was seconded by Pamela Bryan and the minutes were approved unanimously. 07:35:43 AM V. Public Comment – Members of the audience or their agent may be invited to present testimony or evidence. To be recognized, each person desiring to give testimony or evidence shall step forward and, after being recognized, give their name and address for the record. The presiding officer may establish a time frame for each public comment but in no case shall such time frame be less than three (3) minutes per speaker. The presiding officer may lengthen or shorten the time allotted for public testimony. Cory Lawrence (24 W. Mendenhall) gave a brief update on the Armory Building. He stated they are still moving forward on this project. They have electricity on and have been doing work inside. Cory is waiting on his investors to give the go ahead before they will start doing the outside work and closing off the parking lot. As soon as he gets more information, he will pass it on to the Bozeman Parking Commission (BPC). 07:38:09 AM VI. The State of Parking Report- Year in Review Tom gave an update on the parking garage. The reports show that the use in the Parking Garage is going up. This is a good thing; the public is starting to use it more. Tom had a Parking Officer on duty the night of the Christmas stroll and as a result, we didn’t have any broken arms or complaints. He is going to start doing this on the busier nights when things are going on Downtown. This, in the long run, will help us save money on broken equipment and public complaints. Tom would like the BPC to start thinking about taking away the 2 hour free parking in the Garage. This will help bring in more money. Right now the majority of our revenues come from Citations and parking. Parking will not be able to continue to meet the budget if that’s all we rely on. The Parking department has been short officers most of the year and it’s going to be very difficult to make up the budget shortfall in citation revenue. Cyndy asked if the City is really losing that much money by having the 2 hour free parking. Tom informed the group that his calculations come to about $12,000 in lost revenue a month due to the 2 hour free parking. Pamela asked for clarification. Most parking in the garage is only about 2 hours long and most of these numbers are from the 11am-1pm time frame. The Element has not been using AVI cards due because they are afraid that customers will take them home or lose them, and at $40 a card, that is too much of a risk. Instead, they have been using validation tickets, which we print for them. At this time there is no Exhibit 1 really good way to track what the hotels are using. There is a program that BPC could get that would allow the hotels to use the room keys, but this is a pricey option. Tom has talked to the hotels to see if they would like to work with us to get this program, as it would benefit both parties. Tom asked everyone to please contact him if they think of other questions later regarding this report. Chuck provided some more information regarding the Etha Hotel. In August 2013 the city signed an agreement that gave Cory 84 parking spaces in the garage (60) were designated to be in the basement. Cory shouldn’t have to start paying anything until he starts construction. Cory wants everyone to understand what this means. It is a 25 year parking agreement/perpetual lease. Parking payments on the full 84 will start at the time the Etha is open for business. A second licensing agreement was also signed that states he will begin paying for the closure of the parking lot at the Armory when construction starts. In addition he will also begin paying for 54 of his spaces in the garage. Those spots will be used for subcontractors, and other businesses around the building site, if they would like to use them. Pam asked if we have leased anything in the basement. Chuck told the commission that the Finance department has not sold any basement spots, and will not be selling them any time soon. 08:04:14 AM VII. Rick Williams Parking Plan Report- Community meeting Jan 13, 2016 6:30 to 8:00PM. Report to BPC 7:30 to 9:00 AM. Business Community Meeting Jan 14, 2016 12:00 to 1:30PM Rick Williams presented his findings to date. He has submitted three different memos to date with the information that they have discovered so far. Some of the initial findings have been; • Clarifying current on-street parking signage (particularly in areas where unlimited parking is allowed) • Rename all lots/Garage by their addresses • Upgrade access/revenue control systems at Bridger Garage. • Install counter system at the Bridger Garage, and all Parking lots owned by the City of Bozeman. • Develop and adopt a rate setting policy for parking • Managing Growth is something that the BPC needs to look at too. This will help you 5-10 years down the road. Exhibit 1 • Continue routine data collection; enhanced to evaluate occupancy, turnover and larger on street sample areas. • Identify/procure strategically located parcel that could accommodate future structured parking facilities (Even if you don’t use them). • Initiate process to evaluate financial feasibility. Possibly implementation of an on-street pay to park program. • Finalize options that would establish a funding program to support future development of new supply. He stated there is a key difference between parking management and a parking plan. Parking management requires continued and focused action toward accomplishing strategic goals. A plan is informative but inactive. Rick Williams will be creating guiding principles that clarify: • City role and coordination • Priority customers • Capacity management • Information systems • Integration with other modes The fact that Bozeman offers a cash-in lieu program is progressive; however, current parking requirements may not provide the funding necessary to develop new parking and support the intensification of uses. The current fee is $5,000.00 per stall. The fees are generally calibrated to the level of commitment the city makes to the payer for access to an off-site parking supply: an entitlement to parking access. The lower the payer’s expectation of entitlement as a result of the fee, the lower the fee assessed. The higher the expectation of entitlement to parking, the higher the fee assessed. He brought up the question, what is the City going to provide in return for the CIL. You can make this program work for you if you do it the right way and make sure that you understand it in the fullest. There is no wrong answer; it just needs to be clear on what you want to do as a City. The city has a CIL program; it just needs to be revised so that it functions appropriately for our expectations. Chris doesn’t want to put parking on just the private sector, and he feels that this information needs to be looked at more thoroughly. He suggested that the BPC may need to meet more often than once a month for a while to get a handle on this now. Pam wants to discuss the city’s role in parking. She feels that this is a tool that helps the city to get people to help with the parking so it doesn’t all fall back on the city to find the parking spaces. This is a tool that can help the city a lot if it is used correctly. Rick can figure out how much each stall would cost to help with the update of the CIL, but will the city be able to come up with the rest of the money that the CIL doesn’t bring in? The BPC will not be building a new garage tomorrow, but the City can start looking at the future. Exhibit 1 Rick explained that paying into a CIL doesn’t mean that you don’t have to pay for a parking spot. It does not mean that the spot belongs to that person. You have entitlement but you do not own it. It is the city’s spot. You can put them in the Bridger garage, then move them to a different location. It’s all how you word your CIL. Chris wants to know where we can put the entitlements now. There isn’t a lot of space to do it right now. Is this going to be a build it and then do it? Rick stated that was a good question. This is where Tom really needs to be able to have great data on this. Once you figure that out, you could set the CIL up to where you can only sell 100 spots, after that you will have to suspend the sale of the CIL, and then you would have to find more financing to build more spots. But again, you have to update a counting system. 09:09:12 AM VIII. New business Tom informed everyone that he will be fully staffed by February. 09:10:29 AM IX. Adjournment Chris adjourned the Meeting at 9:10am The next Bozeman Parking Commission meeting will be held February 11, 2016 at 7:30am at City Hall. Bozeman Parking Commission meetings are open to all members of the public. If you have a disability that requires assistance, please contact our ADA Coordinator, Chuck Winn at 582-2307.