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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-10-16 Agenda and packetBOZEMAN PARKING COMMISSION March 10, 2016, 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. City Commission Room, City Hall Agenda I. Call to order, 7:30 a.m. II. Disclosures of Ex Parte Communication III. Changes to the Agenda IV. Approval of January 2017 minutes -See Attachment Exhibit 1 V. Approval of February 2017 minutes -See Attachment Exhibit 2 VI. 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 timeframe be less than three (3) minutes per speaker. The presiding officer may lengthen or shorten the time allotted for public testimony. VII. Election of Executive Officers. VIII. Review of Guiding Principles Discussion and Parking Plan Update IX. Manager’s Report -See Attachment Exhibit 3 X. Policy Discussion : “Garage 2-Hours Free” XI. New business. XII. Adjournment. The next Bozeman Parking Commission meeting will be held April 14 , 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 582-2307. Exhibit 1 BOZEMAN PARKING COMMISSION January 14, 2016, 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. City Commission Room, City Hall Minutes Committee Member - Pamela Bryan: Present Committee Member - Kelly Wiseman : Present Committee Member - Ryan Olson: Present Committee Member - Dennis Bechtold: Present Committee Member - Ben Lloyd: Present Committee Member - Chris Naumann: Present Staff - Thomas Thorpe : Present Staff - Chuck Winn: Present Staff - Kristen Pitcher: Present Staff - Laurae Clark: Present City Commission Liaison - Cyndy Andrus: Present 07:33:28 AM XIII. Call to order, 7:30 a.m. Ryan called the meeting to order. 07:33:44 AM XIV. Disclosures of Ex Parte Communication None XV. Changes to the Agenda Form change. Public comment section should be listed as Number V. 07:34:29 AM XVI. Approval of December 2015 minutes Eric Nelsons name needs to be corrected to Eric with a c not a k. Ben Lloyd stated he had opposed the motion to approve an additional lease in the garage for the Lark hotel— it was not approved unanimously. Exhibit 1 Chris made a motion to approve the minutes with those corrections. This was seconded by Pamela Bryan and the minutes were approved unanimously. 07:35:43 AM XVII. 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 timeframe 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 completion of bank financing related to the project before they will start doing the outside work and closing off the parking lot. As soon as soon as he gets more information he will pass it on to the Bozeman Parking Commission (BPC). 07:38:09 AM XVIII. 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 due to this we didn’t have any broken arms and any 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 to 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 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 the year and it’s going to be very difficult to make up the budget shortfall in citation revenue. Cyndy asked if we are 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. Exhibit 1 The Element has not been using AVI cards due to the fact that they are afraid that customers will take them home with them or lose them and at $40 a card that is too much of a risk. Instead, they have been using validation tickets that we print for them. There is no really good way to track what the hotels our using at this time. 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. It would help both parties out. Tom asked everyone to please contact him if they think of other questions later regarding this report. Chuck provided some more information regarding the long-term parking lease agreement related to the Etha Hotel. In August 2013 the city signed an agreement that provided for the long-term lease rights to the Etha Hotel for a minimum of UDC required parking spaces related to the project (currently estimated to be 84 spaces) and a not-to-exceed maximum of 100 spaces. At the time that use begins, the Etha Hotel will be obligated to begin paying for the lease spaces associated with the agreement. The Parking Commission agreed to allow Cory to clarify the information presented related to the long-term lease agreement. A second licensing agreement was also signed that states when construction starts he will start paying for the closure of the parking lot at the Armory. And, in addition he will also begin paying for the lease of 54 spaces in the garage; to offset the roughly 24 spaces lost related to the temporary closure of the Armory parking lot and to provide 30 spaces for construction-related vehicles. 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 XIX. 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. Exhibit 1 • 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. • 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, so 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. Exhibit 1 Pam wants to discuss the cities roll in parking. She feels that this is a tool that helps the city to get people to help with the parking and not making it 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. 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 cities 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 state 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 XX. New business Tom informed everyone that he will be fully staffed by February. 09:10:29 AM XXI. 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. Exhibit 2 BOZEMAN PARKING COMMISSION February 11, 2016, 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. City Commission Room, City Hall Commitee Member - Pamela Bryan: Absent Commitee Member - Kelly Wiseman : Present Commitee Member - Ryan Olson: Present Commitee Member - Dennis Bechtold: Present Commitee Member - Ben Lloyd: Present Commitee Member - Chris Naumann: Present Staff - Thomas Thorpe : Present Staff - Chuck Winn: Present Staff - Kristen Pitcher: Present Staff - Laurae Clark: Present Staff - Cyndy Andrus: Present Minutes 07:39:19 AM XXII. Call to order, 7:30 a.m. Ryan called the meeting to order at 7:40 a.m. XXIII. Disclosures of Ex Parte Communication There were no disclosures of ex parte communications. XXIV. Changes to the Agenda There were no changes to the agenda. Exhibit 2 07:40:27 AM XXV. Approval of December 2015 minutes -See Attachment Exhibit 1 Chuck stated that he wanted to clarify some comments that had been said at the last Bozeman Parking Commission (BPC) meeting. The comments related to the revenue that he stated was lost due to the Etha hotel. My answer was correct to what we could have made if we had leased those spaces. However, those spaces would not have all been leased and that lost revenue is not due to the Etha hotel. This would not change anything even if they started back in 2013 or any time since then. I would like to apologize to the Commission for my comments. They were accurate but incomplete. Cory Lawrence, (24 W. Mendenhall) commented he had submitted by email changes to the minutes. He is asking the BPC to approve those changes to the minutes, as people do read these minutes and he wants to make sure that his intent is clearly documented. Chris asked for clarification on what all goes in the minutes. Ryan announced that the written minutes are just a summary. The video and audio are the minutes. Cyndy Andrus stated that she did have a few corrections. Her name should be added to the roll call. There are also some spelling and grammar errors on the January minutes that need to be corrected. Exhibit 1 “public comments” the last sentence in the paragraph has a repeat of “As soon as soon as” needs to be removed to “as soon as”. Exhibit 1 “The state of parking report-year in review” 7 th paragraphs “no really good way to track what the hotels our using at this time.” Should be are using at this time. Exhibit 1 “The state of parking report-year in review” 9 th paragraphs “Cory does not have to start playing” should be “paying”. Chris informed the BPC that only they are authorized to make changes to the minutes after they are done. Ryan suggested that the BPC wait on the approval of the January minutes till the BPC listens and watches the recording of the January meeting. Greg Sullivan (Attorney for the City Of Bozeman) went over the BPC by-laws. The minutes need only to be a summary of the meeting. The written minutes are more for what was done not what was said. The video and audio are the true minutes. If there are any changes to the minutes the BPC need to vote and approve the changes before they can be done. Dennis made a motion to approve the spelling and grammar errors that Cyndy requested. This was seconded by Chris. Ben Lloyd and Ben Bennett asked to be excluded from voting on this due to not being at the January 14 th BPC meeting. Ryan tabled this motion till next meeting after everyone had time to complete a review. Exhibit 2 07:56:25 AM XXVI. 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 timeframe be less than three (3) minutes per speaker. The presiding officer may lengthen or shorten the time allotted for public testimony. Cory (24 W. Mendenhall) stated that he agrees with waiting on the review of the January meeting before approval of the minutes. He also wanted to thank the BPC for bringing in Rick Williams. He attended all three of the meetings given by Rick Williams and feels that he will be a great help. 07:58:49 AM XXVII. Introduction of new Parking Enforcement Officers. Thomas Thorpe introduced Tom McCardle, who was promoted to PEO II. He will be working closely with the police department in handling abandon vehicles and with the training of our new officers. Also introduced was Brenda Reynolds, who was hired as a PEO I. Brenda has a back ground as a forest ranger and has been in Montana for three years. With these two positions filled we are finally at full staff. 08:01:26 AM XXVIII. Special Presentation. -Parking District Regulations Chuck Winn -See Attachment Exhibit 2 Chuck provided the municipal code in regards to creating a residential on-street parking permit regulation program. Residents around the downtown have started to ask about this program more frequently. Chris questioned that if the City approves a new district will the parking division be able to absorb the additional workload? He also asked if a creation of a new district could be initiated by the City or by the residents. It has been almost a decade since a new district has been created. Chuck informed the BPC that this can be initiated by anyone, but final approval must be made by the City Commission. 08:09:16 AM Exhibit 2 XXIX. Guiding Principles Discussion. - See Attachment Exhibit 3 A discussion ensued regarding whether to bring Rick Williams back for a meeting to assist with developing our guiding principles. We would have to pay for his travel expenses which is not part of the original contract, and could be approximately $2,000- $3,000. Tom informed the BPC that Rick Williams is able to teleconference at any time. Chris feels that the BPC should spend more time on all of the parking issues. He believes we need to meet more than once a month for awhile. We have about 3,000 employees downtown and about 2,500 parking spots. This is one area for discussion. How much should rest with the private sector and how much the public? He suggests that the BPC review the information that the commission has gotten from Rick Williams so far. Write down your questions and then go over it together and consolidate all the questions for a meeting with Rick Williams. This way we can make the most of Rick’s time when we talk to him, whether it be in person or by teleconference. It was decided that they would have their questions gathered by February 22 nd . 08:30:09 AM XXX. Parking Manager’s Report -See Attachment Exhibit 4 Again Tom reminded the BPC know that the Parking Division is at full staff. There will be an officer working on Saturdays. Brenda should be fully trained in about 2 months and at that point we will have four trained officers. The City Of Bozeman is members of both parking associations now. International Parking Association (IPA) http://www.parking.org and the National Parking Association (NPA) http://weareparking.org. The city of Missoula has installed Luke2 meters to replace the old coin operated ones. Missoula will be having an open house on the new meters and Tom has been invited to come see this new program. This program can be used in the garage as well as around Bozeman. MSU is looking at this same program for the new parking garage that they are building also. The Garage use has remained consistent with past few years. The income use has also remained similar. Most transactions are made with credit cards. About 20-25% of every dollar goes to fees for using credit cards, due to the number of very small transactions that occur. Exhibit 2 Tom recommends that the BPC should lift the exit arms after 10 p.m. to decrease the opportunity of the arms being broken. When an arm is broken, it can take up to six hours of work to get it fixed. This is time and money the parking division does not have. The officers will go in and count cars in the morning so there will be a good count at the beginning of everyday. There will be some loss of money but he doesn’t believe it will be as much as having to pay to fix arms all the time. Ryan feels that this should be done for a month and see what happens. In reference to Exhibit 4, revenue and expenditures numbers are up to date. Tom has been working on the budget for next fiscal year. He does not anticipate too many changes to it. Chuck wants to publicly thank Tom, Laurae, and Kristen for working on the binders that the BPC now have. The binders will be updated every meeting. The binders can be left with Kristen or taken with you. 08:54:45 AM XXXI. New business. Ben Bennett wanted to let the BPC know that is has been brought to his attention that there has been people living in the stairs at the parking garage. Tom asked that this to be brought to his attention as soon as this is seen. Also we need to call the non-emergency number (406) 582-2000 right way so the police can come take care of it. The more often we have the police come down the less this should happen. We will make sure this phone number is posted in the garage. This does happen more frequently in the winter due to the colder weather. 09:05:43 AM XXXII. Adjournment. Ryan adjourned the meeting at 9:05 a.m. The next Bozeman Parking Commission meeting will be held March 10, 2015 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 582-2307. Exhibit 3 Parking Manager’s Report We are at full staff and as training continues I am seeing increasing numbers of citations being written. We have one officer on duty Saturdays and that is working very well. We are able to patrol Main Street as well as answer calls for service from Dispatch. The garage gates were programmed to rise at 11:00 PM and lower at 5:00 AM. This has drastically lowered our complaint calls and I am happy to report only 1 case of damage to a gate during the evening hours. I would like to continue this moving forward. For the garage we are showing 96 uses of the garage by The Element for a total value of $1030.00 Garage use continues to be short term parking. Exhibit 3 In the last few meetings we have discussed rescinding the promotion for 2 hours free parking at the garage. I had Skidata help write some system reports to show some data on hourly parking. Overall right now our system is showing $7660.00 in revenue. Factoring 1 and 2 hour parking respectively we could see a substantial increase in our monthly revenues. Revenues that we need to properly maintain the garage. If I look back at the last twelve months of data I can show we would potentially see an additional $106,425.00 in garage revenue (March 2015 to now). Exhibit 3 Our Revenue data shows that we will be close to meeting our expectations for FY16. Revenue Year to date. Expenditures year to date. Exhibit 3 Finally, I have presented the budget for FY17, highlights include the following: • Repair and install/reinstall garage fire extinguishers in locking and alarmed cabinets. (+$7000) • Improve garage cleanliness with increased janitorial duties. (+$6000) • Power wash Garage. (+$5000) • Re-stripe stall lines in garage. (+$5000) Lease 3 vehicles for Parking Enforcement, replacing current fleet of retired Bozeman PD vehicles. ($10,000) • Improve pedestrian safety at Bridger Garage with installation of hand rails.($15,000) • Install Bozeman Fiber to increase security camera connection. ($9,000 Install/monthly service) • Improve and realign the Willson parking lot. ($165,000)