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Just Where are we with Parking, Parking, Parking, Parking, Parking, Parking?
Parking Management Contract and Parking Regulations: Though obviously related, these must be separated on City Council Agenda
Background
Since the 1930's, when managed parking was initiated and associated meters were first installed, no other single issue has consumed more of City Council's time in our 300 year plus history.
I do not see this as bad or good. It is simply a fact. And if history repeats itself the conversation will not go away.
Current Issues
The two principal parking issues at hand:
The most immediate is contracting with a company to manage the city's parking; the other is to address the many varied interests among some citizens to change parking regulations.
Management
Just over five years ago City Council concluded that a professional parking management company should manage parking since it requires unique expertise and exclusive focus to ensure maximum parking opportunities for residents and visitors.
Shortly thereafter, Lanier Parking Systems (aka Park Beaufort) won a competition for the contract to "manage parking" for a period not to exceed five years, a term limit in the City's relative to contracts exceeding one year.
The new managers made recommendations, City Council accepted some and rejected others. During the learning curve of transitioning, the City Council made some good decisions and some missteps, made adjustments as quickly as possible to improve a system that was as customer friendly that met the experts' recommended goal of a 15% turnover rate to ensure parking was available for customers of downtown businesses. By and large the target was reached today it is easier to find a vacant space than when the City managed parking in a rather haphazard manner. (That of course did not mean that "everyone was pleased.")
Another change during the transition was to remove parking revenues from the General Fund budget for operations, thereby investing "net income" exclusively on marketing and downtown improvements. (The first $25,000 is set aside each year for capital improvements to service and replace parking apparatus, the next $40,000 is set aside to fund marketing downtown to residents and tourists through Mainstreet Beaufort. The remainder is split 15% to Mainstreet for additional marketing and 85% to the City Redevelopment Commission for downtown improvements.
While there were expected bumps in the road, I personally feel we have the best parking management ever.
New Parking Manager
At the end of the five year term, as required by law he City issued a request for proposals for professional parking management.
A staff review team interviewed candidates, vetted proposals and found four "qualified" proposers. Lanier was the highest bidder while "SP+", was the lowest. Furthermore, SP+ agreed to purchase some new meters and presented some unique ideas for marking and managing parking at special events.
In the middle of the process, City Council agreed the normal 2 hour free parking from Thanksgiving through Christmas. Lanier graciously agreed to stay until we had competed the selection process.
Concerns about the Contract
As Council was doing the best we could to move the process along, the public discussion of parking brought out citizen concerns about parking regulations beyond the issue at hand.
They raised the legitimate issue of whether or not SP+ could and would be able to adjust to changes to the parking regulations which might lead to a drop in gross revenues which was the basis for their bid based on historical data.
This is a good question as Council does not want a contract vendor to be in the way of changing regulations which may need to be adjusted.
This is when the issues became confused likely in the public's mind and or process was temporarily stalled.
Since the clock is running to hire a new parking manager, we must act expeditiously because of the five year limit on contracts. (As long as the RFP and resultant contract process are ongoing, the law permits us to continue with Lanier so there is not a lapse in parking management which in my view would bring chaos.)
State law precludes City Council from negotiating contracts and lays such responsibility under the purview of the City Manager.
Council is right to make sure that the terms and conditions of a contract do not make it impossible for Council to make regulations modifications.
During their interview and in subsequent responses to questions from Council, SP+ assured the City that they can adjust to modifications, but Council has insisted that such agreement be part of the contract. This makes sense.
To this point, Council authorized the city manager and attorney to develop a draft contract, which is agreeable to SP+, for council review next week. At that time, our options are to accept the proposed contract or modify as we see fit and then to instruct the city manager to send modifications back to the vendor. As long as the negotiations are ongoing, Lanier will remain in place. Should negotiations breakdown or Council decide not to move forward with the selected vendor, we will not have parking management. And this would be problematic since the City is not capable on managing parking even on an interim basis.
The Second Issue: Regulations
As noted above, some citizens, including signers of a petition, have asked City Council to extend the holiday 2 free hour parking to a year round basis. No one has studied the fiscal impact, developed metrics to see if merchants do better with two free hour parking because we have only looked at merchant activity under the two hour free rule during the holidays when people ordinarily accelerate their shopping and when many of the gift products downtown are most suitable as gifts rather than the year round staples they need and shop for.
There is no data to drive the decision one way or another. Furthermore, not all merchants and stakeholders agree with the proposal because they believe during non-holidays program the 15% turnover rate works.
More importantly, the City has received many other parking suggestions which should rightly be addressed if we are going to consider major changes in a thorough and comprehensive manner.
To jump at one proposal, because it seems popular now, at the expense of not looking at others' suggestions would not be fair and not provide a complete picture.
Some of the other suggestions from citizens and businesses over the past years include:
To extend the parking hours so that those who dine will pay to park;
To institute graduated fines so the first offense is less, the second is a little more and the third and beyond are even higher;
The city should be more aggressive in collecting parking fines;
Maintain the status quo; if it works, why change?
Establish special fees for people who live north of the broad river;
Encourage merchants to take advantage of the, already in use by some merchants, the reduced priced tokens that businesses can give to their customers as a thank you for shopping in their stores;
Remove yellow lines from in front of churches that are only used for drop off on Sundays and for funerals
Remove parking from the marina parking lot so the space can be more appropriately used for recreation and open space;
Build a parking garage;
If we have a parking garage, businesses and their employees should be enticed to use it with reduced rates;
Reinstate parking spaces lost on Charles Street when it was repaved;
We should talk with churches about using their underutilized parking lots.
Examine parking at the Library because it should be free for staff and patrons. If we are to have long term solutions, we must look at the larger picture.
Plan for managing parking to protect residential parking when USCB Historic Campus grows.
I have no illusions that there are immediate answers to these, but do believe we should consider, prioritize and possible delete some from the list. But let's give everyone consideration.
Toward that end, once the contract is completed and ratified, I will ask Council to help fashion a plan for stakeholder's reviewing the entire system.
Not to kick the can too far down the road, I believe this can be done within 120 -180 days. In the scheme of the parking conversation which has been on the table for more than eighty years, this is not a long time.
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