HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/03/2013 Work SessionCity of Springfield
Work Session Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
MONDAY, JUNE 3, 2013
The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth
Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, June 3, 2013 at 6:30 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors VanGordon, Wylie, Moore, Ralston, and Woodrow.
Also present were Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Joe Leahy, City Recorder Amy
Sowa and members of the staff.
Councilor Brew was absent (excused).
1. Downtown Parking Enforcement Project Update
Management Analyst Courtney Griesel presented the staff report on this item. The Parking Plan was
adopted in 2010 by the Council as recommended by the Downtown Advisory Committee. The
boundary was set as part of that process and parking zones identified. As they moved forward staff
looked at construction to reconfigure spaces to add on- street parking and make the off - street parking
more efficient. Originally, urban renewal funds were set aside for that purpose in the amount of about
$130,000 and $150,000. After receiving construction bids from area contractors ranging from
$225,000 and $320,000, staff determined that resources were inadequate to perform all construction
activities. Additionally, due to declining revenues in the Downtown Urban Renewal area, original
funds available for both construction and parking enforcement activities were further limited to
approximately $40,000.
Councilor Ralston asked what they would be constructing for that amount of money.
Ms. Griesel said the recommendation of the Parking Plan was to go through a re- alignment of parking
spaces, changing from parallel parking to platooning which would add about 200 spaces to the on-
street inventory. Currently, the on- street spaces varied in size from 17 feet in length to 26 feet in
length. They determined that spaces could be efficiently configured through these changes. The funds
would also have been used to clean up some curbs where paint, often lead paint, was chipping. There
were areas that had been yellowed out for reasons that were no longer applicable and could be added
back in for parking. Off - street lots also needed additional parking updates and changes. The actual
cost to do that work was nearly twice what City engineers had estimated. Because of funding
constraints, staff decided not to do the construction, but to start by cleaning up the signage. Staff was
able to do that internally with minimal urban renewal dollars. There was new, less cluttered signage on
the streets and the number of signs overall had been reduced. That work should be done in all areas by
the beginning of July.
Once that work was complete, staff would put out Request for Proposals (RFP) for enforcement. The
enforcement model being considered was different due to revenue issues. The City was not able to
support and purchase equipment or software, so that would be included in the RFP. That could mean
that bids would be received by entities that currently provided enforcement services and were
established. In addition to the RFP for enforcement, staff was looking at how to provide outreach
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Council Work Session Minutes
June 3, 2013
Page 2
before enforcement began. The outreach could occur during the summer, with enforcement starting in
the fall. One proposal was to provide one over -time warning ticket that would come online in the fall,
allowing an additional warning. Staff was also looking at putting together a parking advisory
committee. The committee could help figure out the best way to do residential permit zones, make
exceptions for certain residents or business owners, and help with the education during the warning
window.
Councilor Ralston asked who would use three -hour zones.
Ms. Griesel said people using businesses or employees. They were looking at enforcement windows
from 9:OOam- 5:OOpm.
Councilor Ralston asked if they would be purchasing a parking spot within a zone.
Ms. Griesel said yes. There were certain uses that lent themselves to the three -hour zone.
Councilor Moore asked what type of equipment would be needed.
Ms. Griesel said a requirement in the RFP was that the enforcement would need to have hand held
equipment that was digitized. They were asking that the software talk to a software side on the City's
end so we could access the same ticket database as the enforcing agency used.
Councilor Woodrow said without the construction, there would be permits and paid parking for fewer
spaces that originally planned.
Ms. Griesel said that was correct. Enforcement would be on almost 650 on- street spaces (current
inventory) and permitting on over 280 off - street spaces. Even without the reconstruction, it would be
enough to impact in a positive way the commerce downtown and.generate the turnover needed.
Councilor Woodrow asked how many additional spaces would be gained with reconstruction.
Ms. Griesel said about 200 spaces. Consideration was also given to off - street parking to make the City
more efficient with how the pool cars were managed. Some of that work could still be done while
permitting in those areas, although the pool cars would be spread out. The goal was to do the work
eventually when the budget allowed and in an efficient way.
Councilor Woodrow said the basic goal of all of this, including the additional 200 spaces, was to free
up spaces for traffic coming and going into downtown for retail on Main Street or a block or two off
Main.
Ms. Griesel said that was correct. It was to generate turnover for customers of the retail in downtown.
As they pushed further into the neighborhoods, that dynamic changed and included employees and
residents. Staff had already received calls from citizens concerned about how the new parking program
would impact them.
Councilor Woodrow asked how far the area went into the residential neighborhood.
Ms. Griesel noted the area on the map. The area on the north east corner included a mix of some
offices with the residential. One of the things that was difficult to communicate to the residents was
that the interior sections would be most impacted, but the ripple effect would push employees out into
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Council Work Session Minutes
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the neighborhoods. She referred to Zone C and noted that some of the policy would be to determine .
how that zone was slowly brought into parking management through a residential permitting zone. As
employees pushed into the neighborhoods and parked all day, there would be an avenue the residents
could trigger themselves for permitting. They were looking for a fee to defer the cost of the program,
such as a $10 annual fee for residents to put a hanger in their car. She noted the on- street permit
parking area and areas with limited permit parking. The price points changed based on location. The
least expensive permitted parking would be farther away from Main Street and the core, with the most
expensive parking directly under City Hall. Some possible costs would be $30 /quarter, $60 /quarter
and $90 /quarter. These prices were not set and were below market.
Councilor Ralston said they would be collecting permit fees in areas that had never had permitting. He
asked where the revenue would be going.
Ms. Griesel said eventually it would go for a City run enforcement program. The end goal was to
reinvest that revenue into further parking infrastructure.
Councilor Ralston said the ultimate goal was to be revenue neutral. He felt the first thing they should
do was to put the funds the City didn't have before into expanding the number of spaces. He asked
where employees would park.
Ms. Griesel said that was the intent of the permit lot and permit on- street areas. There were options,
such as to pay one fee during the summer for parking further away, and another fee for the winter for
parking closer to City Hall. Some employees were finding this as an incentive to use other modes of
transportation. Some employees would choose not to pay and would park as far north into the
neighborhoods as needed.
Councilor Ralston asked about handicapped spaces and if they could park at no cost.
Ms. Griesel said the State regulated handicapped parking. Handicapped could park on any space for
double the time posted on the street. It was required to include handicapped spaces in the permit areas.
The City would follow Oregon statutes.
Councilor Ralston said in Eugene he didn't have to pay anything to park on the street.
Ms. Griesel said Springfield would not have any paid parking on the street. Those that worked
downtown would buy a permit.
Councilor Moore asked about the cost for enforcement and if it would be self supporting eventually.
Ms. Griesel said the goal was there would be no cost with the revenue shared program. What that
meant was that revenue generated by enforcement of violations would be the enforcement agency's
payment for enforcement. That created an incentive to enforce, which was one reason it was not the
ideal method, but was a start up method to get the program going. Currently the violation rate was
about 26% and the industry standard for acceptable was about 5 %. An agency doing the revenue share
would work to improve that figure and would not want to be limited on number of tickets given.
Councilor Moore asked if the enforcement agency would be a private business
Ms. Griesel said it could be private or non- profit.
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Councilor Moore asked if there were other places in the surrounding communities that used this type
of enforcement.
Ms. Griesel said there were a number of private entities that contracted, some cities that would
contract with other cities, and non -profit agencies.
Councilor Wylie asked what the proposed starting rate would be for employee permits.
Ms. Griesel said it would depend on which zone they chose to park. The lowest cost was $30 /quarter,
the next level was $60 /quarter and the highest level (under City Hall) was $90 /quarter. They had not
yet determined whether or not to restrict under City Hall permits to City employees only. There was a
significant employee base of other businesses nearby. They may just make it first come, first served.
That had not yet been determined.
Councilor Wylie said she had concerns about parking enforcement agencies and felt they could upset
people. On one hand, the City was encouraging people to come downtown, but the ticketing agencies
often treated people disrespectfully. She didn't want to treat our citizens with disrespect. They needed
to think carefully about how that would work.
Councilor VanGordon said since they had no idea about how much this would generate, he agreed that
the City's portion of the revenue should get put back into adding parking spaces. A parking structure
could be considered later. He also was concerned about a private parking enforcement agency as they
were not always very customer friendly. It was important to remember that it was still free parking
downtown. He suggested that the contract include a provision that the enforcement agency would
report back to the parking committee or staff regarding the number of complaints and how those were
resolved. That would give the City oversight on how they were treating the citizens. He felt the tiering
of the enforcement plan was good, with two warnings, but he would suggest adding another level and
limiting the number of tickets written at first. He didn't want this to be a painful experience for people
downtown.
Mayor Lundberg said it wasn't that long ago the City had an enforcement program and tickets were
given out. It's always unpleasant to receive a ticket no matter how nicely the program was done, so
she agreed the enforcement needed to be handed delicately. Currently, people came downtown and it
was free parking, so they might not think there could be a ticket for parking past a certain amount of
time. She was concerned about employees because she knew there were some that were not happy
with the program. Education and moving into the residential areas was going to be very touchy. Some
residents were not going to want to have others park in front of their homes. It was a great idea to have
a policy committee to look at all of the issues because it was going to be a bumpy road. At the
Metropolitan Policy Committee (MPC) meeting there was a discussion about bicycle parking. Bicycle
parking should be equitable as well, and could include time limits or special accommodations for
bicycles behind buildings to encourage bicycling. It would need to be monitored.
Ms. Griesel said staff realized they were having a hard time communicating with businesses
downtown about the process to get a bike rack. Last month Traffic Engineer Brian Barnett and Ms.
Griesel created a process and application form with step by step instructions and contact information
for businesses to get a bike rack. Staff would encourage businesses to utilize that application form.
They would prefer to put bike racks in as many locations as possible rather than installing time
stamped bike racks. The wave style bike rack allowed quite a few bikes in a narrow space when used
correctly.
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Councilor Ralston said he liked the idea of a non - profit running the program as it was ajob
opportunity and likely lower wages. He liked having the parking as first come, first served. He felt that
if the program was managed properly, there would be a low violation rate once people realized the
time limits.
Councilor Wylie said she wanted staff to see what could be done to mitigate the angst and anger. We
didn't want downtown visitors to feel angry.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 7:05 p.m.
Minutes Recorder —Amy Sowa
Christine L. Lundberg
Mayor
Attest:
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Amy Soy
City Recorder