2008 Parking Study Final Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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20 · The City should nevertheless try to make progress toward more pro-active management of downtown parking. An important initial step should be to bring enforcement under the same roof as traffic engineering, as part of an integrated management structure for on-street parking. This would not only help to ensure an appropriate level of enforcement, but also allow the ‘ambassador’ or ‘welcome’ role to develop. 2.4.2 Best-Practice In Downtown Parking Management Current best-practice in downtown parking management is to treat it pro-actively as a key factor in the success (or otherwise) of the downtown economy, and to link parking management with wider efforts to promote downtown. This approach can include: · Creating a City Parking Department, or a Parking Division within an existing department, to provide full-time management of the parking system. · On-street parking fees are used not only to cover management costs but also to create revenue for downtown booster programs (potentially also downtown TDM promotion). Boulder, Colorado is a well-known example of this approach. Other case studies are given below. · Treating parking enforcement as an ambassador/welcome role as much as an enforcement role. Some cities have parking enforcement officers in friendly uniforms with a brief to assist visitors and shoppers. In Boulder and some other cities, short overstays at paid on-street spaces are not ticketed the first time. Instead, a friendly ‘we have given you extra time’ note is placed on the windshield; the downtown business community pays the City for this ‘free’ extra time. · Adopting an 85% occupancy target for on-street general parking, representing the best balance between use/income and ensuring spaces are always available. Meter rates are periodically adjusted as required to achieve that target. (See Redwood, California case study below.) · Using modern meters or multi-space ‘pay stations’. These are more flexible than traditional cash-only meters, as they can allow payment by card, cellphone or meter key. A range of organizational and financial structures are available for managing downtown parking. These include Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), ‘parking tax districts’, and parking management partnerships. If the City preferred to move away from the traditional model of funding and operation, it could investigate these options. 2.4.3 Possible Charging Model for Charlottesville A charging model for downtown Charlottesville would likely have the following aims: · Manage occupancy levels to ensure that most spaces are used but some spaces are always available for arriving shoppers and visitors. The usual target occupancy level for on-street parking is 85%. · Make it cost-effective for commuters to buy monthly garage permits, rather than park in on-street spaces that are needed for short-stay shoppers and visitors. · Provide a revenue stream to pay for the ticket machines and cash handling costs, as well as enforcement costs. Ideally the revenue stream should also be able to contribute to downtown enhancements. Charges would likely apply to the two-hour and one-hour spaces in the core and inner zones. The unrestricted spaces in the outer zone would not be charged. This means that commuters and shoppers alike would have the choice between the charged spaces closer-in and the free spaces further out. Further study would be needed to determine the optimum hourly rate. However, a rate of $1 per hour would make it cost-effective for commuters to buy monthly garage permits (Table 2.10). Peer cities charge this rate or slightly more. This fee level would likely generate gross income of about $500,000 - $600,000 per year, depending on occupancy levels.