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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParking Advisory Board - Minutes - 06/12/2017MINUTES of the CITY OF FORT COLLINS PARKING ADVISORY BOARD June 12, 2017 5:30 p.m. 215 North Mason – Community Room Fort Collins, CO 80524 FOR REFERENCE: Chair: Holly Wright Vice Chair: Bob Criswell Staff Liaison: Kurt Ravenschlag 221-6386 Administrative Support: Melissa Brooks 224-6161 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: CITY STAFF PRESENT: Holly Wright, Chair Kurt Ravenschlag, Transfort/Parking General Manager Bob Criswell, Vice Chair Craig Dubin, Communications & Administration Manager Carey Hewitt Katlyn DeMallie, Transfort, Administrative Aide Kayla Boos Christine Macrina, Publicity/Marketing Tech Susan Kirkpatrick Nora Hill ABSENT: OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE Councilmember Bob Overbeck Sara Kammlade Barbara Wilkins Nicholas Bohn 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair, Holly Wright, called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm. 2. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS 3. AGENDA REVIEW New Garage Parking Rates added to Discussion/Information Items Staff Report by Christine Macrina moved up to first item 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Hewitt moves to accept May 2017 meeting minutes, Boos seconds. Minutes were approved unanimously. Meeting Minutes June 12, 2017 Page | 2 Discussion: 5. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT 6. PUBLIC COMMENT 7. DISCUSSION/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS A. Presentation: Parking Technology, Craig Dubin Last year it was brought up that the City is in the process of seeking new technology to implement in the new Firehouse Alley parking structure, retrofitting our current structures, and procuring technology for providing on street data collection service. Last March a vendor was selected and implementation will be starting soon. The technology highlights involve Parking Access & Revenue Control System (PARCS), Video Security, Emergency Call Boxes and Vehicle Immobilization. The pay stations in the structures will be a hybrid of larger ticket vending machines and small single space pay stations. This will allow the user to pay by coin, credit card, debit card, or cash. There is also an additional feature for users that pay with a credit card. It allows them to enter their cell phone number and receive a text reminder alerting them their time is about to expire, and the user can extend their time via text. There will be a pay station at every stairwell in the new structure (6 or 7 total). When we retrofit the current structures we will try to have one at every entry point as well. The booths will not be in the new hotel structure. It will be an open system where you come and go as you please, and users pay in advance at a pay station. This will be enforced based on license plate, so the user will need to enter their plate number into the pay station. This will communicate with our License Plate Recognition (LPR) software, which is an extension of how we enforce on the street. Parking sensors will be implemented on street and indoors. The indoor sensors are a combination of infrared and radar. These are very sophisticated systems that know when a vehicle is parked in a spot. The device will communicate with an indicator light over each space in the structure. The color will signify a different status. For example-a green light will mean available, a blue light will indicate an ADA spot, etc. This will help with wayfinding. There are various other types of status that we can customize, for example in the new parking structure there will be spaces designated for the hotel, this system gives us the availability to mark them off with a different color light. There is also an external digital sign for the structure that will communicate back and forth with the parking sensors and let the driver know how full the structure is, this will help with external wayfinding. We have a best in class smart phone app for parking. We worked with a consultant to help us through the procurement process to make sure we were getting the best vendors possible. There are two functions the app will allow. The first is wayfinding. There are different colors on the map that will signify availability in a zone. Green is highly available, yellow means there is some availability, and red means there is little availability. Once we have implanted all phases of the project a person will be able to see availability of all areas that have sensors, which will be all Meeting Minutes June 12, 2017 Page | 3 structures, all lots, and all on street parking. The company is called Passport. They allow customization to be unique to your community. Being that these sensors will be deployed in phases with the new structure first, then on street, then the current two structures, if we start making this information available after the first phase you won’t see all of the parking spots available on the app. Do we wait to make this information available after all three phases have been deployed, or do we make it available after the first phase? We are looking at the end of 2018 for all phases to be complete. If we waited for the wayfinding on the app, we would still roll out the payment portion at the beginning of deployment. The Board comes to consensus that the wayfinding portion of the mobile app will wait until all phases have been deployed. The second feature of the app is to make a payment. On the mobile app you can pick favorite locations for areas the user frequently parks. Another feature that comes with the mobile app is the ability to add time for the timed parking. What we heard from Council and the Board is that we want to continue to not have on street paid parking at this time, but to give the option for someone to stay past the two free hours. This answers that question. If someone wants to add time to their parking past two hours, they can get onto this app and pay to add time. This will communicate to our back end systems for enforcement. The fee structure has not been established yet. This idea of being able to purchase additional time on street can be done two ways. The way our current system is set up would require a more complicated way to make this work. It has to do with the idea of block faces. Currently if you were to purchase additional time where you were parked you would need to tell the app which block face you are on. Educational information would need to be added down town so everyone knows the block faces. An easier solution would be to treat the whole designated area of down town as one zone. A user would add time to their vehicle and it would apply to the whole zone. This eliminates the ability to move to another block face for another free two hours. Staff will identify two or three zones and bring it to the next meeting for the Board to review. In the Firehouse Alley parking structure, emergency call boxes are going to be installed. They will communicate directly to 911 dispatchers. These call boxes will also be added to the current structures when they are retrofitted. There will be 30 video cameras in the new structure that police will occasionally monitor and pull video if needed. We want people to feel safe when they are using the structure. We’ve had considerable issues in the last year with our current enforcement boots. They are very heavy, awkward, and take a long time to put on. Parking ordered a new immobilizer, the Barnacle, that will be easier for the officers to deploy quickly. It is placed on the windshield and has an automated vacuum system. If you try to pull it off the suction vacuum will become even stronger. The only way to remove it on your own would be to take the windshield off. The Parking Department ordered one to pilot and wanted to make the board aware in case you see it out in public. Meeting Minutes June 12, 2017 Page | 4 Summary of project phases: Phase I-Firehouse Alley Parking Structure Pay Stations Parking Space Sensors Overhead Indicator Lights Exterior Digital Sign Mobile App – Payment and Wayfinding Phase II-Downtown On-Street Installation Parking Space Sensors Mobile App – Payment and Wayfinding Phase III- Existing Structure Retrofits B. New Garage Parking Rates, Kurt Ravenschlag We are considering implementing a different rate structure in the new parking garage to manage demand. We are anticipating that this structure will have a higher demand than the two current structures. What are your thoughts of one of our structures having different rates than the other existing two? We are considering the possibility of eliminating the free first hour, charging something more than $1 per hour, and an increase to the monthly permits as well. The Board supports the idea of the new garage having a different rate structure than the current garages, as well as eliminating the first free hour in the new garage. Parking validations would be through the mobile app electronically. In the future there will not be any parking attendants to take validations. Staff will prepare an explanation of the new process to submit to the Board. A requested action item for next month’s meeting will be recommendations for new parking garage rates. 8. REPORTS A. BOARD REPORT Wright: As we begin to work on the first item in our work plan, giving a recommendation to Council on the Master Transportation and Transit Plan, I was hoping we could get presentations from staff members about the plan. Ravenschlag: The City Council decided that they wanted to reduce the scope and involvement that Council would have in the Transportation Master Plan and Transit Plan. They feel that the plan should be more of a routine update to the City Plan rather than a whole new plan. Right now we are in that process of putting together a new scope of work that would reduce cost as well as participation by Council and public engagement. Once we get to the point of being able to finalize a contract and issue a notice to proceed we will see where we stand with the current consultants. This is why we have not been able to provide updates. Meeting Minutes June 12, 2017 Page | 5 B. STAFF LIAISON REPORT Christine Macrina Christine Macrina, Publicity/Marketing Tech, came to discuss a new volunteer software tool that the City is moving towards called Engage. Engage is an application that allows the public to easily sign up/register to participate in activities. It also allows volunteers to sign up to help with these activities and track volunteer hours, interest, and more. The purpose of having boards use this software is to collect data on how much the City utilizes their volunteer hours. It has the ability to add in additional research time spent outside of meetings. You can also view other opportunities to volunteer. It is not mandatory to use this program, but the City will be capturing time spent at meetings. Eventually Engage may be used to communicate to the boards and volunteers rather than Outlook. If anyone is interested in a one-on-one training, Christine is available. Craig Dubin We are going to council tomorrow night to discuss the RP3 program. Council requested attendance at the work session to frame a conversation around what we will be asking of them in August. We will be presenting a question regarding the idea of balancing occupancy in RP3 zones. 10. OTHER BUSINESS 11. ADJOURN Kirkpatrick motioned to adjourn and Hewitt seconds. The meeting was concluded at 7:21 pm. Respectfully submitted, Katlyn DeMallie Administrative Aide Transfort/Parking Services