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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParking Advisory Board - Minutes - 08/10/2020 PARKING ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR Monday, August 10, 2020 5:30 PM Zoom meeting 08/10/2020 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair, Hill, called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm. 2. ROLL CALL BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: CITY STAFF PRESENT Nora Hill, Chair Drew Brooks, Director of Transit Kayla Utter, Vice Chair Eric Keselburg, Parking Manager Adam Eggleston Danna Varnell, Business Support Barbara Wilkins Dorothy Spivak Julie Stackhouse Austin Hoenig BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: NONE PUBLIC PRESENT: NONE OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE: NONE a. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – Motion to approve minutes by Hill, second by Eggleston. The board unanimously approved minutes. 3. UNFINISHED BUSINESS - NONE 4. NEW BUSINESS – a. Parking updates - Keselburg – See presentation  Curbside pickup support & management • Curbside pickup was implemented with the assistance of the DBA in conjunction with the Business as Unusual campaign. We had about 100 spaces and the outdoor dining took over. Owners asked to have many of them removed just based off their business need. We will be reviewing this information in Council Liaison: Ken Summers Chair: Nora Hill Vice Chair: Kayla Utter Staff Liaison: Drew Brooks (970) 221-6386 Administrative Support: Danna Varnell (970) 224-6161 DocuSign Envelope ID: F5A0752F-D2E1-40D6-80BC-988887F381BB 08/10/2020 – MINUTES Page 2 the next week or so to right size them. The DBA is chatting with businesses to find out their need. There will be code updates for this not to be abused and be supportive of the block face rules. • The outdoor dining stalls have been very popular. As of August 8, 2020, we had 61 applications and we have 66 parking stalls in the downtown area. These are approved through September and will be different as we head into Fall. We have had questions if this will continue. We see the need to support these businesses and we need to make it right. CDOT and the DBA have been involved in the decisions for these spaces and the City is looking at the ability to be compensated for the loss of these parking spaces. Eggleston – is there any ordinance or restrictions as we head into colder weather on using outdoor heaters in these spaces? Keselburg - There are active conversations occurring now regarding this and other topics to determine best practices moving forward.  LPR – (License Plate Recognition) Data collection • Data was collected June 22 – July 10 (excluding July 4th). • We are looking to collect more data for a longer period, for instance from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, Monday thru Friday. • This study was done during our suspended/relaxed enforcement, so we will run this again when we are actively enforcing. • Hill – is there a way to incentivize some of these businesses/banks that have huge parking lots to allow more parking spaces available in certain areas? Keselburg – we can have this conversation.  Transition Strategy • Eggleston – we have talked about in the past having code enforcement from 10 am to 8 pm with the reduction of folks going downtown. Has there been any discussion rolling that out now? Keselburg – we have had to put this project on hold due to the cost to replace the signage. Brooks – right now, we are short two PEO’s and we have chosen not to backfill those positions in the near future. It will be harder to do this if we did change the hours, but if we do decide to post these positions, DocuSign Envelope ID: F5A0752F-D2E1-40D6-80BC-988887F381BB 08/10/2020 – MINUTES Page 3 it will indicate that they are night/evening positions. • Keselburg - We are looking at low cost permits for the employees who work downtown late into the evening that will encourage them to park in the garages and leave more open parking spaces for patrons. We are currently having conversations with the vendors. • Overtime citations – o Keselburg - we have included a flyer that has more parking information and details about the Business as Unusual. We have also added the Business as Unusual sticker on citation envelopes to educate the public. • Year over Year citations o Keselburg – we are on week two of live enforcement. A more detailed update will be given at our September meeting. • Phased approach to parking enforcement resumption – July 13th to September 30th we aligned all three parking structures payment options. Three for Free campaign – first three hours free and only $1 per hour after that. Signage has been updated in the parking structures and we have included the Business as Unusual at each kiosk. We are working on signage to highlight the Three for Free and signage will be placed as you enter the garages. You still must start your parking session regardless of the time you plan to stay, even if it is under three hours. • Parking sensors o Keselburg – Due to Covid19, the contractor was called away from the reinstallation that was to occur in March. They were completed in June. Verification of accuracy and reliability will occur once the final install of the equipment is complete. There will be a pilot period where we can analyze the accuracy and reliability of the sensors. We have not gone live yet. Eggleston – will there be a better integration with the App, or will it still take you to an outside portal? Keselburg – our goal is to have it in the App. It may not take effect immediately once we go live. Eggleston – has the App DocuSign Envelope ID: F5A0752F-D2E1-40D6-80BC-988887F381BB 08/10/2020 – MINUTES Page 4 makers figure out how we can do the free parking? Keselburg – it still is unclear as so much of what we were doing prior to Covid19 has been put on hold. We are certain that we will get it figured out. 5. OTHER BUSINESS a. Eggleston – what is the percentage of reduction in ridership of MAX to Old Town and Transfort’s ridership? What type of drop-off have you seen with people taking Transfort to Old Town? Brooks – as for ridership in general, the worst time was in April when the stay at home order was put in place. System wide, we had a 90% reduction in ridership. Around the country, cities that had colleges, were hit worse than other cities. (See presentation Transfort Ridership Review – Covid19) The typical baseline ridership on MAX is about 5000 per day. At the end of April, ridership was down to about 900. Overall, ridership is down about 72%. Eggleston – have we tracked to see what kind of a visitor hit we are seeing in Old Town? Keselburg – as you can see, we have less people riding public transportation, so what we are trying to figure out is, what mode of transportation are they taking into Old Town, is there an impact of people or parking, and what are the RP3 Zones going to look like around campus. With all the projection information we have so far, we do not know. We are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. Stackhouse – are you seeing any changes in the volume of parking in the garages since the last meeting and also, is there a metric that you use to calibrate the amount of garage spaces relative to walking distance? Keselburg – in reference to your question regarding parking structures, we are selling more permits due to more people coming back to work. Brooks – to address the second part of your question, what we are seeing industry wide is that people like to see where they are walking to from their parking spot. We continue to work on wayfinding, marketing, and how do we communicate to people to use it. There is not a shortage of parking in Old Town. It is just that the inventory we have is just not exactly where people want it to be. If you look at the Civic Center garage, it is only a half of block from Old Town. Also, industry wide, people just do not like parking garages. I will investigate finding a metric that we can use. One of our problems trying to use the App in the garage is that the cell tower in Old Town has poor capacity and it is very difficult to get a good signal in the garage to use the App. We are working on this and as the City’s broadband expands and gets through their initial stages, we are hoping to add some Wi-Fi into these garages. Keselburg – (see Structure & Lot Hourly Transactions | Year-Over-Year pdf) You can see our revenue prior to March was good and then after the middle of DocuSign Envelope ID: F5A0752F-D2E1-40D6-80BC-988887F381BB 08/10/2020 – MINUTES Page 5 March, you can see it fall off. Starting in May, as people started to return to work, you can see revenue creep back up. It does not compare to the 2019 levels, but starting July 12th, we started the first hour free and we also changed Firehouse Alley to a dollar per hour. More permit holders have increased. Spivak – I remember some type of initiative where the City was working on trying to get the Old Town employees not to park where the customers park. Keselburg – this has always been a conversation on how to incentivize employees of Old Town, including Larimer County and the City of Fort Collins, not to park in the two hour or less parking places. Brooks –we can look into having a low-cost permit in the evenings for those employees. And getting back to parking garages, people do not like parking garages and they really do not like them at night. There are some barriers we must overcome. Pre-Covid, we had a budget offer in this year to install better security systems in the garages. When the Firehouse Alley garage was built, there were state of the art camera systems in. The other two garages do not have that. We wanted to put cameras, call boxes and better lighting into the other garages, but unfortunately, Covid has put the brakes on this. If we can figure out how to flip the switch from daytime into the nighttime and when four o’clock rolls around, how do we flip the switch over to the nighttime economy. During the day, we are out there enforcing, and we need to figure out enforcement in the evenings and incentivize those folks to park in the garages. Hill – the City of Fort Collins commissioned a parking study about 11 or 12 years ago. It was big, expensive, clear, and conclusive and all we have been doing since then is talking about it. We have tried lots of different efforts on employees in Old Town. Keselburg – in Fort Collins, we have on-street duration of stay and occupancy with limited enforcement time. Brooks – in 1973, the parking meters were removed and in 1989, there was a downtown plan that was commissioned and this is what it said was identified: “When parking perceived as full, employees park in close proximity to business where patrons should be parking, and the is a need for a parking fund to invest in parking infrastructure”. That is 31 years ago and we are still talking about these three same issues. This model has flipped by not having an on-street paid model, we are giving away the most prime locations to park and it is a very labor-intensive process to enforce or police that model. I have reviewed parking plans from 2003 and there was just not enough political will to make a change and fix these issues. Keselburg – the ease and convenience of parking allows for a more pleasurable experience when visiting downtown and getting a citation can ruin that experience. How do we help the user to come back because of ease, convenience and feeling good about their experience? Wilkins – is there a way that the City can offer a good rate to these businesses that have 50+ employees? Like a bulk rate for parking? It has gotten expensive for these businesses to offer this to their employees. Most CSU students just do not have the funds to pay for parking. Keselburg - we are starting the conversations and looking at ways to incentivize people who buy year-long permits verses calling every month. We look at staff time to process those permit applications and we are trying to figure out the best way move people into the parking structures. Any ideas you have, please let us know. Spivak – is it DocuSign Envelope ID: F5A0752F-D2E1-40D6-80BC-988887F381BB 08/10/2020 – MINUTES Page 6 possible to have a free electric shuttle to transport employees to and from their jobs to the parking garage and making these spaces in inconvenient places where no one else likes to park? The shuttle could get them there safely and quickly. Brooks – in the Downtown Parking Plan, that was called the Downtown Parking Circulator. In Columbia, Missouri, which is a smaller college town, it was not very successful, and it was not free. We need to figure out how to make something like this simple and free. Frequency is a factor and the more frequent it is, the more expensive it can be to operate. As we move more towards electric vehicles and autonomous, those costs do come down. It is still on the radar. Eggleston – when the Linden Street project ramps back up, this would be a great way to get people to that corridor. b. Hill – what opportunities do we see with the expanded outdoor dining and what problems could occur if this continues  Brooks - Loss of parking is one. The biggest hurdle was around the liquor license issues. We were given a temporary variance on this and it is still a hurdle. Parking Codes would need to be changed. Most of this stuff is doable. c. Eggleston – did the Linden Street project funds have to be spent during 2020 or next year? Since it is slower right now, shouldn’t we continue to work on this project? Brooks – has heard that they will begin in January although with Covid19, it is unclear. Spivak – How is the back-in diagonal parking going? Keselburg – FC Moves manages this project. We have only written a few tickets there. We are keeping it as of now and it has been well received for that area. There are conversations to add more parking like this. I will reach out to FC Moves to get an update. FC Moves response - The information we have at this point is supportive of us keeping the back-in angle parking in place, however, we plan to do some targeted outreach to City employees and surrounding businesses in September to seek additional input. Once we have the data and public input summarized, we will share this with PDT leadership along with our recommendation for Howes. With this, we expect to include recommended criteria for where back-in angle parking could work in the future. FC Moves would love to get input from the PAB and if you think this should be an upcoming agenda item, please let Varnell know. 6. ADJOURNMENT a. The meeting was moved to be adjourned by Hill and second by Utter at 6:43 pm. These minutes have been unanimously approved by the Parking Advisory Board on September 14, 2020. X_____________________________________________ Eleanor Hill, Parking Advisory Board Chair DocuSign Envelope ID: F5A0752F-D2E1-40D6-80BC-988887F381BB 9/30/2020