Downtown group talks paid parking

The Downtown Improvement District asked city Parking Manager Mark Lyons to speak at its Oct. 2 meeting to answer one question: What, exactly, were the city’s plans for installing parking meters downtown?

The answer, Lyons replied, is unclear.

During the DID meeting, Lyons explained staff is still considering its future parking strategy for downtown. He plans to go before the City Commission on Oct. 15 to discuss the topic and get additional direction.

Lyons has previously recommended implementing on-street paid parking in the downtown core. But, given the commission’s reticence to pursue such a program, Lyons said he’s mainly interested in gathering feedback from the city’s key decision-makers.

“I don’t really have a plan I’m going to recommend, necessarily, at the next commission meeting,” Lyons said.

As recently as last year, the city appeared committed to the prospect of installing parking meters downtown. Despite outspoken merchant opposition, Lyons believed meters would create higher turnover in prime parking spaces, which he said would benefit downtown businesses.

When two new commissioners took office in May 2017, however, the city reversed its position. At an October 2017 meeting, the board officially halted its pursuit of on-street paid parking downtown.

The commission didn’t rule out the possibility of revisiting the subject, though. City Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch said she did not want to install parking meters, but she thought the city needed to find some way to address ongoing losses in the city’s parking fund.

The 2018-19 city budget includes a $230,000 subsidy to the parking fund. In the past four budgets, the city has allocated $1.8 million in general fund subsidies toward parking expenses.

As the city has demurred on the topic of paid parking, other groups have pushed for officials to revisit the topic. Stakeholders on St. Armands Circle say they only agreed to a paid parking system in the shopping district because they believed paid parking was inevitable citywide. Now, with paid parking set to begin on the Circle in December, merchants and property owners think the city should reconsider its position on downtown meters.

Members of the DID, which endorsed downtown parking meters in 2016, also indicated their desire to have the city earnestly consider the concept now. Lyons suggested attitudes about downtown paid parking may be changing: Visitors to downtown garages have to pay to park for longer than three hours, and multiple paid private lots now exist in the heart of the city.

Ultimately, whether the city pursues downtown meters is beyond the parking manager’s control.

“I support it, obviously, but it’s up to the City Commission,” Lyons said.