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07-26-12 Parking Commission MinutesCITY OF KALISPELL PARKING MONTHLY BOARD MEETING MINUTES Date: July 26, 2012 Location: KPC Conference Room In attendance: Mark Pirrie, Janet Clark, Joel Schoknecht, Chief of Police Roger Nasset and Captain Wade Rademacher Minutes recorded by: Karen Durado 1. Call to Order: Called to Order at 7:35 a.m., By: Mark Pirrie 2. Approval of the Agenda: Moved by Janet, second by Joel. 3. Approval of June Board Meeting: Moved by Janet, second by Joel. 4. Hearing of the Public: Pam Carbonari attended the meeting and had several topics she brought before the Board. Pam has been talking with Roger Nasset regarding downtown parking issues and with Doug Russell (City Manager) regarding striping on Main Street. The horizontal striping has been completed. Pam and the BID would like to see the vertical lines done so people can see where the actual spaces are. This would maximize the downtown parking. The State of Montana does the horizontal lines; we need to do the vertical lines Pam would like to find a way to avoid ticketing out of state vehicles. She had a couple of suggestions. Her first suggestion is to give them a thank you for shopping downtown notice instead of a ticket. She also suggested some type of parking pass issued through the Chamber of Commerce to display while they are visiting Kalispell. These would only allow the visitors to utilize the 2-hour spaces. She would like to see these offered on a seasonal basis, not year round. Pam does not feel 2-hour parking is very welcoming to our tourists. It does not allow them enough time to have lunch and shop. She feels they will all head north of town where they have no restrictions on parking. Pam suggested the possibility of installing pay -to -park zones. She shared pictures of machines that she had taken in Park City, Utah. These machines would provide people the option of using a debit or credit card and would allow people the option of parking all day. There would be one machine on each block. Pam suggested better signage clearly marking the pay parking lots or having a pay to park station on Main Street to help with the confusing signage. She recommended that it be addressed and looked into. The other option she suggested would be going back to individual meters. The last item Pam wanted to discuss is downtown signage. The current parking signs, especially on Main Street are confusing, faded and hard to read. Pam would like to minimize the signage and replace damaged poles and faded signs. She feels we have too many signs and the ones we do have are too big and very confusing. The BID is working on a "way finding" signage program and would like to have other signage addressed as well. She provided an example of a smaller sign with the hours of parking that could be placed above the current time limit signs. She suggested a new sign design that would be different from the current red and white "no parking signs" that would be more friendly and aesthetically pleasing. Main Street is part of a state highway so we are not able to make any modifications to the poles or signs. The state will not address any issues on Main Street until after the alternate bypass is completed. Mark said that allowing permits for visitors would be selective enforcement and would not be fair to the locals. He is strongly opposed to providing favoritism to out of town guests. Mark has concerns from a customer stand point. His opinion is if we can get the downtown employees to park where they should be parking this would not be an issue. His customers already complain about the 2-hour parking. Being a business owner, Mark would not want his customers receiving tickets while the out of town visitors parked next to them receive a thank you note. Janet suggested that prior to any changes being made we need to survey the downtown businesses. Roger said that it needs to be a downtown decision and also a City Council decision. It has been approximately 12 years since the last survey was done. The last survey was conducted through the BID. Discussion followed regarding employee parking for downtown businesses. Mark suggested the survey be done through the KDA or BID since they already have all of the contact information. Roger wanted to clarify that the survey would go through the Advisory Board. Mark suggested including meters and pay -to -park machines as part of the survey. This would require all of the research being completed prior to the survey being done. Roger requested that whatever is decided he would like it to be uniform throughout downtown. He stated that the issue comes with the initial cost lay out of putting in the pay -to -park machines and what we are discussing is a budgetary issue. The research would have to be done by March or April so it could be included in the budget. Janet will to do some research on parking at a mall in Denver. She recalled how they installed pay -to -park machines and shortly after, removed them and installed individual meters. Janet will get more information as to why they chose meters. Mark will contact Anne Guest (Missoula Parking Commission) to see what they currently have for meters and how they are working for them. 5. Approval of Financial Statements of June 2012: Moved by Janet, second by Joel. 6. Updates from City Parking: Street Update — Jack Office Update — Karen Unfinished Business: First Interstate/Rising Sun Bistro parking Mark did not have any further updates. Mark will talk to Rising Sun to see if they are ready to put the signs up. Parking lot spring maintenance Ron Trippet has been contracted to do the lot maintenance. To date, he has done a minimal amount of work in the Eagles Lot. Janet said that the Eagles Lot is such a mess that she has personally hired someone to come in and clean it up. It portrays such a bad image for the City and for the hotel. Between the weeds and the gravel around the edges, it is a mess. The City has gone through with a big sweeper but it does not get around the edges and between the bumpers and the outer edge of the lot. Joel again suggested that we create an adopt -a -lot program. Roger will contact Restorative Youth Justice to see if they are currently in need of projects. They have no mode of transportation and are often looking for projects in the core downtown area. Mark has brooms and buckets available for them to use if needed. Joel inquired about the possibility of having the cigarette receptacle in the Valley Bank Lot removed. Janet suggested that getting it on a regular emptying schedule may help with the issues Joel is having. Janet will contact the BID to see if this is something that Paul could add to his to do list. Parking lot sweeping and striping Wade informed the Board that Bill Sweighofer with Pavement Marking has sold his business. Wade has been in contact with the new owner and he plans to stripe the O'Neil and Eagles Lots as weather permits. Handicapped parking signage Charlie Harball (City Attorney) is aware of the issue with the 2-hour signs and will advise the Board on how the issue should be handled. 7. New Business: Parking Advisory Board responsibilities Roger said that this is something that is really up to the Advisory Board. Roger said that ultimately, at the end of the day, everything that happens with parking is his responsibility. Wade is now our Administrative Captain and he is essentially taking over many of the responsibilities that Roger Krauss had as Assistant Chief of Police. Wade will now be the liaison and supervisor for parking. The Board will be responsible for hearing from the community and the downtown businesses. The upkeep of the lots should be something that the Board weighs in on. Parking ideas, suggestions for how we move forward with technology, changing the way that we do the parking in downtown. Costs and the method of doing these things and then budget recommendations. Roger was not involved in the initial discussions that took place regarding moving parking under the police department. There were a lot of things that happened behind the scenes and finally one day he was told this is what you get to do. He did not have a problem with it and is in support of it and thinks this is the right place for it. The Advisory Board has essentially the same responsibilities except for the buck stops with Roger. Mark asked if the Advisory Board should be contacting companies for bids or if the police department would be looking into it. Roger felt it should be the police department doing the research and they can present it to the Advisory Board. Mark requested that we get the cost of parking meters, block face meters and inquire about wiring for the credit card option. Do they have to be hard wired? For the next meeting Roger and Wade will put together recommended Bylaws for the Parking Advisory Board. This way we will have it in writing and there will be a clear understanding of what the meeting requirements are. Roger inquired if there had been an election of officers. Up until now, we have just had a Chairperson, with one year terms. Janet inquired if a change had been made to the resolution that was formed for the Advisory Board. The resolution stated that board members had to reapply every year. The terms have always staggered so you don't lose all of your board members at once. Theresa White (City Clerk) said that we could disregard the one year terms. Janet would like to know that it has actually been changed, given the fact that the Board was not to be disbanded in the first place. The next meeting will be Thursday, August 30t1i. Adiournment: Adjourned at 8:50 a.m. moved by Janet, second by Mark. Respectfully submitted: Karen Durado KAREN'S NOTES — CITY OF KALISPELL PARKING PARKING UPDATE: July 2012 Tickets July 2012: 356 tickets written total of $3,560.00 56% collected July 2011: 231 tickets written total of $2,350.00 40% collected Parking Permits July 2012: $3,654.00 sold down $54.00 from last July July 2011: $3,708.00 sold Meters July 2012: $1,597.51 collected up $228.54 from last July July 2011: $1,368.97 collected CPI Income June 2012: paid in July $178.75 June 2011: paid in July $355.72 The Boot July 2012: used 2 times total of $170.00 $100.00 fines $70.00 fees July 2011: used 1 time total of $85.00 $50.00 fines $35.00 fees Occupancy Report July 2012: Westside at 103% Eastside at 104% combined total of 103% July 2011: Westside at 74% Eastside at 101 % combined total of 86% *Westside occupancy percentages were much lower in 2011 because 50 spaces at Skyline were included in the total Westside capacity.