Tag: Paul Leitman

Eugene Government: Council rethinks free parking

Posted on by Julia Havens

With a stubborn budget problem looming, councilors indicate that they may not renew the downtown perk

By Edward Russo, The Register-Guard
Published:

The City Council on Monday night took no action, but some councilors indicated they may not support an extension of the city’s free on-street parking program early next year.

The city has a stubborn budget problem, and some councilors said requiring people who park in a 12-square-block area of downtown to once again dig into their pockets to feed meters would generate additional money for city coffers. The councilors made their comments after hearing a report from the city’s parking manager, who said surveys of downtown businesses and visitors contain a mixed message about the effectiveness of free parking in helping to revitalize the city center.

Councilor George Brown, who owns The Kiva, a downtown grocery store, said he’s interested in ending the gratis parking and having parking fee proceeds directed to the city’s general fund, which pays for police, fire, library and other city services.

Brown said the knowledge that the parking fees could be used in that way “would take away some of the pain” of paying to park.

At the council’s direction, the city three years ago began the free, two-hour curbside parking. The council majority hoped the free parking zone would help local businesses and contribute to a revived downtown.

Motorists generally have been pleased about not digging into their pockets or purses for change to feed meters in the area bounded by Seventh Avenue on the north, 11th Avenue on the south, Willamette Street on the east and Lincoln Street on the west. Parking meters remain in the rest of downtown and other parts of the city.

Any decision related to parking will likely be part of the city’s budget discussions, which will take place over the next several months. Parking Manager Jeff Petry told councilors he will visit with them on the topic at a yet-to-be determined date.

The decision to remove the 288 parking meters has meant the city is forgoing about $290,000 a year from the amount collected from meters throughout the downtown and midtown areas, Petry said.

The free parking was to last two years, but city officials have extended it four times, with the current exemption period scheduled to end on Jan. 15, 2014.

Two reports about the free parking program have been conducted in the last two years.

The latest, completed in June by the Community Planning Workshop (CPW) at the University of Oregon, used a survey of downtown businesses and parking motorists that was conducted by Downtown Eugene Inc., the area’s property owners and business association.

The report contained conflicting perspectives on how well free parking is working, Petry said. Motorists like the ability to park for free and they think it helps downtown, the report said.

Report >>  SEARCHING FOR A SPACE: An Analysis of Eugene’s Free Parking Policy

However, business owners are skeptical.

In a survey that drew 62 responses from downtown merchants, several said employees are occupying the curbside spaces instead of customers, and firms that depend on parking are not seeing “the intended impacts of the program in terms of increased revenues or patronage volumes.”

The report also said more motorists are parking in the free-parking blocks than in the blocks with meters. Since the city conducted the last parking count in 2011, parking occupancy rates in the 12-block area increased by about 14 percent, the report said.

North-central Councilor Mike Clark, who was instrumental in getting the free parking started, said he “barely knew what to say” about other councilors who apparently want to do away with free parking.

Free parking by itself was not the savior of downtown, he said. But with other factors, such as downtown redevelopment and improved law enforcement, free parking has contributed to a more lively city center, he said.

He noted that 54 percent of the surveyed motorists said they would come downtown less often if they had to plug meters.

“I really don’t know what my colleagues are thinking,” Clark said.

 

 

Parking meters? Not yet

Posted on by Julia Havens

Free zone still benefits downtown Eugene

Editorial response from The Register-Guard
(to article ‘Council rethinks free parking’)
Published:

Downtown Eugene is healthier than it has been in years, but it’s not so healthy that the shops, restaurants and services in the city’s core can afford to chase people away. That would be the result of reinstalling parking meters next to 288 parking spaces downtown where people can currently park for free. The Eugene City Council should extend the free parking program, giving the downtown area’s clear trend toward revitalization more time to take firm root.

On Monday the council discussed allowing the free parking program to expire next Jan. 15 after a four-year run. The primary motive would be financial — putting meters back in the free-parking zone would generate an estimated $290,000 a year for a city that is facing acute budgetary pressures. The zone extends from Seventh to 11th avenues between Willamette and Lincoln streets.

Before the free-parking program, complaints about the expense and aggravation of parking downtown were regular features of The Register-Guard’s letters-to-the-editor columns. The most common story had to do with finding a parking ticket because the time on a meter had expired a few minutes before the driver had returned. Almost invariably, the complaints would end with a vow to shop at a mall next time.

Those complaints have all but disappeared, and their absence has a value that’s hard to calculate. Clearly, the free parking program has eliminated one common and enduring cause of ill-will. For downtown merchants, it must have felt as though a long-lasting headache has suddenly cleared. The number of people spending time and money in downtown Eugene is increasing, but those who do business in the area still need every potential customer they can get.

It’s clear that people will pay to park in and around downtown — there are more parking spaces with meters outside the zone than there are free spaces inside it, and on most days there’s a charge for parking in one of the city’s parking garages. Knowing that there’s a possibility of finding a free on-street parking spot, however, lessens the sting of having to feed the meter a few blocks away. And even though it’s surrounded by paid parking, the free parking zone sends a subtle but important message: Downtown Eugene intends to welcome visitors, not milk them for every quarter in their pockets.

San Francisco has no downtown free parking zone. Neither does Portland. People complain about the cost of parking in both cities — but they go to their downtowns anyway. They go because they want to, or because they must. Eugene hasn’t reached the point where the desire to go downtown is so strong, or the need to go is so great, that parking spaces would be full whether they’re metered or not.

That day may be coming soon, as the number of people living in and around downtown rises and the mix of services and retail outlets broadens. At that point, meters would become less important as a means of raising revenue than as a way to ensure turnover in short-term parking spaces.

But for now, the free parking program helps reinforce the other investments Eugene has made and is making downtown — investments that include various types of subsidies for developers whose tenants depend on a steady stream of visitors to the area. It’s important that those visitors feel welcome. The city hasn’t reached the point where it can afford to undercut that message by imposing a cost and an inconvenience, even a minor one.

Community Planning Workshop Report:
>>  SEARCHING FOR A SPACE: An Analysis of Eugene’s Free Parking Policy