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 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.