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HomeMy WebLinkAboutagenda items PARKING UTILITY COMMISSION AGENDA ITEMS JANUARY 2011 NEW BUSINESS 1. PRESENTATION ON OPEN MEETINGS, PUBLIC RECORDS, ETHICS, RESPONSIBILITIES AND CONDUCT OF MEETINGS City Attorney Lynn Lorenson will provide Commission members with an orientation-type presentation that she provides for citizen boards throughout the City. 2. SUPPORT OF SEPARATE COMMITTEE TO DISCUSS VISION FOR DOWNTOWN PARKING At the December 21, 2010 Downtown BID meeting, there was some discussion of the “satellite parking” concept, which the Commission considered at an earlier meeting. At the meeting, BID members expressed interest in having a separate committee or working group, consisting of a couple of BID members and one or two members of the Parking Utility Commission, to meet separately to discuss developing this concept in more detail. It was thought that this would be more effective than expecting it to be accomplished within the existing agendas of each group. The formation of this type of group could be helpful in addressing Commission member concerns that decisions on individual parking lots do not seem to fold in with an overall parking vision or strategy. It would also allow for more direct interaction between the Commission and BID membership. I recommend that the Commission approve the creation of this separate committee. If the Commission agrees to this request, the Commission should decide who from the Commission shall participate. I will then coordinate with the BID’s designated representatives to arrange a meeting time that works for everyone. 3. USE OF RIVERSIDE PARKING LOT FOR WATERFEST. Waterfest is planning to request the use of the Riverside lot for its 2011 summer concert series. Specifically, this request includes all spaces in the Riverside lot except for the twenty (20) spaces designated as leased parking spaces in the northwest corner of the lot (per Section 27-49(A)(4) of the Oshkosh Municipal Code); on 5 PM to 11 PM on evenings when Waterfest concerts are held (scheduled for Thursdays from June 9, 2011 through September 1, 2011). In previous years, Waterfest has closed the lot to general public access on Thursdays starting at 5 PM, and has charged vehicles to park in the lot between those hours. Waterfest attendees are not required to use the Riverside lot, and parking may spill over into other municipal or private lots, as well as use on-street parking. This request does not relate to this spillover traffic, as Waterfest AGENDA ITEMS2 JANUARY 2011 has not requested to reserve other municipal lots or any changes to parking regulations. Instead, this agenda item focuses solely on the request to reserve the Riverside lot. According to sections 7(c) and 7(e) of the attached policy on reserving Parking Utility lots (which was approved by the Common Council on December 28, 2010), this request requires review by the Parking Utility Commission. The following is the staff analysis of this request, per the criteria identified in section 6 of the policy: a) The positive and/or negative effects to properties adjacent to municipal parking areas The request involves typical parking uses of a municipal parking lot, so any positive/negative effects would relate primarily to spillover parking. For high attendance events, this effect would involve parking uses in areas which allow parking. This may already occur during high attendance events, so this request does not introduce any new, adverse effects on adjacent properties. b) The positive and/or negative effects to the City as a whole The Waterfest concert series is regularly promoted as a part of the City’s quality of life, and brings people to downtown Oshkosh. Waterfest organizers indicate that their ability to use this lot for revenue-generation purposes helps to defray event costs, which makes it easier to offer tickets at a lower price. As the reserved use of this lot has evolved into a part of Waterfest’s business plan, this request would be valuable in preserving Waterfest in its current form. c) The availability of capacity of the parking lot For the most part, this parking lot experiences low utilization, except when there are concurrent events at the Convention Center. Waterfest organizers are in regular contact with the Convention and Visitors Bureau regarding potential conflicting uses of this lot when there are events at the Convention Center. d) The availability of alternative parking areas in nearby lots or on-street For the most part, this parking lot experiences low utilization, except when there are concurrent events at the Convention Center. Any potential alternative parking areas would be primarily used by Waterfest attendees at the same time; therefore, this request does not affect the availability of these areas. e) The potential to harm the physical infrastructure of the lot, including but not limited to pavement, curbing, landscaping, street lighting poles, signage and similar appurtenances, beyond normal wear and tear that occurs through customary activities in the parking lot Waterfest has historically used this parking lot for typical parking lot purposes. To the department’s knowledge, these uses have not resulted in accelerated degradation of the parking lot. f) The extent to which the request limits the ability of others to use the lot AGENDA ITEMS3 JANUARY 2011 Waterfest would prohibit the ability to people to use the lot unless they had a valid permit to park in the northwest corner of the lot, or they paid the appropriate fee. Apart from Waterfest, however, there would be little demand to use this lot on these nights. g) The amount of revenue, if any, to be collected by the applicant for the privilege to park in the municipal lots during the time of the reservation The precise amount of revenue generated depends on the events and attendance. It should be noted that this request does not adversely affect revenue to the Parking Utility. The Parking Utility’s sole revenue from the lot relates to the monthly permit holders in the northwest corner of the lot. This request will not eliminate the ability of these people to use the lot. In addition, the Parking Utility has historically not collected parking revenue in the evenings. Consequently, approval of this request would not result in the Parking Utility forfeiting any anticipated revenue. h) Potential adverse aesthetic or noise impacts As the request involves typical parking use in a parking lot, no unusual adverse aesthetic or noise impacts are expected. i) The extent to which applicant complied with the terms of any or all earlier reservation requests submitted by the applicant The Commission supported Waterfest’s use of this lot in 2010. This request is consistent with previous exclusive use of the Riverside parking lot on the nights of the Waterfest summer concert series. The Transportation Department has not received any complaints about the Waterfest-related usage being markedly different from typical parking lot use, or about their use accelerating wear and tear of the lot. I recommend the Commission approve this request, with the following condition: The Applicant must allow leaseholders in the twenty spaces at the northwestern portion of the Riverside Lot (per Section 27-49(A)(4) of the Oshkosh Municipal Code) to access their parking spaces free of charge during reserved times. The Applicant may require vehicles to demonstrate proof that they are eligible to park in those spaces. 4. A REQUEST TO CONVERT THE PEARL PARKING LOT TO DAYTIME LEASED PARKING. This is a citizen request. (Clover Investments, P.O Box 1778, Brentwood, CA 94513 – probably the same address as the owner of 217 N Main) The requestor owns the building at 217 N Main Street, and is interested in attracting tenants. The requestor is concerned that there is inadequate employee-type parking, and believes that switching to leased parking would make it easier to market the property. Leased parking involves spaces which are assigned to specific individuals for their use. Numerous City lots have leased spaces, including Algoma, High Avenue, 400 Block West and Division Street. They are numbered to make it easier to understand where someone is allowed to park. AGENDA ITEMS4 JANUARY 2011 The current parking lot layout is shown in Figure 1. The lot’s 22 permit parking spaces would be converted over to leased parking. This would reduce the availability of permit parking spaces in the downtown area, although it may be that some permit holders would opt to lease spaces. The request would convert seven (7) 90-minute short-term parking spaces to long-term spaces. Anecdotal evidence had suggested that these spaces were used by people who could have bought permits but chose not to do so; therefore, there may not be any impact on the availability of short-term parking for customers. In addition, the requestor made a separate request to the Traffic Review Advisory Board to convert the 30-minute parking on Commerce Street to 2-hour parking, which should better support customer-oriented parking. This request will be considered at the Board’s January 11, 2010 meeting. Figure 1: Current Parking Layout in Pearl Avenue Lot There are a couple of issues with this request which staff has communicated to the requestor. First, an earlier agenda item referenced “satellite parking”, where spaces closest to Main Street tend to be more expensive and available for a shorter duration. The “satellite parking” concept has not been formally endorsed by the Commission; however, it should be noted that this proposal may not align with that concept. The second concern is that the property owner would likely prefer that the spaces be dedicated to the building. However, leased spaces are available on a first-come-first-serve basis. If the property owner secures the spaces and pays for them on- time, they can retain those spaces indefinitely. The property owner has expressed interest in similar ideas for the Ceape and Otter East lots. These may be introduced as agenda items at future meetings.