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Continuing, Mr. Petry discussed some of the parking service practices of communities in other areas. He <br />said the question was what constituted a good parking program. He related that the City of Eugene was <br />considered good because of its mission: to supply, allocate and manage adequate, safe parking to meet the <br />parking needs of the business and residential communities in a manner that supports transportation system <br />needs, growth management policies and goals, and City Council and community goals. He stated that <br />parking staff was working with the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) to provide electric car <br />charging stations in the downtown area and in parking garages. He said the technology was now available <br />for people to pay for parking via their cell phones. He also noted that the two development projects that <br />were planned would bring the downtown parking to capacity. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark expressed appreciation for the work Mr. Petry had done on the presentation. Mr. Clark said he <br />had sought to hold this work session to discuss the metered parking in the downtown core area only. He <br />wanted the discussion to be about how to make the downtown a more inviting and convenient place for <br />people to visit. He asked for data relevant to only the on-street meters in the public safety zone. Mr. Petry <br />responded that the meters in the downtown safety zone had brought in $470,000 in revenue in the previous <br />year, approximately $900 per meter. He said removal of the meters would result in a $430,000 revenue <br />change. He related that data indicated that if the downtown core was converted to monitored, free parking <br />with time limits, the City would realize a 30 percent increase in the number of parking tickets in the <br />downtown core. He explained that the downtown area had unlimited free parking in a smaller area in the <br />1980s and issued approximately 80,000 tickets at that time. He said in 1991, when the three-hour parking <br />program had been instituted, the City had issued 91,000 tickets. He noted that the other metric was that the <br />areas outside of downtown that were two-hour free zones generated approximately 30 percent more parking <br />tickets. He predicted that citation revenue in the downtown area would increase by $40,000 to $50,000 if it <br />was converted to two-hour free parking and this would offset some of the revenue loss from the elimination <br />of the meters. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark averred that meters were a solution to a problem that the City did not have as they were designed <br />to keep people moving around. He did not think making sure people do not park downtown was one of the <br />problems the City had. He wanted to investigate parking alternatives in order to best create a more <br />welcoming downtown. <br /> <br />Mayor Piercy asked if the City did some kind of accounting for how full parking spaces were downtown. <br />Mr. Petry said that most days during the week there was 55 to 70 percent occupancy of parking spaces, but <br />this varied by location. Mayor Piercy said she would be interested in knowing how full the parking lots <br />were during the work week and on weekends. She noted that she found the Portland parking system to be <br />very self-explanatory and accessible. <br /> <br />Mr. Petry observed that Portland had a “smart card” system and Vancouver, Washington had a program <br />called “easy park.” Regarding the latter, he explained that it was an investment in communication <br />information to customers about how to park downtown. He said it would come down to prioritizing <br />resources; in the capital budget there was a placeholder amount of $600,000 to consider signage and ways to <br />communicate information better. <br /> <br />Mayor Piercy felt there were “myths” in the community that the parking garages were unsafe. Mr. Petry <br />stated that a security service was provided 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. He said he received daily <br />reports of all of the activities of the security personnel. He related that most of the challenges were related <br />to loitering and skateboarding in the parking garages, though there were some vehicle break-ins. He noted <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 29, 2008 Page 2 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />