CC Minutes - 05/08/00 Work Session

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Mr. Kelly said he would like to see more areas of private/public cooperation in parking, and cited Portland's Smart Park Program as an example. Both private and public structures had uniform signage and fliers were produced pointing consumers to the garages. He suggested the City work with Downtown Eugene, Inc., on a map and flier regarding downtown parking. Mr. Kelly said that he did not think the public was aware of all the parking facilities downtown, citing the public parking in Broadway Place as an example. Mr. Meisner thought the employee bus program was great. He asked if the City automatically bought a bus pass for every employee, or for any employee at request. Mr. Farmer said that the City did not buy a bus pass for every person. If the City bought a pass for every employee, the amount budgeted would be more. Mr. Meisner questioned the amount the City would spend if it bought individual bus passes for those employees who actually used the bus. Referring to the monthly parking program, Mr. Meisner said that the rates seemed arbitrarily Iow in comparison to other cities and he hoped the staff examined those rates. He added that an increase in parking rates might drive some to park in nearby inner city neighborhoods, and the City might have to consider extending the neighborhood parking programs into those areas. Mr. Meisner was disappointed that the focus of the agenda topic was on downtown parking in isolation of other related topics. He said that there was an assumption that structured parking downtown was needed to compete with suburban development, but the only solution offered was public development of downtown parking without examination of what was permitted in other parts of the community and the potential of private development. He said the City allowed 5th Street Market to expand and reduce parking; subsequently, market representatives, through the North End Scoping Group process, requested that the City provide structured parking. Mr. Meisner called for a more comprehensive examination of the issues. Mr. Rayor said that he would like to eliminate the bulk parking contracts when they expire. He believed that it was unfair smaller companies could not secure such contracts. Mr. Rayor asked for information on how many people worked in the Parcade and Overpark and the percentage that parked in those structures. Mr. Rayor said that the City had priced parking to the degree where it was not economical for a private party to build parking. In addition, the exclusion zone conflicted with the Central Eugene Parking and Traffic Circulation Study, which called for the provision of adequate parking for new major development and redevelopment. Mr. Rayor did not think that rates could be raised drastically, but they could be raised to the degree they covered the costs of the program. Mr. Rayor wanted a six-year forecast of the parking fund that included the $1.8 million in repairs called out in Attachment H. He pointed out the attachment called for expenditures of $1.5 million over two years, and $1.8 million over ten years. He said that did not include the costs of seismic retrofitting. He also doubted the accuracy of the small percentage increase attributed to the costs of seismic retrofitting. Mr. Lee was looking to the Ad Hoc Committee on Greater Downtown Visioning for more direction regarding the long-term future of downtown parking. Ms. Nathanson asked if the costs of building underground parking structures in Eugene was greater than in other communities because of water table issues and the presence of bedrock. Mr. Farmer said that the lesser problem was bedrock; the water table limited construction to a MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 8, 2000 Page 6 Work Session