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Farmer said that small business owners were on the Ad hoc Committee on Greater Downtown <br />Visioning, participated in the Downtown Summit, and were represented on the Downtown <br />Eugene, Inc., board. Ms. Taylor suggested that those businesses were being hurt by the lack of <br />parking, and asked if the businesses had been surveyed. Mr. Farmer said that no systematic <br />surveys had been conducted. Ms. Taylor suggested that such a survey might be a good idea. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor asked if Symantec was paying the full cost of parking. Mr. Luell said that Symantec <br />was paying the market rate less the bulk discount. Ms. Taylor asked how Symantec could be <br />considered to be encouraging the use of alternate modes given the amount of parking it was <br />providing for its employees. Mr. Luell said that Symantec encouraged employees to use <br />alternative modes in several ways, including participation in Lane Transit District's employee bus <br />pass program. He was unsure how many parking spaces Symantec was using. <br /> <br />Mr. Farmer noted that when a company buys a certain number of permits, it did not use all the <br />spaces paid for every day, so the City could oversell the spaces to some degree. <br /> <br />Mr. Rayor clarified that no other city surveyed by the City had bulk parking; the City's rates were <br />among the lowest of communities surveyed. He did not want to raise the price of event parking, <br />and liked the concept of diagonal parking in downtown to increase the number of spaces. <br />Responding to a question from Mr. Rayor, Mr. Luell said that the bulk discount ranged from 5 to <br />20 percent depending on the number of spaces purchased. Mr. Rayor did not think it was a <br />proper pricing strategy to charge less for more use. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey did not want the council to assume that the City could install diagonal parking on <br />6th and 7th avenues without permission from the State and federal governments. <br /> <br />Mr. Pap~ asked if there was a correlation between the cost of parking and where retail customers <br />chose to shop. Mr. Farmer was unaware of any definitive study on the topic. He said that it had <br />been shown empirically that parking turnover and parking location was vital to retail success. <br />There was also evidence that meters encourage parking turnover. <br /> <br />Mr. Pap~ was unsure of his position on the first hour free program and Saturday free program <br />and looked for more input from the downtown visioning effort. Mr. Farmer noted that staff was <br />attempting to determine who used the program. He said that many visitors to the Saturday <br />Market and Farmers Market used the parking structures. Ms. Taylor noted the connection <br />between those events and free parking, and pointed out that downtown was bustling during those <br />hours. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly observed that Austin, Texas was paying downtown employees not to drive to work <br />because that city found it to be significantly cheaper than building structured parking. He asked <br />staff to look into that situation. <br /> <br />Mr. Johnson thanked staff for its comprehensive presentation on the topic. He said that he did <br />not want the City to lose of the concept of downtown as the "mother node" and a growth <br />management tool. He suggested that increasing the costs of parking significantly could be at <br />odds with other growth management policies encouraging growth and activity downtown. Mr. <br />Johnson said that he would work with Mr. Farmer to attempt to find the center of the council and <br />return with some proposals. <br /> <br />MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 8, 2000 Page 9 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />