CC Minutes - 02/17/10 Work Session

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proposal, should it gain traction. He asked what the impacts of this change would be. Mr. Petry replied that they had not looked into this yet. Mr. Zelenka said students were on tight budgets and charging them more would push more cars out into the neighborhoods, which was something they were trying to avoid in that neighborhood. He felt that they should call this the "park cost- shifting program." He took issue with all seven of the bullet points on that slide, commenting that he did not think any of them were good ideas. He liked the concept of branding, noting that he looked for the Smart Park logos when he went to Portland. Ms. Solomon asked what happened to the concept of changing to angled parking. Mr. Petry responded that the challenge of angled parking in that area was that with the number of curb cuts and driveway cutouts not much would be gained in parking spaces. Ms. Solomon supported giving the free - parking program a try. She remarked that it was compelling that a lot of things had happened in the downtown area since the advent of paid parking. To her it did seem like it had contributed to the downturn in that area. She was willing to support a two -year pilot program. Mayor Piercy commented that the perception of friendliness was important during this time that they were trying to improve the downtown area. She considered it to be one element among several, including public safety and increased business activity. She said they needed to consider budgetary implications but they also needed to make an investment in the downtown area. She supported rebranding parking with a vivid and easily identifiable logo. She also supported investing in the meters with more convenient payment methods available. She agreed that the City needed to make people more aware of the parking offers that were available. She added that she did not know what they could do to make the parking garages more visible and more "fun" but she felt there was power in making something appear more inviting. Mr. Clark agreed that free parking would not be a "silver bullet," but he felt it was an important part of the solution. He predicted that if free parking proved effective, it would help to increase public safety by increasing the number of people downtown and this could, in turn, increase business, which could increase property values in the downtown area, which could resolve revenue issues caused by free parking. He underscored that the basis of the pilot, like the use of tax increment financing, was to try to invest in what they wanted to occur. Mr. Clark asked how many employees parked in metered parking spaces before the summer pilot had been put in place. Mr. Petry replied that they had not tracked this. Mr. Clark observed that an increase in employees using the free parking had been included in the report and asked how they would know this if they did not know how many parked there in the first place. Mr. Petry explained that parking enforcement officers had observed City parking permits in some cars parked there. Mr. Clark did not think it was effective or accurate to say that there was an increase in employee parking there when this had not been tracked previously. He said having time - limited parking would have the same effect that meters would have on how long employees would be able to park in a parking spot. Ms. Taylor attributed the business level of the Fifth Street Market to the free parking that was available there. while she knew that free parking would not fix the downtown problems, it seemed to her that places with free parking did well. She related that there were meters on 16"' Avenue south of 11 t" Avenue. She averred that they were `always empty" and if the meters were removed, people could park there and walk downtown. She opined that the more people that were downtown, the safer it would be, and free MINUTES Eugene City Council February 17, 2010 Page 4 Work Session