Paid parking: not in Fernandina Beach downtown’s immediate future

Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
August 30, 2017 – 4:30 p.m.

 

After 90 minutes of presentations, public comment, and commission discussion, Fernandina Beach Vice Mayor Len Kreger seemed to sum up the months of study, outreach, surveys and investigation with the following statement: “We really don’t have a parking problem.”

The Fernandina Beach City Commission (FBCC) met in Special Session on August 29, 2017 for one purpose: to discuss and act to address complaints regarding parking availability in the city’s Central Business District. After listening to a report from the city’s Parking Committee as well as public comments, it was the consensus of the FBCC not to implement paid parking, but to revise the current parking ordinance to make enforcement of time limits more effective while reducing the time limit from three to two hours.

City Manager Dale Martin said that he would work with City Attorney Tammi Bach and Police Chief James Hurley to have a revised ordinance ready for FBCC review this fall.

Commissioners concluded that based upon staff research, there is not a shortage of parking spaces in the downtown area. The problem relates to the need for greater turnover in the prime parking area: Centre Street, numbered streets between Ash and Alachua Streets between 4^th Street and the waterfront, and Parking Lots A & B.

Commissioners also learned that city staff has worked with the county to make more evening and weekend parking available that had previously been off limits to the general public at the County Courthouse and the County Health Department (S. 4^th & Ash Streets). Additionally, signs have been erected to let the public know that they may also park behind City Hall after hours. These efforts and others have added 75 spaces to the downtown parking scene, not including the 24 spaces available in the rarely used Broome Street public parking lot at N. 2^nd Street.

Downtown merchants, who objected to instituting paid parking, claimed that recent efforts at increased enforcement of parking violations had greatly improved the turnover of spaces. There was a general acknowledgement that downtown business owners and employees contribute significantly to the lack of turnover of close-in spaces. Increased enforcement has helped get that message across, along with a heightened awareness effort among business owners to emphasize the importance of keeping prime spaces available for customers.

Commissioners, who appeared to be on the brink of approving a limited, paid parking plan for prime downtown parking spaces, expressed frustration at dealing with the routine and regular complaints about parking availability. However the initial cost of implementing a modern, paid parking system (about $450K) coupled with citizen and business resistance and uncertainty over parking implications of waterfront redevelopment combined to scuttle further exploration of the matter, despite the potential for a positive revenue stream after 1-2 years of such a system.

Although discussions about parking have sometimes become heated in the past, this meeting was notably calm and business-like. All public speakers, along with city commissioners, commended the work of the Parking Committee.

Parking Committee Reports

The internal city Parking Committee presented its first report to the FBCC at their August 1, 2017 Regular Meeting (See https://fernandinaobserver.com/2017/08/03/hurley-presents-parking-recommendations-for-downtown-fernandina-beach/).

Building on that report, the committee delivered reports on:

• Results from two survey groups, downtown business owners and the population at large;
• Current and recent efforts to address parking concerns;
• Parking calculations;
• Vendors and equipment for paid parking systems.

Chief Hurley reported that 47 percent of the 77 responses from among downtown merchants reflected support for paid parking, while 53 percent opposed the idea.

Of the 805 responses to the general survey, only 53 percent self identified as city residents. Three quarters of all respondents did not support paid parking as a means to improve the chances of getting prime spaces. Throughout both surveys, respondents called for:

• More available parking lots
• More available on-street parking
• More parking enforcement.

In addressing the current parking situation, City Stormwater Director Andre Desilet reported that better signage has been placed to alert the public to availability of parking after hours at the County Courthouse, Public Health and City Hall. He also spoke to other city efforts to create more downtown parking spaces.

Desilet said that in updating the Walker Parking Study done in 2000, staff determined that the peak demand for downtown and marina parking is noon on Saturday. The only real deficit of spaces appears to be at the marina, where charter boats, restaurants and recreational activities compete for space. However, there are spaces available within a reasonable walking distance: 400-675 feet.

Maintenance Department Manager Jeremiah Glisson provided an overview of paid parking systems that are used in many nearby cities including St. Augustine and Savannah. These systems utilize kiosks, not parking meters. They allow users to add additional time to their parking via phone apps and allow enforcement via license plate readers. They allow for many options, when it comes to programming, such as: grace periods, discounts, etc.

Glisson indicated that the projected cost for implementation for such a system was about $450K. However, depending upon extent of the system, rates and citations, the projected revenue would be roughly $420K. These figures built in the following assumptions:

• 413 spots in the Central Business District (Centre Street, Numbered streets bounded by Ash and Alachua from the waterfront to 4^th Street, waterfront parking lots A & B);
• $1.50/hour parking rate;
• Paid parking spots filled 33% of the time during the enforcement period (10 am to 7 pm);
• Paid parking spots used 220 days out of the year (60% of the time);
• $25 citations (estimated revenue $1000/month).

Chief Hurley concluded the staff presentation with a series of questions directed to the commission regarding policy and implementation of paid parking.

Public comment

Nine audience members addressed the FBCC, but only one—Coleman Langshaw– favored a paid parking system as laid out in the staff report. Langshaw cited the need to improve the turnover rate in prime downtown parking spaces and indicated that he would be willing to pay to park.

Other speakers disagreed, citing fears that such a system would hurt small businesses and in effect create a “cover charge” for their patrons. Many downtown merchants cited the positive effects on parking spot turnover as a result of increased enforcement efforts.

Alan Mills, speaking on behalf of charter boat captains and the local boating community, said that such a system would not be practical for those boaters who set out at 7 a.m. and do not return until later in the day. He said that accommodation would need to be made for those boaters who do not have smart phones and/or who work out of the city marina.

The public expressed other concerns including:

• Paid parking would drive business out of downtown and to the mainland, where large, unpaid lots exist;
• Headaches for residents and business patrons who would need to overcome a learning curve;
• The number of small resort communities that do not charge for parking;
• Pushing free parking into neighboring residential areas;
• Parking for people who live in the Central Business District;
• Need to await results of both citizens survey and development plans for the waterfront before tackling parking needs;
• Fear that the city’s desire for a new revenue stream was driving the issue.

Commission discussion

Vice Mayor Len Kreger said that as far as he was concerned, the people had spoken against paid parking in the surveys. “They don’t want it,” Kreger said, “and they have spoken. Why are we even talking about paid parking when we have big numbers in opposition? We need to continue to look at ways to create more parking.”

A frustrated Commissioner Tim Poynter directed his remarks to the audience, several of whom have been regular and vocal in complaining about downtown parking. “Whenever we try to do anything downtown, the issue comes up: ‘You can’t do anything until you fix the parking problem.’ Then when we try to fix it and bring up all the statistics, we hear ‘There’s no problem.’ Many of us up here have said, ‘We don’t have a parking problem, we have a walking problem.’”

“Look, this is not an easy choice,” Poynter continued. “It is an expensive project, especially if you are going to exempt everyone who lives downtown, or who is a city resident. If we are exempting everybody, the revenues will never meet those projections. My bigger issue is that there is literally only a handful of times when [parking availability] becomes an issue. This time of year, there are parking spaces available all over.” Poynter said that everyone who works downtown knows how to “work the system.” He cautioned businesses not to expect the Police to solve all the problems through enforcement.

Vice Mayor Len Kreger and Commissioner Roy Smith discussed the survey results, with Smith adding that only 53 percent of the respondents to the general survey were city residents. He said that many of the people responding who do not want paid parking do not pay city taxes.

“I agree with Tim,” Kreger said. “We really don’t have a parking problem. If you look at St. Augustine, visitors walk much further to get from the parking garage to shopping and attractions.”

Commissioner John Miller said that he was not surprised by the 75 percent negative response to paid parking. “If someone were to call me and ask if I would be willing to pay to park downtown, I’d say no,” Miller said. “The number that surprised me was the 47 percent of the merchants who supported it. Getting almost half of the people to agree to anything in Fernandina almost blew my mind.” Miller said that he concurred from personal observation that the same cars occupy spaces all day long. But Miller said that he did not see paid parking as a way to fix that problem. “If you have a guy who drives a Porsche sitting in a real estate office all day, he’ll just keep adding money to his parking voucher.”

Mayor Robin Lentz said that she agreed with bits and pieces of all the commissioners’ comments. But she expressed fears that the city was back to the position of not doing anything about parking. She said that she felt the FBCC and staff had not sufficiently explained the continued availability of free parking in city lots and outside the prime parking area. She said that the vacant lot the city has been calling Parking Lot E at the southwest corner of 2^nd and Ash Streets has been discussed at length and that it could be striped and turned into a better lot with more spaces.

Poynter agreed with Lentz and recapped the continued existence of free parking in lots and outside the designated “prime parking” zone. Smith said that he wasn’t sure that it would solve a problem by driving downtown employees into the close in city lots behind the library and on N. 2^nd Street. Other commissioners did not share his concern.

Lentz asked for the pleasure of the commission in moving forward. Poynter said that if the city would not move forward with paid parking, he wanted the time limit on spaces reduced from 3 to 2 hours. This was a concern that Chief Hurley had raised at the earlier meeting. Reducing the hours would create more turnover at the busier times of the day. Lentz also asked that the ordinance be reviewed to address existing problems that the Police encounter with enforcement.

“How do we feel as a commission?” Lentz asked.

Miller replied that he was not comfortable moving forward with paid parking at this time.

Kreger returned to the survey results. “When you say that 47 percent [of the downtown merchants] support paid parking, you are ignoring the 53 percent who oppose it—also the 75 percent of the general survey who oppose it. It may be worth looking at further, but we need to listen,” Kreger said.

Lentz said she understood Kreger’s position, but added that over almost 3 years on the commission, she has heard at least one person every month complain about parking.

Kreger’s retort: “Why don’t we just declare ‘no parking problem’?” This comment generated some laughter and jokes among commissioners. But Kreger added, “I think what we heard in the [Parking Committee’s] report is that they are looking at improvements. We need to look at those. And we need to look at the waterfront pretty quick. I just have to say, I will be upset if we don’t listen to what the people say.”

Mayor Lentz asked Chief Hurley a few final questions before summing up the will of the commission. “The sense I’m getting is to increase enforcement, making it easier, cleaning up the existing ordinance, look at reconfiguring Parking Lot E and change the parking time limit to 2 hours,” she said.

In concluding the discussion, Vice Mayor Kreger lauded the work of the Parking Committee in both making improvements and researching options. “I continue to commend the quality of our staff and that they have the potential to do even more,” Kreger said.

During the meeting several references were made to a formal survey, which is being conducted by the National Research Center, an outside firm based upon a random sample of 1500 city residents. City Manager Dale Martin reported that the firm has reported an above-average response rate, meaning that the expected margin of error has dropped from 5 to 4 percent.

After the meeting Martin reported that data collection has ended on August 30 and that he has been informed that he will receive the final survey results on September 20, 2017. Martin said that the information received via this scientific sampling would help the city in setting future goals.