Title
Update on Proposed Parking Fee Increases
Recommended Action
Committee Recommendation:
Not referred to a committee.
City Manager Recommendation:
Receive a briefing on proposed parking fee increases. Briefing only - No action requested
Report
Issue:
Whether to receive a briefing on proposed increased parking rates for meters and on-street permits in 2019.
Staff Contact:
Max DeJarnatt, Parking Program Analyst, Community Planning & Development, 360.570.3723
Presenter(s):
Amy Buckler, Downtown Programs Manager
Background and Analysis:
The recent growth of Downtown has strained the parking supply by adding demand while removing supply. The current parking assessment indicates that on-street parking frequently drops below 15 percent availability in the core, creating congestion and frustration for Downtown visitors. Demand-based pricing is the most effective way to balance supply and demand by increasing turnover; however, the City has not updated pricing in years.
In addition, because parking is an Enterprise Fund, fines and fees must be adequate to cover the cost of Parking Operations. As the City implements the beginning phase of the draft Parking Strategy to improve the user experience, expenses to the Parking Enterprise Fund have increased. Additional technology upgrades, support for multimodality, lighting improvements and a shared parking program will continue to impact the fund's bottom line.
City staff will review proposed parking fee increases at the meeting. Most of these fee increases are the purview of the City Manager, and the proposal is for the new fees to be in place on January 1, 2019. The exception is the residential parking program fees as these are embedded in the municipal code. On August 16, 2018, staff briefed the Land Use and Environment Committee on recommended parking code updates, which includes the proposed residential parking program fee increase among other things. Recommended parking code updates will come forward to Cou...
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