Sunday, July 19, 2009
The increases to parking fees and fines downtown will be approved if the city commission passes the recommendations on its second and final reading July 21. Dave Corliss, city manager, said he expected the commission to approve the changes because the commission accepted the changes on first reading at the July 14 meeting. The changes approved on first reading include doubling the cost of meters, increasing parking tickets from $2 to $3 and increasing meter patrol end times from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The plan accepted at the July 14 commission meeting did not include adding 15-minute meters or reducing meters from two hours to one-and-a-half hours along Massachusetts Street.
Even though these changes were not included, Corliss said this would not affect the amount of revenue generated by the proposal.
“They didn’t change any of the major revenue drivers,” Corliss said. “These are all estimates and they’re based on, in some cases, people not feeding the meter correctly.”
Corliss said that the next step would be to reprogram the parking meters within the next six weeks and that the city would work on a publicity campaign to inform downtown parkers about the changes to fees, fines and enforcement hours.
“We aren’t ready to announce what the exact effect will be,” Corliss said. “But one thing we are going to do is step back and see how can we best publicize this.”
Sierra Moeller, Pierre, S.D. junior, said she was not happy about the changes because moving enforcement hours to 6 p.m. only left her an hour to shop at stores downtown before closing.
“We’re poor college students,” Moeller said. “I don’t like to pay for parking. I would rather wait.”
Moeller said she thought downtown would lose some of its business because of the change.
“I won’t come down until later,” Moeller said.
Alyssa Esperance, Leavenworth senior, said she didn’t like the changes, but could live with them.
“I think that’s ridiculous because if driving is your only way to come downtown then when are you going to park if you don’t have the extra money,” Esperance said. “As long as it’s not 20 like the campus tickets, I think I’ll be ok.”
Andrew White, Littleton, Co. senior, said he wasn’t happy when he heard about the proposed changes.
“As a downtown employee, I find a price increase in the parking meters downtown absolutely unacceptable until they figure out a way for us to more easily park down here,” White said. “I have tickets out the ass.”
White said he parked behind the business, but had to pay a meter every time he worked. He said he would like to see the city consider other solutions besides raising meter rates.
Dan Hughes, president of Downtown Lawrence Inc., said the reason DLI suggested reducing parking meters from two hours to one-and-a-half hours was to deter employees who worked on Massachusetts Street from taking up parking designed for customers.
“I know people that have a little egg timer on their desk in their office downtown and set it for an hour and 50 minutes,” Hughes said. “Those parking spots are worth money and they belong to the customers.”
— — Edited by Kristen Liszewski
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