Advisory Parking Committee Proceedings
December 18, 2013
Page 1 of 5
City of Birmingham
ADVISORY PARKING COMMITTEE
REGULAR MEETING
Birmingham City Hall Commission Room
151 Martin, Birmingham, Michigan
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
MINUTES
These are the minutes for the Advisory Parking Committee regular meeting held on Wednesday, December 20, 2013. The meeting was called to order by Chairman Lex Kuhne at 7:33 a.m.
Present:Chairman Lex Kuhne
Vice-Chairperson Susan Peabody
Anne Honhart
Steve Kalczynski
Al Vaitas
Absent:James Esshaki
Julie Gheen
Judith Paskewicz
Central Parking:Catherine Burch
Jason O’Dell
Principal Shopping
District (“PSD”):Bob Benkert
Administration:Brendan Cousino, P.E., Asst.City Engineer
Paul O’Meara, City Engineer
Carole Salutes, Recording Secretary
RECOGNITION OF GUESTS
Jeffrey Surnow
APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 20, 2013 MEETING
Motion by Ms. Peabody
Seconded by Dr. Vaitasto accept the APC Minutes from the meeting of November 20, 2013 as they have been prepared.
Motion carried, 5-0.
VOICE VOTE:
Yeas: Peabody, Vaitas, Henke, Honhart, Kalczynski
Nays: None
Absent: Esshaki, Gheen, Paskewicz
PIERCE ST. PARKING STRUCTURE
EXPANSION
a.Draft Business Survey
Mr. O'Meara advised that demand for more parking spaces appears strongest in the area of the Pierce St. Parking Structure, notonly presently, but in the future, given the availability of developable land nearby. Potential growth indemand is not nearly as strong around the N. Old Woodward Ave. Structure, except for the privateparcel that could be created if the parking lot is removed.
Before embarking on a decision to expand, public input is valued and appreciated. He presented a survey that seeks to determine whether or not the public would like to see the City expand the parking system; and if they would, whether they are prepared to pay for it.
Discussion noted that the type of worker in Birmingham has changed since the structures were built. It has gone from staffs in retail stores along with in and out shoppers to all day agency workers. .
Consensus was that the survey is great.
Chairman Kuhne suggested that a scale of 1 – 5 be created as opposed to having yes or no answers. Keep the requests for information neutral, such as “What is your opinion;” or, How do you feel?” In general, shorter questions are better than longer questions. Borrow some of the question structure from the Multi-Multi Modal Survey.
Chairman Kuhne asked for input from the public at 7:55 a.m.
Mr. Benkert indicated that the PSD is waiting to see what the survey shows. They definitely support more retail parking. Currently it is not easy to find meters.
Mr. O’Meara indicated he will send the survey to the PSD so it will get to the tenants and landlords. He hopes to have the results by January.
b.PSD Meeting Update
Mr. O’Meara indicated he brought up the Pierce St. Structure expansion at the PSD meeting of December 5. Most of their questions had to do with utilizing Chester St. better, because they saw a lot of empty spaces there. Also there were questions about how the parking assessment will be formulated.
CHESTER ST. PARKING STRUCTURE
MONTHLY PERMITS
Mr. Cousino reported that over the past year, the demand for monthly permits in all of the City’s five parking structures hasincreased significantly. In order to try to meet the increased demand, City staff is reviewing optionsfor increasing the availability of permits wherever possible. There are 940 permits currently
authorized for sale in the Chester St. Parking Structure, however, based upon its capacity andrecent usage history, the number of permits in this structure could beincreased.
Central Parking has provided the usage data for all weekdays at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. for the past two months to show the number and type of parkers in the structure.
There was a maximum of 631 total parkers in Chester St. that has a capacity of 880 parking spaces. So there were more than 200 open spaces, even when they had the most parkers in the garage. Over the past few months they are seeing fewer permit parkers even with more permits sold than just a few years ago. So, it looks like there is capacity to sell more permits. That will relieve some of the current pressure system-wide.
City staff is recommending that thenumber of permits be increased by 200 for a total of 1,140 monthly permits. As demand across therest of the system has increased, this seems to be a logical first step. Given current usage trends, the suggested increase will continue to leave space available for future development.
Mr. O’Dell commented that the N. Old Woodward Ave. Structure tends to fill up with church daycare parking when parents are picking up their children. He went on to say that in the structures they are seeing a significant decrease in the number of transient cars, but their revenues are not dropping drastically. Mr. O’Meara added there are a lot of parkers that are waiting for a permit who must now pay the daily rate. From the customers’ standpoint that is not a good thing.
Mr. O’Dell confirmed that Mr. Surnow is on the wait list for permits and he is quite certain that he will get in. Mr. O’Meara said this matter will be on the City Commission agenda for January 13.
There were no comments from members of the public at 8:03 a.m.
Motion by Ms. Honhart
Seconded by Mr. Kalczynski to recommend to the City Commission to increase the number of monthly permits authorized for sale in the Chester St. Parking Structure by 200 permits, for a total of 1,140 permits authorized.
Motion carried, 5-0.
VOICE VOTE:
Yeas: Honhart, Kalczynski, Kuhne, Peabody, Vaitas
Nays: None
Absent: Esshaki, Paskewicz, Gheen
CENTRAL PARKING FINANCIAL REPORTS (November 2013)
MONTHLY PARKING REPORT AND GRAPHS (October 2013)
MEETING OPEN FOR MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA
Dr. Vaitas announced a new hair salon has opened up in his building.
Chairman Kuhne indicated his intention to contact Planning Board Chairman Boyle and City Manager Bruner with respect to adding new signage in the structures. Also, there are not a lot of “P” signs for people who don’t know where to go. It was concluded that wayfinding can be expensive, but it is very helpful.
Chairman Kuhne continued. Parkers in the Peabody St. Structure are complaining that their doors are getting dinged a lot. He suggested some of the spaces be designated as non-SUV. Mr. O’Dell said that unfortunately that type of signage doesn’t really work. The chairman responded that tickets could be issued.
NEXTREGULARLY SCHEDULED MEETING
January 15, 2014
ADJOURNMENT
No further business being evident, the chairman adjourned the meeting at 8:30 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Paul O’Meara