Downtown businesses, residents press council over kiosk placements and accessibility
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Summary
Business owners and downtown residents told the council the new parking kiosks and meter layout make payment difficult for elderly and non-smartphone users; staff said a parking website and printed maps are forthcoming and that the city will monitor and consider changes.
Business owners and residents told the Waterloo City Council on Tuesday that the new downtown parking kiosks and the locations chosen for them risk excluding older customers and people without smartphones.
Matthew Carpenter, owner of Carpenter’s Diner on Jefferson Street, said customers—including seniors—do not use mobile apps and will not “text and pay” at kiosks located at the ends of blocks. “You’re going to take out the elderly customers that all of us business owners have down here,” Carpenter said. He argued the kiosks’ placement requires people to cross multiple streets in bad weather and that insufficient stakeholder input was used to pick locations.
Residents echoed the concerns. Mary Heller asked whether current handicapped spaces would remain and whether they would be moved closer to kiosks; Sheila Steph Stefan, public works coordinator, said she would research and report back. Bridget Wood, finance director, said the city is building a parking website with GIS coordinates of kiosks and parking spots and that printed maps will be provided to downtown businesses when the site is complete.
“Once we have the official website completed with all the mapping information, we’ll be providing printed out ones to the downtown businesses,” Wood said.
Council members and staff agreed to continue assessing kiosk placements, and some members said they had already begun to discuss adjustments. The council did not take a formal vote on changes; staff said they will monitor the rollout, gather business feedback, and consider relocating kiosks if needed.
What happens next: the city will finish a parking website with kiosk locations, distribute printed maps to businesses, and continue outreach with downtown stakeholders to explore adjustments to kiosk placement and signage.
