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Council asks staff for cost modeling on Fourth/Fifth street pilot before deciding on permanent configuration
Summary
Council asked staff to return with detailed cost estimates — curb cuts, lost parking revenue and other capital costs — for the Fourth and Fifth street pilot; members signaled they will decide at the next regular meeting after staff provides scenarios and public outreach plans.
Council members asked staff to prepare detailed cost and parking‑impact analyses for the Fourth and Fifth street pilot so council can decide whether to return the streets to their pre‑pilot configuration or make the pilot changes permanent.
Staff said they will bring detailed figures to the next workshop, including the cost of curb work and an estimate of lost parking revenue. Councilmember Kennedy (Mayor) asked staff to show how many parking spaces would be lost under each option and what that loss would cost the parking fund. One council member noted current figures used in earlier discussions — “73 spots and $500 a spot, which is $36,500” — and asked staff to model concrete scenarios comparing the pilot layout versus restoring the former diagonal parking configuration.
Staff (Mike) told council the city will return with an estimate of capital costs (curb cuts and related work), changes to the number of parking spaces, and the budget implications. He also said staff will prepare outreach and hypothetical budget paths: if the council decides to spend existing 2025 appropriations the city can proceed quickly, but if the council decides that work requires a new appropriation it should expect the project to be scheduled in the 2026 budget. "If we decide, hey. Just pull those bollards out, ping them back to where it was, pre pilot program ... that would be, that was my question, is if that could be approved within a workshop or ..." a councilmember asked; staff said a public meeting and formal council action would be appropriate for an expenditure decision.
Next steps and public process: Council directed staff to return with capital-cost estimates, the parking-count delta for each configuration and an outreach plan; if council favors moving forward with capital spending staff will place the matter on a regular meeting agenda for a vote rather than acting solely in a workshop.
Discussion versus decision: The workshop did not change the street geometry or commit funds. Council members emphasized transparency and public input and asked that staff model the fiscal trade-offs before taking any final action.
