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Council hears downtown parking study; administration outlines garage repairs and revenue plan
Summary
Staff presented a downtown parking study and discussed kiosks, meter fees and planned repairs to Pearl/Third Street garages; officials said parking revenue supports general fund and recommended longer‑term maintenance funding for garages after repairs.
City traffic and planning staff briefed the finance committee on a newly completed downtown parking study and on plans to repair and maintain municipal parking garages.
Dan Aguiar, director of engineering and planning, and Stephanie McArthur, director of traffic and parking, said the consultant study — delivered to the council and being posted to the city website — recommends new downtown parking management tools and considered kiosks, mobile payments and staggered enforcement shifts to better match staff coverage with demand.
McArthur summarized revenue collection and operational details: parking fines and enforcement are the largest single revenue line generated by the department, and kiosks or credit‑card acceptance add convenience at a small monthly contract cost. She explained that recent contract negotiations raised the kiosk monthly fee from $50 to $60 per kiosk and that credit‑card processing fees are an ongoing operating expense; she told the committee the city collected roughly $2.3–$2.5 million in combined parking revenue in the most recent budget year, about half of which came from enforcement fines.
The committee also discussed the municipal garages. Staff said facilities will handle the capital repair contracts for Pearl and Third Street garages and that initial demolition and structural repairs will be funded from existing capital appropriations; once repairs are complete the administration plans to propose a FY27 maintenance appropriation to prevent another large deferred maintenance bill. Aguiar said the strategy is to fix the garages and then establish a sustainable maintenance stream funded by parking revenue rather than letting the structures fall back into disrepair.
Why this matters: downtown parking strategy ties to development and to how the city captures revenue from waterfront and downtown growth. Councilors asked for a phased plan and for specifics about how much revenue would be available for ongoing garage maintenance after repairs.
