A soft rollout of the new downtown Warsaw parking technology and ordinances could come as early as August, with the official rollout in the fall.
City Planner Justin Taylor told the Warsaw Common Council Monday that on May 7 the Warsaw Traffic Commission voted unanimously to give a favorable recommendation to the council related to the proposed changes for downtown parking.
“Today, I was just hoping to bring this back up in front of City Council in a public forum to see if there were any unresolved issues. As we further the discussion, I just want to make sure all of your questions are asked,” he said. “I guess our next step, after we resolve the discussion with City Council, would be to bring the contract with our preferred operator (Denison Parking Inc.) to the Board of Works for approval and then work with them on refining our ordinances and getting that ordinance package in front of you for final approval as we roll out the new system.”
In information he provided to the council, he included cell phone screenshots and what the proposed signs may look like. He informed the council Denison has moved away from QR Codes as the system is more refined than that where people can call in, download an app or call/text a number to start a parking session. They won’t need to scan a QR Code. “As an industry, they have moved away from that,” he said.
Councilwoman Diane Quance sought clarification on if the system will allow two-hour parking anywhere downtown and would catch a person if they tried to move a space and tried to start their two-hour parking over.
“Correct. This system would enable us to kind of geo-fence an area in downtown. You will get two hours free in that area. After that, you would have to either pay for parking to stay within that area or park outside the area that is two hours,” he said.
Quance asked about how it will address the issue of people accumulating tickets instead of renting a parking space.
“There’s a combination of things that have been proposed, and none of it is finalized. You guys will be the deciders of what’s final, as far as the fines go. But what we brought forward is a $25 fine instead of our current $10 fines for tickets. What’s also been proposed as far as the city parking lot would be to convert an additional allotment of spaces in the city parking lot off of Jefferson (Street) for the downtown business owners’ employees,” Taylor said, to get employees out of customers’ parking spaces.
Those options are still being refined and the city council would have the final say on the ordinances regarding downtown parking.
As for a timeframe, Taylor said they’re hoping to do some sort of rollout closer to August.
“A lot of what we would need to do as far as signage and some of the ordinance work come after we establish a relationship with the operator, who would be the people who would provide the equipment to us, help us get the signs up, all of that stuff. It kind of goes hand-in-hand with getting Board of Works’ approval on the contract. But prior to doing that, we just wanted to make sure the council was comfortable with us moving forward with that,” Taylor explained.
Mayor Jeff Grose said if council approves and the proposal continues to move forward, a person could park downtown for the entire day for $9. If a person doesn’t go into the system and receives a ticket, they’d pay $25. Renting a parking space downtown for a month would be a savings.
The first two hours of parking would be free, according to the initial preliminary plan previously presented. For a third hour, the cost is $3. After the third hour, each hour would be $1 for up to $9 (Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.). That rate is tentative and could be changed by the city council if they so chose.
Councilman Juergen Voss asked what happens to people who don’t have a phone. Taylor said as part of the rollout package, they’re proposing two kiosks that a person could use to pay for their parking session. The kiosks would take a card or cash. Potentially, merchants also could provide parking vouchers for their customers.
“There’s a lot of pieces to this that we can add in, or not add in if we don’t know need them. We could add 10 kiosks if we wanted but there’s a cost to those,” Taylor said.
Asked later by Voss if it’s been decided where the two kiosks will be at, Taylor said tentatively the City Hall lot off of Jefferson Street near the EV stations and one to the northeast corner of the county courthouse. There’s still time to evaluate those spots and decide if one or more kiosks are needed.
Grose reminded the council the city will control the parking system so if someone is frustrated with something about it, they can call a council person or the mayor’s office and adjustments could be made.
Councilman Josh Finch asked if the contract with Denison would be for five years. Taylor said yes, but there’s a 30-day exit clause in it and city attorney Scott Reust was comfortable with that. Taylor recommended the city give it at least a two-year trial.
Councilman Mike Klondaris asked again about a timeline. Taylor said they’re hoping for August, but there’s training, equipment, installation of signs and a soft rollout period that Denison recommends.
“We want to be friendly. We want to do a rollout of this over time. So, first we’ll be issuing citations if there’s a violation. We want people to understand what the intention is before we start issuing tickets,” Taylor said. “We’re hoping around August, that might be the beginning of the soft rollout once we get everything in place - we get all of our equipment, all of our city staff trained on how to use the equipment. And then we’re looking at the fall as far as the rollout, if the council is comfortable with us taking that next step of bringing the contract (with Denison) to the Board of Works.”
Voss asked what the total annual contract price for the parking system would be. Taylor said it’ll depend on the system the city builds with them.
“The system can either be built up or reduced based on how many kiosks we put out. The signage, there’s a startup cost with that,” he said. “What we tried to do was balance the anticipated revenue with the expenses. So we’re hoping some sort of net-neutral with the system itself, but we’ll have access to all those numbers, we’ll know what that looks like. The beginning startup costs will definitely put us into the red, and then we’re hoping the system will neutralize after a certain point and then we’ll maintain a balance. We’re not looking at it as a profit center, we just want to encourage that turnover (parking) downtown, and hopefully this system will pay for itself. If there’s a small deficit, we’ll be prepared to handled that.”
None of the council members objected to moving forward on the proposed parking changes and a contract with Denison to be taken to the Board of Public Works and Safety for approval.