PARKING ADVISORY PANEL MEETING -MINUTES- The PARKING ADVISORY PANEL (PAP) met on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, at 3:30 p.m. in the Economic Development Conference Room at 605 E. Main Street. The panel met for its regular monthly meeting on this date with the following members present: Mr. Knuppel, the Committee Chair, Ms. Fenton and Mr. Rodi. City staff including Mr. Engel, Mr. Siebert and Mr. Ness were present. Mr. Knuppel began the meeting by opening the floor for public comment. Mr. Sean Tubbs provided information on a public forum on area mobility in general and specifically on reducing single occupancy vehicle trips. The forum will be held on January 22, 2020, at City Space with the time to still be determined. Mr. Rodi indicated the value of such a reduction in terms of carbon reduction and his comment started a short exchange on how electric vehicles might change this equation in the future. At the conclusion of the comments, Mr. Knuppel noted there was a quorum present and the draft minutes from the previous meeting were unanimously approved. Mr. Knuppel noted that Mr. Brennen Duncan, the city Traffic Engineer, was in attendance and agreed to move immediately to agenda item 8. Mr. Siebert first provided a summary of the City Attorney’s opinion on two ADA questions that had been raised at the last meeting. First, designated ADA parking spaces may not be reserved for specific classes of parkers such as visitors to an area. They must be available on a first come first served basis to any parker with the proper credentials. Second, state and federal law would not prohibit the city from changing its code to restrict parking in designated ADA spaces for not more than 4 hours. The spaces could not be restricted to less than 4 hours. Mr. Duncan proceeded with a brief summary of the purpose, number and duration of loading zones in the area of the downtown Mall. Mr. Hutto and Mr. Cusano joined the meeting during the course of this discussion. Mr. Michael Cusano is a new member and this is his first meeting. Mr. Rodi opened a discussion of the permit process for reserving on-street parking spaces. This process is controlled by the Traffic Engineer. Mr. Duncan agreed that permits issued for reserved parking of greater than 48 hours would be circulated to Mr. Ness and Mr. Siebert so that they could alert the public and provide an opportunity for comment. Mr. Duncan indicated this had been previously agreed to but with staff changes in his office it had not always been followed. He affirmed the process would be re-energized. Mr. Duncan further indicated permits are not normally approved for ADA spaces. A member of the public questioned the routine closure of ADA spaces for Pavilion events. The ensuing discussion brought out that many of the ADA spaces closed for these events are associated with the closure of the Mall cross streets and that these closures are mandated by public safety. Mr. Siebert noted there are multiple ADA spaces in the Market St Garage that are virtually never full. The same member of the public suggested this was not a reasonable alternate for poorer mobility impaired drivers. Mr. Duncan was questioned about the status of the pilot traffic changes around the W. 2 nd St lot. He indicated that he hoped to brief the new Council on the data collected before the end of the planned six-month pilot. Mr. Duncan was further questioned on use of the parking spaces reserved for trash collection. He indicated he would review if any of the spaces could be converted into part time loading zones. Mr. Siebert was asked to brief on agenda item 3. He indicated the transition to the new parking equipment was largely compete and the new equipment was working well. He noted that further work on the management system was still necessary but it did not affect the public. Agenda item 4 had been included in discussion with Mr. Duncan. Agenda item 5 is unchanged from last month. Mr. Siebert circulated a draft amendment to the immobilization fee. He indicated that a packet for Council action had been drafted and that he would circulate it to all the members of the Panel by email. Mr. Siebert briefed the Panel that the new automated pay stations on the surface lot located at the corner of Water and West 2nd Streets were working well. He indicated that some software changes were in development to simply the payment process and decals were on the machines with who to contact with questions or comments. He also announced that Parkmobile was now available as an alternate payment system. He circulated a pay station management report that showed the transaction activity for the last two weeks. A representative from Woodard Properties who operate a public parking lot next door had noted some people parking on the city lot and paying on their lot. Mr. Siebert suggested this was highly unlikely due to the differing signage and payment systems but Woodard’s representative suggested it was in fact more wide spread. Mr. Knuppel asked if there was any new business. Mr. Hutto offered that the Panel may wish to comment on the Planning Commission’s recent vote not to support the proposed new garage on Market St. After a short discussion, Mr. Hutto agreed to circulate a draft letter to Council supporting the new garage project as proposed by city staff. No new additional business was introduced and the meeting was adjourned at 4:50 PM.