PARKING ADVISORY PANEL MEETING The PARKING ADVISORY PANEL (PAP) met on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, at 3:30 p.m. as a virtual Zoom meeting. The meeting was opened by the Joan Fenton stepping in as acting chair based on Kirby Hutto’s absence. The following members were present: Danny Yoder, Joan Fenton, Michael Cusano and Mike Rodi. In addition, Jennifer Koch was a member of the group as an invited guest. City staff in attendance were Chris Engel, Rick Siebert and Jason Ness. Ms. Fenton began the meeting by indicating she had not seen the minutes from the previous meeting. Siebert indicated he had not sent the minutes to the Panel members and had only posted them on the city website in accordance with the public meeting requirements. Based on the inability for the Panel members to review the minutes it was decided to postpone their adoption until the next meeting. During the discussion Jake Mooney joined the meeting. The review of the Parking Action Plan began with a brief introduction by Jennifer Koch. She is Planning consultant to C’ville Plans Together. The objective of C’ville Plans Together is to update the City’s Comprehensive Plan. She then reviewed the current status of the Comprehensive Plan. She indicated that C’ville Plans Together had heard a great deal about parking in the public feedback they have received. This includes parking rates associated with land use. Currently the project is reviewing the vision statements. She noted there is a specific vision statement on Transportation in the Plan. Kirby Hutto joined the meeting during her introduction. All the members of the Panel were then present with the exception of Jamelle Bouie who had indicated in advance he would be unable to attend. After her introduction, Fenton asked what groups had thus far provided input. She responded by talking about ongoing neighborhood outreach. This initiated a conversation among the members about the need to include the business community in general and the downtown business community more specifically. Hutto joined this discussion and supported the importance of allowing the business community to provide comment before decisions were made. Koch acknowledged the need for broad outreach and gave the Chamber of Commerce as an example of outreach to the business community. It was recommended more business input was need and a recommendation was made to include the DBAC at a minimum. At the end of this discussion Ms. Fenton handed the meeting back to Mr. Hutto. Siebert indicated this topic was a continuation of the discussion of how to re-write the Parking Action Plan for the next five years that had been the focus of the last two meetings. To move the issue forward Siebert suggested he prepare a new draft plan based on all the input he had heard. Ms. Fenton supported this and asked that Siebert send a copy of the current plan with the minutes from the last two meetings to all the members. The members would then use this material to refresh their memories and draft recommendation could be sent to Siebert. Siebert agreed to do so and to send a new draft plan to the members for their review before the next meeting. Ms. Koch needed to leave the meeting to join a pre-scheduled Council meeting. Ms. Fenton suggested she provide contact information for the project before she departed. She provided an email address: engage@cvilleplanstogether.com. She also provided an address to get on the email list of C’ville Plans Together at https://mailchi.mp/51691bce24a8/sign-up-for-the-email- list. Ms. Koch and Mr. Engle left the meeting. The Panel then took up new business. Ms. Fenton asked for a general update on downtown parking. Siebert indicated we have about 50% of monthly parkers but only about 20% of pre- covid transient demand. He indicated demand is, however, slowly increasing. Mr. Rodi suggested he has seen parking enforcement increase over the last week. There followed an open discussion about the limited nature of parking enforcement overall. Hutto gave an update on events. He suggested that the industry overall seems to be gearing up for late summer and early fall for re-opening. Given the lack of clarity on how parking and transportation are going to look post covid, Ms. Fenton suggested we review the Action Plan annually rather than just every five years. This idea was supported by Siebert, Hutto and Rodi. As another topic under new business Mr. Mooney asked about the status of the proposed 7th St Garage. Siebert indicated that an RFQ had gone out to development teams, responses had been received and were being shortlisted. He described a plan to send out an RFP to the short list for specific proposals for the new facility. Siebert went on to say that city staff were aware of discussions about the status of the project within Council, but staff was proceeding until such time as Council decided to pause or terminate the project. He said for the project to proceed it would require the funding in the proposed FY22 Capital budget. Mr. Hutto asked when the Council would be expected to make a decision on the CIP budget. Siebert said it is usually passed in April of each year. Ms. Fenton asked how Council might receive public input on the issue. Mr. Ness indicated that public comment is not required at Council work sessions although it is sometimes allowed. He suggested any resident could always contact Council directly. Mr. Mooney then asked what might constitute breach of the City/County MOA. Siebert indicated that the City would not technically be in breach of the agreement until the city failed to break ground on the construction of the new garage envisioned in the agreement. He did, however, say that any delay in the project at this time would certainly delay the groundbreaking. Mr. Mooney then asked what happens if the city chooses not to build a new garage. Siebert outlined the two options available to the County in the event a new garage is not built. One, the County could take exclusive control of the 7th St lot or two, the city would be required to provide 100 parking spaces in the Market St Garage on the ground floor and above, as required. He indicated that the choice of what option could be taken rested solely with the County. Siebert said that if the County required the city to provide the 100 spaces in the Market St Garage, he did not believe the city could continue to make the garage available for hourly public parking. As an operational necessity, the city would be forced to make the garage function as monthly parking only for the public. Mr. Hutto asked to be alerted to any opportunity for public input on this subject. Mr. Ness provide the current CIP budget schedule from the city website. Hutto asked if there was any public comment. None was offered. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:25 PM.