Committee of the Whole Meeting

MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE City Hall, 220 Clay Street June 17, 2024 The meeting of the Committee of the Whole met at City Hall at 5:16 p.m. on June 17, 2024, with the following Committee persons in attendance: Mayor Daniel Laudick, Councilmembers Chris Latta, Daryl Kruse, Aaron Hawbaker, Hannah Crisman, Kelly Dunn, and Gil Schultz. Dustin Ganfield, absent. Staff members from various City Departments and members of the community attended in person. Committee of the Whole: Mayor Laudick called the meeting to order and introduced the only item on the Committee of the Whole Agenda, Parking Study Report. Fishbeck Consultant Jon Forster gave an overview of the goals of the downtown parking study, input and data gathering from stakeholder interviews, public forums, online parking survey and parking occupancy counts. Forster stated 1,460 respondents participated in the online survey and some key findings included: 69% characterize finding a space is difficult, weekend evenings most difficult followed by events, 65% say two or three blocks is a reasonable walking distance, 80% say more parking is needed and 52% say parking on Main Street should be free. Forster reviewed the current parking demand, space occupancy in the downtown core area, downtown opportunities and development, future parking demand, managing the parking occupancy, current parking finances, parking supply and demand, options to address future parking demand, and downtown momentum. Fishbeck Consultant Joshua Rozeboom gave an overview of parking structures, advantages of parking structures, parking structure risks, street level commercial and non-commercial space, and occupied space above a parking structure. Forster reviewed parking structure costs which included construction, operations, maintenance and debt, paid parking, map of potential paid parking area, and rate structure. Forster gave an overview of the parking funding challenge, paid parking without a structure, rates and operations in other cities, continual measurement and management. Forster stated recommendations: keeping everything the same; implementing paid parking without a structure; or implementing paid parking and a plan for a new parking structure. Council members discussed raising fees on parking permits, revenue in parking budget, cost per garage space, potential locations of a garage, safety concerns, paid parking downtown, 50-foot parking structure residential use on top of the parking garage and the potential for a public restroom. The council asked for information on how a parking structure would affect our code for required parking when constructing a new building; could the ramp spaces be used in lieu of a developer of a new building providing a specific number of spaces. Council asked for the cost for 4-5 story parking garage with commercial on ground level and residential on top, potential “leaping” over from one garage structure to another garage structure (roadway between the two city blocks). Meeting adjourned at 6:24 p.m. Minutes by Shianne Bellinger, Administrative Assistant