Public Parking Commission

1 CITY OF NORWICH NORWICH PUBLIC PARKING COMMISSION The following are the minutes of the regular meeting of the Public Parking Commission held at 5:15 p.m., November 17,2009 in the Buckingham Memorial Bldg. PRESENT: Ms. Olive Buddington, Co-Chair, Mr. Alan Bergren, Mr. Jeffrey Lord, Mr. William Nash, Mr. Sean Ryan, Co-Chair, and Mr. Robert Zarnetske. ABSENT: Mr. Mark Bettencourt At 5:20 p.m. Ms. Buddington called the meeting to order, noting a quorum was present. MINUTES: On a motion by Mr. Ryan, second by Mr. Lord, the Commission voted unanimously to accept the minutes of the September 15, 2009 with the following correction. Page 3, paragraph 2, Anything Else Brought Before the Commission should read ….“ The Commission voted 5-1 against the reduction. Mr. Ryan voting in favor of the reduction…..” FINANCIAL REPORTS & BILLS TO BE PAID: A motion was made by Mr. Zarnetske, seconded by Mr. Ryan to accept the financial reports and accounts payable reports for September & October 2009. The motion was voted on and passed unanimously. MINUTES NPPC MEETING 11/17/2009  2 PUBLIC COMMENT: NONE CORRESPONDENCE: The Commission members were provided a copy of an FOI request from the Norwich Bulletin. An opinion from Mr. Driscoll re: protest timelines was provided to Commission members. A motion was made by Mr. Ryan, second by Mr. Lord to accept the correspondence. Motion passed with a unanimous vote. NEW BUSINESS: An opinion was received from Mr. Michael Driscoll, Corporation Counsel, regarding the “protest policy”. Currently, there is no concrete time frame for a petitioner to come before the Commission to protest a parking summons. The Commission members determined at the September 2009 meeting that a time limit needs to be established. Discussion centered around the 10 day to 30 day range. A motion was made by Mr. Zarnetske to set the time frame at 15 days to appeal to the Commisison for a hearing. The initial protest is filed within 48 hours of summons issue. A response is generated from the office. If the petitioner does not agree with the initial response, he/she would have 15 days from the date on the response letter to request a hearing before the Commission. The hearing request would also be in writing and the hearing would be scheduled for the next regular meeting of the Commission. The motion was seconded by Mr. Bergren. The motion was voted on and passed unanimously. MINUTES NPPC MEETING 11/17/2009  3 OLD BUSINESS: The parking management proposal forwarded by Mr. Zarnetske, tabled from the September meeting, was discussed. Ms. Buddington asked Mr. Zarnetske to briefly explain his proposal to the Commission. The proposal indicates that metered parking should be reinstated on all downtown streets, with time limits/day and with the higher fees, closest to the center of the City. As one goes from the center, the meters would be cheaper/hour and longer periods of time. Shorter time periods for onstreet parking spaces would benefit the downtown merchants. We actually encourage people to park on street rather than in the offstreet areas. The length of time needs to be reduced to provide any benefit for merchants. The decision to install parking kiosks would fall to the City Council. The Commission can offer a recommendation to the Traffic Authority to reduce the time limits for on street parking, but the decision rests with the Traffic Authority. Another portion of the presentation focused on the premise of offering free parking in designated offstreet areas. The Chestnut, YMCA, and the Main St garage were mentioned. The areas would be limited and provided on a “first come, first served” basis. The Commission members expressed interest in implementing some of the proposal, but it needs to be done within the existing framework of City policies. The Commission has the authority to decide how to use the offstreet lots, but on street parking is under the City Council and the Traffic Authority. The members also agreed that merchants downtown should be contacted to see how these changes would impact their business. Implementation of any part of the proposal would need to be explained as “part of the whole”, with details of the entire plan. The Commission members decided to contact the Traffic Authority and seek his opinion as to changing the onstreet parking throughout the downtown area to 30 minutes from 7am to 4pm, get price quotes on parking kiosks and contact downtown businesses regarding how the change would affect their business. Ms. Rizzuto was directed to contact Chief Fusaro regarding the possibility of changing the time zones in downtown, and explain how the proposal will work. MINUTES NPPC MEETING 11/17/2009  4 ANYTHING ELSE BROUGHT BEFORE THE COMMISSION: The members were asked to change the meeting time from 5:15pm to 5:30pm. The new meeting time will be effective with the January 2009 meeting. The members were also asked permission to close the Parking Commisison office on December 24,2009 at noontime. The requests were made into a motion by Mr. Ryan, second by Mr. Nash. Voted on and passed unanimously. ADJOURNMENT: Motion made to adjourn by Mr. Lord, second by Mr. Ryan. Voted on and passed unanimously. Meeting was adjourned at 6:26 pm Respectfully Submitted, Judith A. Rizzuto, Administrator Norwich Public Parking Commission MINUTES NPPC MEETING 11/17/2009