Parking management has new plans for parking meter upgrades

by David Harvey

Uptown Partnership — developed in 1997 by the City of San Diego to manage parking in Uptown — may try to implement a $500,000 parking meter upgrade. However, the partnership must overcome opposition from Uptown community members and problems with the city’s current financial deficit.

On Dec. 3, after more than a year of working to obtain broad public support for new meter technology, Uptown Partnership’s project planning committee proposed to run a new public campaign advertising the benefits of parking meter technology that uses solar power, accepts additional forms of payment such as credit cards, and could help manage parking utilization with online data collection.

According to Uptown Partnership research and planning analyst Janelle Luna, the public campaign would include road shows and public surveys. There was no financial information as to what this campaign would cost, a concern several board members vocalized. “We’re getting negative publicity regarding the purchase of new meter technology,” Luna said. “We’re looking at a way that we can communicate with the public so we can identify and resolve their issues.”

Uptown Partnership originally praised the possibility of implementing Mayor Jerry Sanders’ parking utilization plan, which outlines a system of decreased rates in low-use parking areas and allows for increased rates and extended meter enforcement hours in certain hot-zones.

The parking utilization plan, implemented using new parking meter technology downtown, has been a point of contention for Uptown community members that feel it would lead to increased rates and extended enforcement hours.

An April 29, 2009, resolution from the Save Hillcrest organization stated, “The current city proposal (on parking utilization) should not include the Uptown Partnership.” The Uptown Community Planners voted 10 to 3 to reject the parking utilization plan on May 4, and on June 3, the Hillcrest Business Association voted 6 to 3 to have the neighborhood excluded from the mayor’s parking meter proposal.

“The public did not react well to the Mayor’s idea and the City Council sent the proposal back to the mayor for retooling,” treasurer of the Hillcrest Town Council Tim Gahagan said. “Now, we are being asked to consider the meters independent of the Mayor’s proposal. Unfortunately, I believe the new proposal will still allow for significantly increased rates. And the rates on these new meters can be changed very easily.”

“I have nothing against new technology,” Gahagan added. “I’m all for it, but I wouldn’t buy a new technology TV that had a machine gun mounted on top of it. I wouldn’t want it in my house, and I don’t want meters whose rates can go up on a dime. There are some nice features about the new meters, such as the solar power, but I don’t like that machine gun.”

Uptown Partnership’s Executive Director Carol Schultz emphasized that the board will not be raising meter fees in Uptown, with or without new meter technology.

“The Board of Directors of Uptown Partnership have gone on record at least twice to say that it will not be raising any rates,” Schultz said. “Assuming the (utilization) plan gets approved, it will use the tools in the plan to draw utilization away from the heavily impacted areas by lowering rates a little farther out.”

At the Dec. 3 meeting, Schultz also asked the board to consider replacing nearly half of Uptown’s 1,368 meters at full cost, if the community comes to support new technology meters. The other 55 percent of the meters would be installed at the city’s expense on a later date. Alternatively, the partnership could pay for full implementation, with city reimbursement. Normally, according to Schultz, parking projects garner 45 percent of their funding from the partnership and 55 percent from the city.

As of Dec. 3, the topic had not been discussed with city planners, but was brought to the board only for its consideration, not approval. The cost of replacing the meters is estimated at $500,000 — just less than 60 percent of Uptown Partnership’s total parking revenue for 2008.

In 2007, Uptown Partnership abandoned its attempt to purchase land and construct a parking garage because the cost would have likely exceeded $14 million. As an alternative to the failed project, the partnership set its sights on new parking meter technology, which might help increase parking availability and revenue. In Feb. 2008, the partnership ordered six Cale multispace meters — which will manage 8-10 numbered spaces — to replace single space meters on Golden Street in Mission Hills, where the community is already in favor of the new technology, or where new parking spaces are developed, such as the Normal Street project.

However, the order has yet to be presented to the City Council because of delays in the city’s own meter purchases for downtown. According to the project planning committee, such delays are likely to continue with future purchases if Uptown Partnership remains dependent on sharing immediate costs with the city.

“I want to make sure before we purchase anything that we’re buying something that is the most adaptable, forward-looking technology so that it lasts us the longest period of time,” board member David Gatzke said. “I would be particularly concerned, if we decide to do 45 percent of the meters at 100 percent of the cost now and have to wait two years for the funding to come, if we are then forcing ourselves to buy two different systems.”

After public comment and discussion at the Dec. 3 meeting, the board shelved both issues, pending further investigation and consideration, until sometime next year.