PRESCOTT ARIZONA REAL ESTATE – Parking

By Cindy Barks The Daily Courier

Topping the agenda will be consideration of the tentative budget for the upcoming 2010/2011 fiscal year.

A major change in the budget since the council last reviewed it in late May is the addition of $1 million for “implementation of downtown parking.”

City Manager Steve Norwood said Friday that he added the $1 million allocation to cover the costs of parking meters, should the City Council decide to go that route.

In late May, a majority of council members voiced support for looking into charging for on-street parking downtown – in part to encourage more use of the 500-space public parking garage on Granite Street.

The discussion first arose over concerns about the city’s regular subsidization of the parking garage fund through its general fund. For the coming fiscal year, the budget includes a $17,000 allocation to the parking garage fund from the general fund.

The cost of installing more than 800 parking meters would run about $750,000, Norwood said, and likely would come with additional costs for back-up meters, software, and possibly, new staff.

Mayor Marlin Kuykendall stressed that the $1 million figure is just a starting point for discussion.

“That’s a high number,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any way in the world that that much would be spent.”

For instance, Kuykendall said the council could opt to reduce the parking-meter area, bringing down the number of meters purchased.

And even that is still up for review – both by the council and by downtown merchants.

“I’m sure there will be a lot more discussion,” Kuykendall said. “Certainly, it should not be assumed that this is a done deal.”

Before the council makes a final decision, the mayor said, “The citizen and merchant input, in my opinion, will determine it.”

And while two downtown merchants who have been involved in parking discussions for years say they are open to the discussion, they are not completely convinced about parking meters.

“I’m open-minded, but I haven’t made up my mind, even after years of participating in parking studies,” said Steve Stazenski, owner of a store on Cortez Street.

Kendall Jaspers, another Cortez Street business owner, said he also has yet to decide the best choice for downtown parking.

“We have this great big garage, and it’s not getting used well,” Jaspers said. “I don’t know if it’s meters or block-face enforcement or what, but we really need the spaces to turn over more.”

With his location across the street from the entrance to the Yavapai County Courthouse on Cortez Street, Jaspers said he often sees jurors occupying spaces in front of his store all day long.

Compounding that is the “two-hour shuffle” that many downtown employees and visitors do to avoid getting a parking ticket, Jaspers said.

“We certainly need to do something,” he added.

While the council will be considering the allocation this week, the main discussion about the parking meters will come in a workshop at 2 p.m. Tuesday, June 15.

Budget and Finance Director Mark Woodfill said the timing of those two meetings should not be a problem for the city, because the final budget adoption will not occur until June 22. If council members were to decide in the meantime not to pursue parking meters, he said, “The budget can be reduced (for the final adoption).”

Along with deciding whether to move forward with meters, Norwood said other related issues will involve how much the meters would charge, and where the city would locate them.

If the City Council does decide to proceed with the parking meters, Norwood said the $1 million would come from the city’s capital improvement fund.