- Call this meeting to order, this is a planning session for the City of Bloomington Transportation Commission.
- Can we please have a call of the roll? Your mic's not working, hang on, I'm sorry. I'm gonna test the
- mics, yeah, okay, sorry, we're back online, sorry about that.
- Copic stermitis Binder president Boland here drumming Flaherty Davis here Stossberg here We have a quorum
- This is the first of two meetings that the Commission is holding tonight the regular hearing will be
- held immediately after the end of this meeting
- We will have approval of minutes, but there are no minutes to approve since this is our first such planning
- session meeting. We will then discuss the parking rate study and comprehensive review being conducted
- by the parking services division of the Department of Public Works. If there is a member of the public
- here who wishes to speak and the commission wishes to hear public comment after that, we will open it
- up on a majority vote and then we will adjourn
- Immediately to have the regular hearing with that. I'd like to call Michelle wall the director of parking
- services up to introduce The people who will be speaking about the parking rates setting as well. Welcome
- to our first planning session
- My name is Michelle wall. I'm the parking service director for the city of Bloomington. I like to welcome
- Walker consultants There's three of them here this evening They are on board to do all the parking consulting
- that we're asking for that it was sent out to bed an RFP was sent out to bed and We welcome them and
- we thank them for their participation and thank you for inviting us to the session We're glad to have
- you here and just a note here a planning session
- According to our rules has is a relaxed meeting. So I want to encourage Being respectful people should
- be feel free to Ask questions without getting Permission from the chair or make comments either way.
- We're trying to have a less formal discussion But I would ask that everyone refrain from that until
- we've heard the presentation from Walker
- Can we ask how long the presentation is you intend to give? well Seeing as a planning workshop is how
- we anticipated this meeting. So this is a follow-up from the previous meeting. I know there were some
- questions From that midpoint check-in. So our purpose here tonight is to
- Just be available for questions about the process of this study. I know the time was very limited Previously
- for that presentation. So it's a lot of information and short amount of time. So we're here to expand
- on that Give you the opportunity to provide input As well as go over the scope because I think that
- we didn't really have time to go over the scope of
- Previously could you speak closer to the yes, we didn't really go over the scope previously So we have
- time to do that, but we don't have a certain presentations at time It's really I love that you say it's
- an informal casual meetings. I think that will be most productive. Okay the purpose. Yeah, well I Don't
- know to what extent this this commission is new this commission was created after the study was called for and
- Yet it's an inheritor of three prior commissions. So we are trying to Get our feet under us and it might
- be helpful to give us just the barest explanation of what you're doing and I mean because I don't think
- everyone you're necessarily familiar with The scope of the work being done. Could you at least describe
- the scope of your work? I
- Thank you. My name is Jody Todd. I'm the project lead for this project. I'm joined with my colleagues
- John Martins and Lauren Algram Unfortunately, I was unable to be at the last meeting had pneumonia and
- literally had no voice So these two graciously took over on very short notice to present a midpoint
- check-in of sorts for you so essentially
- I apologize for that that I wasn't able to be there, but I know that there were some scope some questions
- I was listening in I wanted to chime in with some answers, but I was muted and unable to unmute myself
- So just to go over the scope. This is a comprehensive rate analysis And policy review. So essentially
- this is a big picture look at all things parking in Bloomington our scopes
- That we have already completed a stakeholder engagement. I know that was a big part of our presentation
- last time looking at The efforts that we went through for the parking survey that was distributed publicly
- We had over 1,500 responses 483 open comments. We got a lot of good feedback from the public in that
- survey And that's that's a lot more than we typically get so it was great to have that impact and
- We also held listening sessions with stakeholders. I know we talked about some of this already But just
- to give you some more background has been two months and those stakeholders were invited from the community
- from ESD So they sent out the invitations for that we met with everyone who wanted to show up there
- were I believe 163 entities and invited and there were 18 that showed up. So Unfortunately, I'm not everyone
- Likes to participate but we did get some really good quality feedback. Sometimes those smaller sessions
- are more beneficial because people are willing to speak out and they're Not just sitting and listening.
- So I think we got a lot of feedback from that And we presented that information at that last meeting
- We also have a task Task report that we've completed for that and it will be part of our full report
- once it's submitted the end of the year and
- We also have completed a benchmarking analysis where we looked at peer cities that were identified based
- on their not only their population But their proximity to a college campus that was adjacent that was
- similar in size to Indiana University I know we talked about that quite a bit the last meeting we did
- pick five peers We also looked at Indiana University just because it shares some common users Not because
- we think it's important to study what happens at all college campuses adjacent to municipality So I don't
- Don't think that we need to do a bigger benchmarking analysis at the universities of those pure cities
- But we were able to gain some good insight into how rates compare to that of Bloomington and also looking
- at things such as enforcement hours and Citations and their processes and escalate fee escalation things
- like that. So we're looking at all of those things as comps additionally
- We're using information through data that we request from parking services They've been great to get
- us reports of all the things that their systems are able to garner from from utilization reports from
- revenues and the expenses that they see And we're able to look at all of those things big picture to
- put together kind of a picture of the rate strategy and what it should be and
- We're also under looking at of course at title 10. We're looking at the previous prior parking cities
- that been completed for Bloomington we're also making sure that we keep in line with the the climate
- action plan the comprehensive plan and all of the guidelines put forth in the bylaws of this committee
- this Commission to make sure that our recommendations are in line with the guidelines set by the city
- of Bloomington
- As far as a system review we're looking at operations as far as how the on-street parking is operated
- The garages the surface lots in terms of equipment enforcement hours enforcement staff and also
- John has put together a technology review So that is one of the key drivers of this study and the purpose
- of this is because the technology The meters are reaching the end of their useful life. So you all needed
- some help on what to do next So John has been assessing that and putting together some good recommendations
- to move forward All of that is is also impacted by the faint finances Currently there are different
- funds within the parking services
- They all operate independently with some transfers in and transfers out from the general fund So those
- are things we're reviewing and comparing those to how we would typically recommend an enterprise fund
- You run a self a self-serving parking services on company encompassing department or unit that would
- be able to cover its own expenses additionally account for some future expenses like
- Equipment that's necessary Capital reserve funds for unexpected expenses or the long-term maintenance
- on a garage typically That's been done in the past by asking. Hey, we need some money for this Let's
- go to the general fund and ask for it versus planning for it to be self-sustaining through parking revenues And in
- That's also included in the policy review because we know that everything that's done is driven by title
- 15. So we're reviewing that to see our recommendations making sure if they don't align with with those
- The policies that we are recommending changes to those if necessary So that kind of gives you a big
- picture of what we're doing, you know a bit of four questions
- Okay, though the one question I'll leave with before I open it up to the floor is to what extent are
- you? Trying to harmonize this report with the policies already adopted by the city its comprehensive
- plan its transportation plan and so on Are those guiding documents that you've used? Yes, we have absolutely
- used those documents and we understand the goals of the city and we are making sure to consider those
- in our recommendations and
- Okay, once again, your names are ms. Jody Todd ms. Todd and mr John Martin's Martin's John Martin's
- so ms. Todd and mr. Martin's are there questions from Commission members for ms. Todd or mr. Martin's
- about the study. We'll start with our newest member. Mr. Binder Welcome. Thank you
- I'm just reviewing the PDF posted on the city website that is the mid check-in. Kind of summarizing
- what your team has found so far. I did notice that of the 1,663 respondents to the survey, just over
- 6% of them were students at IU. So I guess my question here would be,
- Does your team feel that 6% is a representative number of respondents to the survey considering the
- demographics of Bloomington and the region overall? Well, unfortunately when you push out a public survey,
- you can't guarantee who's going to participate And generally people that have a complaint or that want
- to participate honestly I think that you know
- You do have a large number of users that are students and That will be reflected in all the utilization
- reports that we are able to view as far as the on-street and off-street utilization factors I don't
- know that they would require a different approach if anything, I think that
- We're not discounting their opinion. Generally the student population is more sophisticated and what
- type of equipment they're able and willing to use as far as app-based programs I think that the general
- public would be the ones that would be more leery of of modernization. So I don't feel like that That
- level of involvement in the the parking survey would be a detriment to the study Does that answer your question
- Not exactly but I'd like to give other commissioners an opportunity to answer ask questions again I
- just want to say at this point This we can be less formal here. If anybody wants to speak up, please
- do if anybody has any thoughts I'd like to share with the representatives from Walker Because if nobody
- wants to talk up, you know a couple of us will we'll talk there are some veterans of the parking commission
- here Anybody
- Alright, mr. Flaherty Thank you again for joining us and for the work that's gone into this so far and
- and sharing more today I was trying to get a better handle when we heard this update in September of
- of kind of what to expect at the end of your report and I think there was an answer at the time something
- to the effect of like It's up to the city like where to take it from there. Right? This is a advice
- that we're consulting with you for
- And so maybe this question is also for our staff. I'm not sure But I'm trying to get a better handle
- on like the full picture of what we expect will follow from the report like what code changes are will
- the report itself come to this commission for instance for engagement as like an item of discussion
- so we can actually talk about the policy recommendations their rationale whether they feel like you
- know, they're suited to
- the various guiding documents that the chair Poland referenced Could someone speak to that? I guess
- a little bit more like what are the major things that we expect to happen? following the reports finalization
- Well, I think that would be up to parking services and you all to decide what happens or the report
- and we're just giving recommendations based on our observations and best practices throughout our experience
- in municipalities all across country and
- I guess maybe like I can but maybe maybe focusing that like I heard threads of it I think in your your
- overview of like you're giving specific technology recommendations which were in part the impetus for
- this study and understanding that meters are an end-of-life so we expect to Get recommendations then
- maybe formulate some proposed action related to the metering technology also enterprise level finances
- and self sustainability you know like so
- That's the type of thing I'm trying to get a better handle on I guess is like is there kind of a list
- or a way to describe we expect a suite of title 15 changes we expect an update to the way we manage
- finances and That will or will not hit this Commission Willerman will not hit, you know different entities
- we expect to propose a change in technology and that'll go into the annual budget request like Yeah,
- maybe just a little bit like I'm just trying to get again get a sense of
- What to expect next and what to be on the lookout for and it'll help me better engage Okay, thank you
- Yes, so you're exactly right We what we will do is we will take their recommendations. We will select
- a recommendation as it is
- It serves what we believe will serve the city the best and we'll bring those Recommendations to you
- here and it will be about technology. It will be about rates It will be about any type of changes code
- changes anything that involves parking Yes, we will select the recommendation that we feel choose we
- feel fits and
- The operation as it currently stands and how it's going to improve and take us to the next level this
- for me This is like building a foundation And then we'll take it to you guys and then we also of course
- have to take it to the council But that's all saying that it also has to be approved by administration
- as well We just need to have all everybody's agreement. Mm-hmm. Thank you. And do you envision like
- The city's policy statements on parking are a little thin Like it's it comes up in the comprehensive
- plan the climate action plan the transportation plan but not in it ever in a very At least in my perspective
- not a very in-depth way the parking commission that predated one of the commissions that predated this
- commission had Like a two-page policy document that it had, you know sort of free
- affirmed multiple times they got a little more specific about like Essentially the values that are driving
- the policy decisions So it might be something like financial sustainability as a value for instance
- And again, some of this has spoken to a little bit in the comp plan and some of those places but not
- really not very in-depth. It's kind of like a We're missing depth in my opinion on parking policy and
- so do you feel like
- Like, will there be any outcomes coming out of this report that might get more formalized, I guess,
- by way of a prescriptive policy? Yes, our hope is to tie those to the recommendations of those policies
- and give you a specific example. You know, just to say, hey, if we change the parking meters, this is
- why we're changing them, and this is how it complements each of these plans and why. Okay, terrific,
- thank you. I can stop talking so others can, but I do...
- I do have one small follow-up somebody wants to interrupt their welcome. Let me like a last like a very
- specific example like let's say we want to achieve average 80% utilization of Metered block faces like
- we decide that that's like a policy goal that we want to set which I don't think is something we've
- set now Would that get formalized somewhere beyond a report and like an internal guiding document was
- that something that could actually appear for instance in
- Update to the transportation plan or comprehensive plan that like that's a thing. We're trying to achieve
- is like Average 80% utilization to show that we're actually pricing it right, you know using price signals,
- correct? Like not have underutilized infrastructure and not be over. I think that's for further discussion,
- but I would say why not Okay, like if we're making that decision collectively, then why not? Yeah, let's
- formalize it. Yeah, great. Thank you Please
- When you talk about the meters being their end of life What new technology? What new features will new
- technology have or is it just the fact that they're all and you can't get replacement parts for them?
- Yeah, I would speak to that I would say that well one there's two you have two systems the on-street
- and the off-street So I'll take it easy one the off-street the off-street that equipment you have
- By Amano McGann, it's called opus. So if you buy a Ford you get a certain kind of Ford you get a Ford
- f-150 So I think opus has the F their f-150. They're not going to support that anymore in two years
- It's that this system is end-of-life So when you go in the garage and you get a ticket that machine
- is what I'm talking about That won't that will not be
- It's not something they sell anymore. It's not something they service. So their new line is called Amano
- one Which is does the same similar thing, but it does it differently it is an online system It doesn't
- have a server on site. It goes to the cloud There is no when you get a ticket you don't when you go
- to the exit now You have to insert the ticket and figures out your fee
- You scan the ticket. There's no nothing to put the ticket in on a mono one But then you open the whole
- can of worms of well There's a lot of other systems out there that that do it a little differently So
- you could consider those or you could go we've heard a lot of complaints about the equipment the speed
- broken gates Frustration so that you can also go with a gateless system. So that is another option.
- This is for off-street. Okay, so
- So that there are a lot of other options that are available that not necessarily were Available in the
- past they were not available in the past. So The off streets are fairly straightforward. What you have
- is not going to be supported anymore I think it's after 2027 if you want spare parts, it's kind of like
- you got to see, you know, do you have any spare parts? Mr. Dealer or not so that you have to replace that and
- Whether or not you go gate lists or a similar system where you get a ticket and go through the whole
- process. That's something we're digging into in the report. I think gate lists could be a good option
- and is cost savings and obviously you're not gonna have broken gates if there aren't gates but we're
- kind of discussing the option of
- It basically uses the LPR and says here's here's who's parking LPR is license plate recognition So it
- looks at the vehicle and says this car came in did they pay yes or no and we're looking for that payment
- That's the off-street the on-street. It was first and they were installed in 2013 off top my head They
- have had some upgrades That technology is still similar
- But even at the time, in 2013, there was not as much of, they had payment kiosk, which would be a single
- unit. You have some now, you have some in the surface lots. Those kiosks are quite effective. Now the
- technology is such that they use the license plate. So you go to the machine, you enter your license
- plate at the machine, and that one machine takes care of, say, all the single space meters on the block face.
- So when we look at a sustainability aspect, I mean, right now you have over 1,400 meters. So 1,400 devices
- that could potentially fail, not work, and you can reduce that to, I think it's around less than 150,
- let's say, kiosks if you put one on each block face. So you're trying to maintain a system that has
- over 1,400 pieces to 150. It's a lot more sustainable if you think about,
- Single-space meters you have to go to every one of those and collect the coins out of them with multi-space
- meter You will have to go to one per block phase to get the coins out This it just takes that a lot
- less effort So the multi-space meter for on Street is definitely if we want to say we want to keep the
- payment with a coin option that they otherwise a lot of municipalities are going with we call it asset and
- Light where we have more zones that are just with the app and the app that you have park mobile. It's
- it is a I'd say world-class it is it is a leader in the in the paid parking apps. I mean Lots of cities
- use it. You can use it. You know many cities I travel to I use it And it's very effective and the program
- that you have here is is very friendly to the user so you
- Pay at one zone. Although this is zone for every block face you can move your car around anywhere in
- the city and you're still that time takes with you and you can stop it and At the end if you leave and
- you still had time left and not pay the full amount that you originally did So you have a lot of features
- built into that app that make it a very user-friendly so
- Can't IPS is the current meter that you have that takes credit card. I mean at the time that was like
- state-of-the-art They were the only one that made it there are several manufacturers that do have single
- space that offer that but there's also Conversely the the multi space which really is the way to go
- if you go with the pay-by-plate and then you can also incorporate license plate recognition for
- Enforcement you can just drive and check the plates and see did that meter pay now You can check the
- plate and see did they pay the app? But you also have to look at the meter the single-space meter. Well,
- did they pay the single-space meter? So there's a lot of efficiencies there that are gained. So technology
- has definitely changed and I think anything, you know anytime you get something that's in the in the
- technology world that gets that old on the on-street
- It's more apt to break and we looked at you know, it's kind of the maintenance the ongoing maintenance
- issues There's a lot that you guys have to do that. You don't have to do I was going to throw in one
- historical bit of info when the administration in early 2013 decided to install meters they ultimately
- decided on the the single space meters they did because they got a deal it cost about half a million
- dollars less about they got it for about a million dollars the meters that were installed and
- and they were used and I was actually curious what the failure rate has been annually for meters if
- Ms. Wall knows it off the top of her head, but even at that time, and I want to hear it, but even at
- that time pay by space and pay by or pay by kiosk and pay by plate were available to us. That's just
- the choice that the city made at the time. Ms. Wall, can you give us just a brief idea of how bad it
- is with the meters?
- The meters actually so I came in it they were installed in 2013. I came in in 2019 April 2019
- and Unfortunately, there was no guidance when setting up these meters the people that had purchased
- the meters had left the city and so with that it left it to the parking staff to accommodate all the
- airs there was a lot of back and forth with
- Unsure how to use it don't have the manual wasn't trained but It was implemented with our team that
- they would do Call call in because first they had to just leave a message on a machine So this this
- speaks to the fault rate so what happened then once we started taking those calls and addressing the
- faults immediately running the correct reports and addressing that the fault rate is very
- Oh, that's good. Okay, the batteries are replaced timely the reports show the Meter malfunctions they
- showed dead batteries. It was just training the staff to know exactly how to initiate what they were
- going to fix but if I recall correctly, I think it's been the general opinion of parking services that
- If we could go to a more optimal technology we ought to I don't think single-space beaters are your
- favorite. Are they correct? They're a heavy left. I will tell you that they're a heavy left. We have
- Approximately 1,400 on street right now, right and somebody has to collect every single one of those
- meters every day Thank you. So mr. Copy does that
- I suppose I have two questions. One is a little more speculative in nature and that would be Speaking
- to kind of a possible future technology switch in our parking system Realistically, would we be looking
- at kind of a phased approach where we would operate sort of a mixed system? We would keep individual
- meters around and then in certain areas we would pilot or trial Kiosks for an entire block phase. Okay
- And then I guess my second question is, and this is more for the consulting group, it seems like there's
- a lot of focus as well there should be on downtown parking. Can you describe a little bit about what
- your process has been so far or your findings up to this point concerning neighborhood zones or other
- non-downtown parking related matters? Because I think that's something that was outlined in the
- Parking-rate studying comprehensive review Page on on the on the city website, but I haven't seen much
- information about or discussion about
- Yeah, we are focused on downtown parking and the residential areas So part of that residential analysis
- is we're looking at all the number of permits that are issued by zone Looking at a comparison of the
- spaces that are available Also looking at the procedures to apply for a permit as we know there are
- a lot of homes that are turned into multi-unit
- And those people are not eligible for a permit, but they think they are so that causes some problems
- and some stress One of the recommendations that we're looking at is to prioritize homeowners To make
- sure that they can get a permit before before tenants and
- You know, we're looking at those rate comparisons, but also looking at the way that those are enforced
- and administered we're looking at doing a similar LPR approach where the Permits are issued and tied
- to your license plate versus a sticker that makes enforcement a lot quicker So they're not having to
- stop and look in every vehicle to make sure they have the right zone right sticker the LPR scanner can
- do that very easily to identify those that are not in compliance and
- I just actually have one more question if you don't mind. Are there any kind of major aspects to the
- parking system here in Bloomington that you feel are kind of not in the scope of the study? It seems
- like you're being fairly comprehensive in all the aspects you're looking at, but I mean are there, especially
- in comparison to maybe other studies that you've been commissioned to conduct in
- In comparable situations. I mean are there are there specifically You know areas of Bloomington's parking
- system that you don't feel like are going to be talked about in this final report like by intention
- I think I would say there are areas I think that we do lots of different scope items for different
- municipalities and you can get very granular in that analysis I think at this point this study is focused
- more on big picture. We are
- Supporting all of our recommendations with reports that are available as far as utilization But we're
- not digging down into we're not performing parking occupancy counts, for example where some Municipalities
- they take that step and and that might be something that you know They want to come back and do you
- guys want to come back and look at that in more detail? But there are also Technology advancements that
- you can have all of that available electronically versus
- You know walking and counting cars But I don't believe that there's anything I think that this the scope
- is comprehensive for this level of analysis Okay, thank you I've got a few questions, but I want it
- since I'm the chair if anybody wants to interrupt me, please do again. We're more lax rules here My
- first question is why not benchmark?
- At least one or two other universities as well. I mean effectively they run parallel neighboring neighboring
- An operation within the scope. I mean the to say that I use parking doesn't affect Bloomington parking
- Would be absurd like clearly people are making value choices I know that the last time I checked the
- data in 2022
- Indiana Avenue was the busiest the highest demand parking block in the city And the average person was
- parking there for about an hour. It was a student going to class That they were they weren't necessarily
- using Shopping at restaurants and the like By far it was the the most the busiest pair of blocks so
- why not look a little bit more into how other universities affect and
- other cities like us Well, I would say you know you're getting the impact of the peer cities that we're
- looking at their parking systems are also Accounting for whatever impact the university has on their
- municipal system But if we look at how a university manages their parking, it's completely different.
- You know, you have a different Set of users you have your faculty your staff different demand and you
- know, it's highly permitted and
- Is the way that those are generally? Organized and I feel like because we chose peer municipalities
- that already have the university impact on those municipalities But I think they're they're relevant
- and I don't see the need to do the universities. I appreciate that Getting to permits. Is it within
- the scope of your? Mandate well your your conception of the report that
- You may come you may be considering Differential pricing among neighborhood zones in other words Last
- I counted in the last reports that I did of the ten neighborhood zones in the city half of them were
- oversubscribed and half of them were undersubscribed and You know the price should go up and some of
- them the price should go down and others and
- Is that something that you are? Prepared to make a recommendation for or is it something that you believe
- that all zones should be priced the same I will definitely analyze that and can look at it from that
- perspective. I think that You know that the difference and kind of demand based Pricing in the residential
- component is because people don't want to pay to park in a zone because it's cheaper, but it's you know, I
- three blocks or four blocks removed from their residents you have a proximity Issue I think with this
- that We will definitely look at that. I don't know that that would be one of our final recommendations,
- but we can certainly evaluate I mean, I'll just give you something to highlight is zone 6 the Garden
- Hill neighborhood because we overdid it there the Maybe there's maybe a hundred permits sold a year.
- There's 240 spaces on the street and
- Many residents are wondering why they can't buy a permit because of our overly restrictive law So I
- would hope that at the very least you would provide a recommendation for how to change that yes but
- as long as variable or differential pricing is is An option for you. That's what I'm hoping to hear.
- I'll definitely evaluate that. Okay the same goes now for metered blocks and
- Is it something that you're prepared to recommend that? That different areas of the metered zone be
- priced differently I think based on demand demand based pricing is Trendy and it can be impactful for
- large cities. I don't know that Bloomington is there yet. I feel like the way that the utilization reports
- are available right now can't we can't
- Doesn't inform that decision mainly because the park mobile zones, even though they are by block face
- as John mentioned you can park Here and you can pay in one zone and park anywhere. So it doesn't necessarily
- translate to utilization There are technologies available where you can tie those systems together in
- a dashboard Interface where you can look at real-time enforcement or real-time utilization by space
- or by block face and that could set you up to do that potentially in the future
- I don't feel like Bloomington's there yet that said I don't think that it's a bad idea to get that inner
- that framework in place So you could make those changes easily in the future and part of this campaign
- is you know, we're looking at
- things such as Wayfinding branding we found a lot in our survey that people weren't even aware of the
- garage parking where it was Located that it was cheaper than on-street. So I think that's a big piece
- of this is just education So that the framework is there and when you're ready to implement those kind
- of changes in the future It's easy to do now. I don't know if this makes any difference but when the
- meters were installed and
- They did have the option of tying park mobile to the meter so that if you paid by park mobile that it
- would light the meter up And the administration then decided not to do that simply because of the expense
- So It's not like we haven't been capable of doing that It says we No one has revisited that question.
- I don't know did parking services ever think about pulling that trigger since
- Ms. Wall came on board. Did you ever think about doing that? So we did, but because the meters are at
- the end of their life, like they were at the end of their life a while back, we weren't going to invest
- in the, we had to upgrade because when they were purchased, they were 2G. We had to upgrade into a $350,000
- increase to our budget because they had to be 5G.
- So our goal was to maintain until we could afford to do a rate study as shared in the Parking Commission
- and then pursue a new technology Okay, thank you for that. So I Don't know if that makes a difference.
- I mean, so let me just Understand you you're saying that Bloomington is too small to differentiate Between
- areas of the city like, you know like I can tell you that Kirkwood and Dunn
- We should be charging two dollars an hour, but parking in front of the convention center, which is be
- used at two to three percent Of its capacity should be 50 cents or 25 cents until we know what the price
- should be Are you saying that that's that we're not ready for variable pricing yet? based on our The
- parking survey the responses that we got to that survey and our stakeholder involvement they were a
- significant number of people that still want a
- cash-based coin availability to pay and that tells us that it's kind of The I wouldn't I don't hate
- to say sophistication but sophistication of the user and what they're ready for and I think that we're
- already getting some impact as some input from local business owners that
- They don't even want to pay the rate that's there now sorry that they don't want to pay the rates that's
- in existence now Which is very low. So, you know the risk you run by implementing that type of Dynamic
- pricing is that people won't park there and then you'll overcrowd all the other areas where parking
- is cheaper So it depends on what your goal is if your goal is to meet a utilization threshold and you
- want to keep it at a certain
- You know, it can be helpful and I'm not saying they won't be ready right away. I just think that the
- overall Branding of the system education for the users of where parking is located and what value they're
- getting for their parking There was a lot of questions about the transparency of parking revenues and
- where do those go? Why do I have to pay to park? Where's that money going?
- I think that education of the users for those types of things and this is what your parking is your
- parking fee is paying for Can go a long way, but at the end of the day people will just seek alternatives
- Are you using data? From any time after 2024 in your studies I mean, are you what what is the range
- of data using to analyze? Yes, I
- For the financials and the like the park mobile data we've looked at from 2023 through June of 2025
- That's where we had a cutoff where we were analyzing it So we're we're analyzing a big chunk of data
- just for the park mobile for 2024 had over 700,000 transactions 102,000 unique users 102,000 Okay. Well,
- that's my next question is are you are you looking at that data year to year as opposed to just as one
- big chunk?
- Yes Because one trend I saw I studied all the data from 2017 to 2022 I have nine million transactions
- in a database somewhere right and one of the things I saw Was that even during the pandemic the ratio
- of people paying cash credit card or park mobile was? dramatically changing Cash was plummeting park
- mobile was skyrocketing Credit card use was slightly going down
- That six-year period one of the things I noted was that in 2019 No 2018 matched the the data for 2022
- there there were about two point four two point five million dollars in revenue in 2018 and the city
- had gotten back up to about two point five million dollars in revenue, but the difference in the number of
- Transactions was stark. It had dropped from 1.9 to 1.2 million. So that means that people are parking
- for longer and that the The value of a dollar an hour has has drops. I mean we we haven't changed the
- price since 2013 so literally dollar an hours were 75 cents today and it's showing in the data that You know
- People are I mean the whole reason we put meters in was to prevent people from camping out in parking
- spots And that's what I'm afraid is happening now. Have you seen anything like that so far in the data
- post 2022? Um, we haven't analyzed those trends specifically but we can go back and look at that I think
- just in general
- We find that kovat had an impact up until 2022 2023 to what things got back to normalize So generally
- we don't go back any further than that, but we'll certainly look at that trend To see you know how that
- plays out But I think that I think at last I looked it was like 38 percent cash transactions for the
- on-street versus credit I mean that doesn't take into account the park mobile. That's just
- meter transactions, right But it's fairly significant Yeah, I would like to see data broken out by year
- to see if there's a trend we can identify one more important question Is your study also considering
- the construction of parking supply as in Will you be making any recommendations about say
- how much parking should be built in new construction of residential buildings or The apparent demand
- that might call for more structured parking Or will we find that there is too much structured parking?
- Are you looking at that kind of? overall question of supply Know that the scope of this study does not
- address parking demand
- I will say though that we have considered the Convention Center and the impact that that's going to
- have on the area And we've also looked at you know, how much space is how many spaces are underutilized
- and existing garages that are adjacent that could be used instead of purchasing and demo demoing buildings
- to provide more surface parking where we will present like what is available and
- For uses like that, but and that's just to look at an extra commentary. We're not looking at supplying
- demand in this study Are you looking at when you're talking about the Convention Center? Are you also
- taking into account? Surface lots that are adjacent to the Convention Center such as owned by the county
- You know in that potential demand for the convention center. No, we're just specifically identifying
- the availability of the parking garages the city of Bloomington parking garages that could contribute
- to that demand not necessarily projecting the demand for the convention center Okay Again, I've got
- a couple more but I want to give people chances. Did you have a question miss Davis? Ever since we've
- had metered parking we've not had a separate
- pricing structure for people with disabled license plates or Hang tags in the city some cities do so
- I wondered if that was part of if that came up in your study at all It hasn't come up I know that we
- have the identity location of all handicapped spaces specifically but in terms of a
- Different parking right just at a general meter for those who might have a handicapped place or placard
- We hadn't considered that but that's something we can look into It's it's been a while since I looked
- into it but I was doing some research on this some years back and It's it's can be kind of contentious and
- Some cities have gone from it being free like Chicago Free or the parking period is longer or Chicago
- then went to only Disabled veterans It was free. So it's an interesting thought but in my
- As representative from the council for community accessibility. I thought it'd be worth asking and if
- it is possible to Address that question at all in the course of this. That's great If not, maybe it's
- something for us to discuss in the future. I Wanted to follow up on that. Is it something that is part
- of your scope? It's not specifically but we'd be happy to at least
- Provide some best practices or case studies that we've seen in other areas I'm also I think that One
- of the concerns with different prices for disabled parking is that Then what people do to prevent gaming
- of the system by people who are not disabled and who are just trying to find cheaper parking if you
- have any cases that address
- They address that that would be I think particularly of interest Mr. Flaherty Thank you When we heard
- this two months ago, I mentioned that we do have some you know, pretty specific Language and directives
- in city code for this Commission one of which is kind of inheriting something that parking Commission
- had taken up which was to produce a
- Or oversee an annual analysis of parking asset management and that included reporting on costs and revenues
- for all types of city-owned Parking surface structured metered neighborhood, etc Documenting utilization
- rates and longitudinal trends and other data analytics And I think I always envisioned that like we
- would it was far too much work for volunteer commission to be able to reliably You know consistently take on
- But it's really important actionable information from a policy perspective and like I sort of envisioned
- that this Commission would ultimately not be ourselves actively producing the document but helping source
- the structure of like a Uniform template of what we want to report on every year that is achievable
- that we can adequately resource it strikes me that a lot of a lot of this report contains
- Aspects of it. Are we considering this to be a proto version of that or will it just help us inform?
- What that could look like going forward. This is probably a question for city staff more than friends,
- but Anything that you can provide this will start a
- Process but it will not provide that documentation or that parameters of what you're looking for But
- if you start the process and have a template then we can fill it in for years to come and if we do get
- better technology Then again can have a dashboard that'll be great because then that will be a fillable
- and we can have it on our our Parking website as well Got it. So that's that sounds great. Yeah, it
- seems like this is covering a
- A lot of what we would need and even where there are some gaps it can help us identify Okay, we want
- to be able to track acts and that wasn't part of the scope of this study, but this is helping surface
- the key questions So yeah just flagging that as something that that we'll want to come back to you maybe
- in a future planning session to continue to ideate and then finalize ultimately But just to be clear
- then so neither neither parking services nor the consultant necessarily saw this as fulfilling a
- our objective to have an annual report right like I mean you did we didn't even exist when you Sent
- out the RFP for this so Yeah, so okay as so as long as no one has any illusion that this is somehow
- the template for an annual report that I think everybody's on the same page Yeah
- Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, we're not even there yet. I think we still need to figure out what that report's
- going to look like So because the Transportation Commission as a whole has to report on transportation
- not simply parking Any other comments mr. Midas Yeah, so maybe this goes back to what the Parking Commission
- was doing before this body was created. So what are the Who's the one that's actually going to be creating
- the goals for these policy recommendations? like we talked about if our goal is utilization rates versus
- profit versus demand management and
- When are those being set and I assume those are coming in before you make recommendations in order to
- fulfill those goals well, I'm going to jump in here and say that the Comprehensive policy adopted by
- the parking commission has yet to be discussed by this body which again inherited the Inherited the
- Commission and I'd like to make sure we get that Policy documents a one-page document not even two pages
- has six bullet points on it I like to make sure that the consultants have it
- So that because they're talking about parking and this was what the work the Commission did the most
- significant thing they did so At the very least we can start there, but I think it's going to be up
- to this Commission to at least adopt readopt those goals or Develop a new set of policy policies and
- goals, but I mean we should start with the transportation plan, you know, and we have to figure like,
- you know, we have to figure out what the annual report would look like and
- I don't know if that answers your question. That's yeah I just want to make sure that the goals are
- would be set in place and adopted before there's any recommendation from the study ideally and then
- was there any look and your other cities that you're looking at as to what the parking fees are going
- towards in the different cities and is there going to be any recommendation for like the usage of parking
- fees as part of this at all as far as the benchmarking we're not privy to what their
- Are if it's not, you know, you all have your parking rates listed And your policy but not all of them
- do so it's mainly based on a snapshot current snapshot and then we'll be making those recommendations
- based on the variety of Points that we want us to solve so that would be the financial Solvency and
- also considering all those different points. We're getting close to the end of our time any other thoughts that
- Commissioners want to give to the consultants On their way out here for the report one thing I wanted
- to say was Can you please make sure that you break out? The student responses to the survey as you can
- so we can see just what students thought about parking Even though they only represent 6% of the interviewed
- We might find their opinions
- Useful in that context Yeah, mr. Drumming have a question with with the With more modern technology
- in terms of parking. Is there any what is there any? system in place that allows business owners to
- easily Component or easily pay for their customers to park near their facilities using public parking. I
- And for on-street parking since you pay when you park there's not really an easy solution If you're
- a business owner and you said hey, I want to take care of your parking in advance If you have multi-space
- meters some allow you to give a code so you could say hey If I but I have to know the customers coming
- so that's kind of hard You know I when I go I don't tell the restaurant. Hey, I'm coming in advance and
- I don't even make an appointment for a haircut. I just show up. So they would have no way to give me
- a code in advance. But maybe they give me a code for the next time. Say, hey, next time you come, here's
- the code. Or maybe they say, hey, did you pay for all your time? And I'll give you a code for part of
- that. That's a potential option. It is difficult. Even in the off street, if it's not gated, you don't
- get a ticket, that's one of the challenges we point out.
- You come in you park if you need to pay before you go to the establishment. It's a challenge. It becomes
- a challenge John I don't want to interrupt you but we do validate parking in the garages So if you're
- interested in validating if somebody's gonna come and park in the garage, we do sell validations So
- that is an option. You'll just have to see Jess the garage manager and she can sell you we do that for
- many many people in in downtown when they know they have company coming visitors, uh-huh
- While you're there, can you just give us a brief? Outline of the the rest of the timeline for the study.
- When do we expect a final report? Yes After speaking with Jodie today, they expect the final report
- at the end of December Okay, so it'll be ready for the January meeting for us to we'll get a chance
- to read it before the January meeting Hopefully if their timeline I don't want to push them. They're
- on financials right now my understanding. Yeah
- Maybe ask them but as long as no huge hiccups with the financials then My understanding is the end of
- December correct me if I'm wrong, Jody, please Yes, I think we'll be able to issue that I think that
- you know that report will go to parking services then we can have some back and forth if there's any
- Clarifications that need to be made or anything that we didn't cover that we need to cover but I wouldn't
- Anticipate an extended period for that review from your group. So I would say safely by the end of the year
- Okay, I hate to interrupt but we are a minute over. Yeah, we're wrapping it up. Yeah. Okay sure. Okay
- any last words I'm also looking forward to a neighborhood zone and you know Reportage from you all to
- you Thank you very much for coming. We appreciate your time Thanks to you parking services for bringing
- them here and for us having this conversation I think there's a lot more to talk about again. I would
- like to ask
- engineering or planning to make sure that the The comprehensive policy of the Parking Commission be
- forwarded to them so that they can include it or at least be thinking about it as they because it's
- it's the closest thing there is to any kind of Explicit policy on parking that the city adopted and
- it went through many Deliberations, so it was pretty well vetted by the Commission Thank you again
- With that is there any desire from members to have general public comment? Seeing none I'm going to
- adjourn this meeting. We'll take a three-minute break and then begin the regular hearing this meeting
- is adjourned. I