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