Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office          

TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Jonathan Douglass, Assistant to the City Manager/City Clerk
CC:	Ron Olin, Police Chief Toni Wheeler, Director of Legal Services
DATE:	February 26, 2010
RE:	Request for 15 minute parking meters downtown

Please place this item on a future City Commission meeting agenda for consideration.

History

On July 14, 2009, the City Commission approved various changes to the downtown parking system:

§ Establishing parking enforcement hours at 9:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Monday – Saturday;

§ Raising overtime parking fines to $3.00 with an additional $12.00 late payment charge;

§ Adopting an amended habitual violator ordinance; and,

§ Adjusting meter rates.

The City Commission did not approve two other changes:

§ Implementing two fifteen minute meters on each side of each block of Massachusetts Street from 6^th Street to 11^th Street; these meters would have a $5.00 overtime fine; and,   

§ Changing Massachusetts Street meters from two hour maximum to 1.5 hour maximum.

Current Request

Chris Lowery, Branch Manager of Meritrust Credit Union, has requested that the City Commission reconsider the implementation of fifteen minute meters. His request, including a petition from others in support of the proposal, is attached. The request is for a twelve month test of four fifteen minute meters in each block of Massachusetts Street downtown. The location of the meters is not specified in the new request, but the original request suggested placing one on each side of the street near midblock and one on each side near the north end of each block.

Next Steps

If the City Commission approves this request, staff will prepare an ordinance effecting the change. The draft ordinance would contain the following provisions, unless directed otherwise by the City Commission:

• Fifteen minute meter heads would be painted blue to distinguish them from the two hour meters (additional signage may also be desired);
• Fifteen minute meter rates would be $0.25 per fifteen minutes (the rate for two hour meters is currently $0.25 per half hour);
• Fifteen minute meters would have a higher overtime fine of $5.00, rather than $3.00, as suggested in the original proposal in 2009;    

ACTION:      Receive request for the establishment of fifteen minute meters downtown. Direct staff as appropriate.