May 10, 2011
The Board of Commissioners of the City of Lawrence met in regular session at 6:35 p.m., in the City Commission Chambers in City Hall with Mayor Cromwell presiding and members Amyx, Carter, Dever and Schumm present.
2. Consider a request for long term parking passes and to designate parking lot #10 (1000 block of Vermont Street) as a long term parking lot. This item was deferred from 04/19/11.
David Corliss, City Manager, presented the staff report.
Schumm said the changes to the parking were to add 5 additional, ten hour metered spaces on Park Street at the west end which currently had 15 ten hour metered spaces. The east side of the Vermont from 10th to 11th Street would be metered which created 16 additional, ten hour metered spaces. Also, the west half of the 2 hour free parking lot north of the applicant’s building allowing 30 spaces with 10 hour meters, creating 51 spaces with 10 hour meters. Along with the existing ten 10 hour metered spaces, that gave 100 parking places to choose from. He said there was also an additional lot on the northwest corner of 10th and Vermont that was entirely ten hour metered, that had 36 meters. He said after the change, there would be 136, 10 hour meters within 500 feet of the location the applicant was hoping to renovate. After considerable comment everyone agreed this proposal was a good compromise.
Bill Fleming, General Council with Treanor Architects, said he hoped the project would begin the first of June.
He said he would pass out a slight variation to the Schumm plan. He said the architects had a slight change on Schumm’s proposal. He said there were 65 spaces to the north of their building location and thought it would make sense to make the middle spots, ten hour parking spots. He said there was discussion about whether to meter those parking spaces or not and he didn’t care very much either way.
He said Schumm proposed that those parking spots along the east side of Vermont be ten hour parking, but Treanor proposed a variation in parking and taking ten of those spots making those meters ten hour meters and leave 6 spots between Capital Federal and their building as two hour, which is what they are now. The remaining spots would be two hour spots and proposed the parking spots on the south edge be repainted to add a stall. There was a 5 spot difference in the number of ten hour meters between this proposal and Treanor’s.
He said with respect to the parking issue fee Treanor Architects thought it was a modest proposal. He said there had always been discussion on helping local businesses. He said all businesses craved certainty and that was his argument for City Commission support for the parking fee fix. In the grand scheme of things it was not that big of a deal but it would help.
Amyx asked if the fee was not that big of a deal.
Fleming said the city had already helped with the NRA and the parking lot but said the fee issue was a very modest proposal and it would offer some certainty and they would appreciate it.
Amyx said he was concerned about other people who already buy the permit and their cost.
Schumm said it was hard to reach a consensus on parking, and he was surprised by the consensus reached at the public meeting. He asked why Fleming’s proposal was not brought forward at that meeting.
Fleming said he recognized it was a little late. He hoped that because it was 5 spaces it wouldn’t make that much difference. He understood if the Commission didn’t want to go through this again, but he thought his proposal made sense of how to lay out the parking lot and where the two hour and ten hour parking would be.
Schumm said the idea was to have 2 hour parking closest to the businesses on Massachusetts and that was important to them. He said those business owners had been pretty happy with the consensus plan reached.
Corliss said there had been individuals who thought 30 ten hour spaces were too many.
Cromwell asked about the 10 spots along Vermont that were changed to ten hour meters and asked what had been proposed originally.
Schumm said there were 16 spaces from 10th Street to 11th Street and it was to change those spaces from two hour to ten hours.
Fleming said the 10 spots along Vermont would go to 10 hour meters and the 6 spaces that ran from Capital Federal across their building that they were proposing to leave at 2 hour spots. He said under Schumm’s original proposal that parking lot would be divided and everything to the west would be the ten hour meters and everything to the east would be the two hour. He said there were sections in Schumms’ proposal where some of the lots would be two hour and some ten hour and their proposal seemed to make more sense because those spots would be more consistent with ten hour grouped together and two hour grouped together.
Schumm said to get 30 spaces it takes the west half plus each end. The two hour spaces are all of the spaces adjacent to the alley and the next column to the west. He didn’t think this should be changed because that was what everyone agreed to at the meeting.
Dever said grouping them in some configuration made sense. He said Fleming was alluding to some mixing in the same rows of two hour and ten hour.
Fleming said that was correct.
Schumm said the two hour spaces would remain unmetered. Only the ten hour spaces would be metered. The group overwhelmingly favored meters for the ten hour spots rather than signs.
Carter said there were two net new spots due to restriping in Fleming’s proposal.
Fleming said correct.
Schumm said he was only counting the spaces that were there now. Schumm said he thought the space adjacent to Vermont on the north end had something unusual about it, like a handicap space or a fountain.
Corliss said we needed to be careful about adding spaces because we wanted to comply with our landscaping requirements.
Carter asked if we had approximate costs for adding meters.
Teri Pierce, Parking Manager, said about $13,000 for the 30 spaces, not including installation by the Public Works Department.
Cromwell asked if we were resurfacing or restriping the lot.
Corliss said restriping needed to be done. Putting in the meters may require some concrete work.
Amyx said he appreciated the investment to be made by Treanor, but the compromise reached at the public meeting was probably workable and would last a long time. He didn’t understand the reasoning behind the two hour meters in front of the building.
Fleming said it would keep the same number as the Schumm proposal.
Amyx said the project could work well with the Schumm proposal.
Cromwell said the compromise was reached with the shorter term parking where it was needed most, near the Massachusetts Street storefronts.
Mayor Cromwell called for public comment.
Peter Zacharias, Downtown Lawrence, said he would like to see the compromise held to.
Schumm said on Fleming’s handout, based on their count, it looked like originally they had to use the west half and then south end closest to the project gave 30 spaces. He said he would try to make a motion that would make clear what he intended rather than try to repeat it again.
Moved by Schumm, seconded by Dever, to change Park Street to include 5 additional 10 hour meters, totaling 20 ten hour meters. Additionally, change the 16 meters on Vermont Street between 10th Street and 11th Street from 2 hour to 10 hour meters so there would be 16, and place 30 ten hour meters in the parking lot north of the applicant’s rehabilitation project. Those 30 spaces would include 11 spaces adjacent to Vermont Street, 12 spaces immediately east of the first column, and the south 7 spaces. Motion carried unanimously.
Schumm said the 2nd part of the request was stated as a guarantee of parking pricing for 10 years. He said he had a concern in that he hated to see different prices for parking for different groups for different requests. He said it was unfair for someone who was paying a higher rate while someone was paying a lesser rate.
Moved by Schumm, seconded by Dever, to deny the request for fixed pricing on the parking passes. Motion carried unanimously.