Hikes in Downtown Parking Rates Expected to Quintuple City Revenue

In News by Clay Dudaleave a COMMENT

The sun may be setting on downtown’s Wild West parking days. No longer can you let your meter lapse a few minutes without worry, and plans to feed in coins every hour during your work day are ill-advised.

The meters will be watching.

The city officially started cracking down on parking culprits July 1, hiring more officers (through the Public Building Authority) to police parking meters, increasing rates for meters and some parking garages, and expanding the use of parking meters to cover Saturdays in addition to the Monday-Friday workweek.

It has also started the months-long process of installing as many as 1,400 new, solar-powered parking meters capable of monitoring each parking space and alerting any of the 10 parking enforcers patrolling downtown and Fort Sanders when time expires or if someone flat-out doesn’t pay. These new machines are also capable of accepting payment via credit and debit card, and have the ability to sync with some phone applications to potentially alert motorists to open spots or allow them to pay through their phones—though city officials say there are no immediate plans to implement those features.

Chief Traffic Engineer Jeff Branham says the new technology will help streamline parking enforcement in the city, allowing officers to target problem areas and also collect data that can be used to fine-tune the system in years to come. It’s also projected to bring in about five times as much revenue as the current parking scheme, but none of that will come from parking during football games. The city has decided to waive the parking meter fees in Fort Sanders during UT football home games.

According to estimates from the city, revenue from parking meters is anticipated to rise from $300,000 annually to $1.5 million during the next fiscal year (which also happened to start July 1). Money brought in by parking tickets is expected to remain flat at $225,000, officials say.

“That said, when the city factors in its total expenses for traffic enforcement and operating lots and garages, the overall revenue does not exceed expenses,” city spokesman Eric Vreeland said in an email. “All revenue that the city will collect through the new meters and enforcement will get plowed back into downtown parking and amenities, but it’s not a moneymaker.”

These high-tech smart meters also come at a cost, including a monthly bill for data management and credit card processing. The city has already spent about $1 million to purchase 1,022 new parking meters, which are being installed through August in downtown and along the Cumberland Corridor in Fort Sanders (between White and Lake avenues and from 17th Street west to the railroad tracks). It has another $400,000 set aside to purchase as many as 400 additional meters in the coming months.

Data and wireless charges for each parking meter total $6.25 monthly, an annual cost of about $77,000 paid to parking meter company the IPS Group. In addition, credit card processing by that same company ranges from $6-$8 per meter per month, depending on volume, totaling $73,000-$98,000 yearly. Without those services, features on the new machines like credit card processing and data collection cease to function. The cost for 10 full-time PBA parking enforcers totals $550,000 annually.

For those already dissatisfied with downtown parking and the city’s management of it, the parking changes have been a sort of battle cry. News of the hikes sent social media a flutter last week, with dozens of people commenting and sharing a Mercury blog post warning of the impending changes.

“I like how the city’s viewpoint is basically ‘downtown is getting more popular, so we’re going to make sure only the people who can afford to pay more get to enjoy it easily,’” Taylor Redden wrote on the Mercury Facebook page. “Or those who work downtown and are forced to pay the higher rates. Just a moneymaker. *sigh*”

“Just another reason to never step foot/spend a dime in Knoxville,” Jason A Brooks commented.

Greg Manter found the slew of negative reactions a bit intriguing: “Amusing how people react to anything about parking. Parking is still free in the garages after 6pm and on weekends. The monthly rate for downtown workers is going down at the Coliseum garage. There is really nothing to get all bent out of shape about.”

New Downtown Parking Policies

Love ’em or hate ’em, the changes are here, and they’re numerous. Chief among things to take note of:

• More parking enforcers: There are now 10 officers working parking enforcement six days a week. That includes six officers making rounds downtown and four patrolling the Cumberland Avenue of Fort Sanders, roughly between White and Lake avenues and from 17th Street west to the railroad tracks.

• More parking meters, more money, more places: Short-term parking meters now cost $1.50 hourly, an increase of 50 cents to $1 compared to most of the old meters (previously rates varied by location). Some places will get meters were currently there are none, including Gay Street and parts of Summit Hill Drive.

• Long-term parking meters are a thing: These long-term meters charge 30 cents hourly to park up to 10 hours. However, these meters are located in areas considered to be on the periphery of downtown, like the Gay Street Viaduct, along Depot Avenue, and on South Central Street. Most of those locations have free parking nearby.

• Saturday enforcement (for meters): One big change is that street parking downtown will now be metered six days a week, Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Street parking on Sunday is still free. It is also still free to park in any of the city-owned parking garages on both Saturday and Sunday, and on weeknights after 6 p.m.

• Monthly garage rate changes (up and down): Monthly parking rates in all city-owned garages (except the Civic Coliseum deck) are increasing by $5. Hourly parking will remain unchanged at $1 per hour. Monthly parking rates at the Civic Coliseum is being cut by $5. It was $20 monthly, now it’s $15. That’s because there are literally thousands of unused parking spots there and the city is hoping more people will take advantage of the free trolley, which picks up in front of the lot and loops downtown every 7-8 minutes.

Former Mercury staff reporter Clay Duda has covered gangs in New York, housing busts in Atlanta, and wildfires in Northern California. And lots of stuff about Knoxville.

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