By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — After a half hour discussion Wednesday, May 7, the Warsaw Traffic Safety Commission unanimously approved a recommendation to the common council supporting changes to downtown parking.

City Planner Justin Taylor provided the traffic commission members with copies of the Downtown Parking Committee report. “We presented in front of city council. Some of you are familiar with this if you’re on the committee,” he said. “… As a result of this conversation, I would like to see if the traffic safety commission could make a couple recommendations to council, based on the hours of enforcement and fees and any other topics that come up in this conversation.”

Giving the commission an overview of the report, Taylor said some of the major issues that were identified in downtown was a lack of consistent enforcement for parking, people “gaming” the system by moving their tires a little bit so it appeared that they had moved out of the same parking spot, and new enforcement methods need to accommodate for future downtown growth. “So (for) solutions, we wanted to come up with a consistent, customer-friendly enforcement program. That would entail an additional scanning system to get rid of the antiquated chalk system we currently use. We wanted to maintain the two-hour free parking downtown, but we still wanted to implement something that, after that two hours lapses, they have the option to pay and stay in that same spot for the rest of the day. They don’t have to leave a meeting or run to their car and move it. They could get on their phone and potentially add time to their stay downtown, or they would leave that paid zone and park somewhere else that was free after that two hours had elapsed,” he explained.

Taylor said the committee hired a consultant. They met with different companies and after reviewing six proposals, they whittled it down to one — Denison Parking Inc. “So we have a responsive company that we would like to consider moving forward with. We presented some of these concepts to council to see if there would be public feedback. We also would like to present some of these ideas before you today to see if you have any recommendations, if and when we bring this back to council, for final approval on ordinance changes,” he stated.

Commission member Jason Brown asked about revenues  from parking fees, fines and other sources. “I’m assuming that, if we go this route, the city would be hands-off with parking management. Is that correct?” he asked.Taylor said no. “We would still use our city staff to manage the enforcement of the parking,” he said. “They’re issuing the tickets, the citations when it comes time. If you get a ticket, they’ll manage the backend of that process, but the city would still have the ability to change fees or wipe out tickets if needed. There will be an appeal process, but then we could add a layer in which the city would be involved in the appeal process. We wouldn’t hear every appeal, but if there was something specific that came up, we could hear those appeals as well.”

Taylor told the traffic commission the main items he thought they would be helpful on at this point would be the hours of enforcement (8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday) and the parking fees and violation fines. The current fine for most violations is $10, but the proposal is to increase those to $25 across the board for any parking violation incurred. Parking in a handicapped space without a permit would increase from $50 to $100 per violation.

“It’s kind of an adjustment to the fee structure. So I wanted to see if the parking committee supported that adjustment to the fees and then if they supported the hours of enforcement,” Taylor said.

Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam said the current parking fees have been in place for well over a decade, probably decades, so they’re very antiquated. “If you get a parking ticket in Fort Wayne, it’s not going to be $10,” Beam said. People parking downtown will gamble on whether or not they’ll get a parking ticket or not “and we want to stop them,” he said.

Council President Jack Wilhite asked Taylor how did he see the proposals being more efficient.“I really see this immensely helping efficiency on the front end and the back end of our process,” Taylor responded. “So, first off, the efficiency of just issuing a ticket and parking the cars, that’s going to be a scan of the plate rather than having to either mark something down or chalk a tire. So, already, the front end of the process and issuing the tickets is going to move a little quicker.”

Currently, once parking enforcement gets back to the office they have to manually input the ticket data. With the proposed new scanning process, it would automatically enter that data. One other thing Taylor asked the commission to make a recommendation on to the council was the rates for parking downtown.

“Currently, we’re proposing the first two hours would be free. That third hour would be $3, and then $1 per hour after that to stay in the same spot. So if you wanted to stay downtown in the same spot for five hours, that would be $5. So that’s kind of the fee structure, up to about $9 to park there all day,” he explained.

Commission member Connie Fribley asked how someone would pay the fees. Taylor said to park downtown, a person would have to scan a QR Code or visit one of two kiosks.Brown said he liked the $25 fine. “I think it’s enough to feel pain, and it’s not enough to feel offensive. … I think $9 a day is pretty cheap, so I don’t know if that’s enough pain,” he said.

Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins said she was like Brown in that she wondered if $9 a day was enough. “But then I kind of put it into perspective. If somebody is working five days a week and parking there five days, that would be $45, which is more than it would cost to rent a space for a month,” she stated.

Taylor said that’s stuff the council could adjust later, but right now the city is trying to strike the balance of being friendly and welcoming to the downtown, but also create more of the parking turnover the downtown shops need.

After some further discussion about the pro’s and cons, Dobbins said, “I think one point to make, too, to the general public is that what we’re talking about is 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, so if people want to come downtown and enjoy dinner at Jason’s or somewhere, they’re still going to be able to do that and spend three hours, four hours or whatever.”

Traffic Administrator Lance Grubbs said there would still be the problem of an employee of a downtown business parking in front of Brown’s business all day long and no one else can get that spot. Brown said with the first two hours being free, there’s still the risk of someone moving their vehicle from one spot to another to take advantage of the two hours free.

“That actually is prevented with this,” Taylor told Brown. “So you can’t space off with this. There will be a zone where you get two hours within that zone, and then you have to move outside of that zone.”

Main Street Warsaw Director of Development Terry Sweeney said if you come back into that zone, you already had your free two hours. “So once you start a parking session, that two hours is gone now. If you leave after an hour and come back, your free time is already expired. When you start a new session, it’ll be charged right away. So I think the abuses will go down a great deal,” he said.

Brown made the motion to recommend to the city council to approve the parking fines, fees and other adjustments. Beam seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

Taylor said there’s a lot of work to do this summer before it all goes into place.