Parking meters worth look-see, say some in city

Madeline Zimmer jumped into an empty on-street parking space in Charlottesville’s Court Square, saving it for a friend who was sprinting away, car keys in hand.

Parking is ridiculous in Charlottesville, said Zimmer, a student at the Renaissance School and an employee of The Flat creperie. But she said it would be even more absurd if there was a parking meter on the space she was desperately trying to reserve, as car after car whizzed past on Jefferson Street.

Would she pay for on-street parking?

“I would if I had to,” she said. “But I would kind of be cursing someone.”

The City Council in February all but shunned the idea of installing parking meters for some on-street spaces, despite a study’s recommendation.

Jim Tolbert, director of Charlottesville’s Neighbor-hood Development Services, said the city stopped looking into the idea when councilors showed no interest, and it is unclear when the matter may be taken up again.

But others, such as some members of the Charlottesville Planning Commission, are arguing meters may be worth pursuing.

‘Worth exploring’

“I think it’s worth exploring,” Commissioner Cheri Lewis said in a recent interview. “That mindset that we can have free parking within a block or two [of downtown], we’ve gotta change that.”

Commissioner Mike Osteen agreed.

“Free parking is, I think, the wrong way to go,” he said.

The comments on meters were spurred by a discussion on the city’s “parking exempt zone,” which was established in the 1970s to prevent developers from building too many parking lots on open land. For years, the city did not require projects to supply their own parking, but now many banks will not finance projects that lack it.

Charlottesville has some parking meters already, most of which are located in the Water Street surface lot where the City Market is held. The city operates 132 meters, and received $97,935 and $124,131 from them in the 2007 and 2008 fiscal years, respectively.

Lewis — who admitted that she too moves her car to different on-street spaces every two hours — said she thinks meters could help allay the city’s parking issues. More people could start using the rarely full downtown garages or take advantage of the transit system, or the city could use some of the meters’ money to finance alternative transportation improvements, she said.

“The Water Street garage has never been filled,” said Bob Stroh, president of the Charlottesville Parking Center, which runs the Water and Market Street public garages. “Not that it won’t fill one day in the future, but it’s such a big garage. It’d be pretty hard to fill it.”

Planning Commissioner Mike Farruggio said it would depend on the meters’ rates as to whether people would opt for garages instead. But, he said, “I do think it is high time for us to go back to a modern parking meter system that you find in other cities.”

Other cities in Virginia have tried a mixture of measures to manage downtown parking. Norman Hale, Lynchburg’s parking director, said that city is testing meters in its garages, but not yet for on-street parking.

A study completed by an outside firm recommended that Lynchburg incorporate meters as a part of its parking strategy, Hale said.

Currently, 100 “pay stations” are being tested in one of downtown Lynchburg’s parking garages.

That city’s parking issues resemble the ones in Charlottesville, with Hale saying many downtown employees will take up on-street parking and move their cars every one or two hours. Hale said having a well-organized parking program could encourage economic development.

“It helps to provide ample parking to visitors,” Hale said.

Harrisonburg, on the other hand, decided to scrap its meters more than three years ago. Eddie Bumbaugh, executive director of the Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, an effort to revitalize the city’s downtown, said the meters were beginning to show their age. Plus, Bumbaugh said he knew that downtown was not Harrisonburg’s only shopping destination.

Welcoming visitors

“We felt like it put downtown at a competitive disadvantage by having meters,” he said. Harrisonburg operates two public parking decks, about six surface lots and on-street parking.

The city had about 500 meters before they were abolished.

“Probably most important is that we want downtown to be welcoming and friendly,” Bumbaugh said.

Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris is of the same opinion.

“I think the free parking that we have downtown … creates a better, more inviting atmosphere for visitors downtown,” Norris said.

Putting meters on the spaces would send the wrong signal, he said, and many of the employees who do the two-hour shuffle cannot be expected to pay parking fees because of the hit to their wallets.

“I don’t blame people for doing the two-hour shuffle,” he said.

When the idea of meters was first floated to the City Council earlier this year, Norris, along with most of his fellow councilors, disagreed with installing the machines. Councilor David Brown is the only elected official at this point to say that he supports installing meters for on-street spaces.

Park-and-ride?

Norris said he would rather see the city use a remote park-and-ride system to get employees downtown and free up some spaces. Osteen agreed that the city needs better alternative transportation options — he used to live on a free “trolley” route, but he said he never took it because it was not reliable.

They all concede that there’s no one way to solve the city’s parking issues, and that people will likely continue to shuffle their cars in on-street spaces.

Felice Boling-Key, who lives in Fluvanna County but lived in Charlottesville for 14 years, used to move her and her co-workers’ cars every two hours when she worked downtown.

“It was like part of the job,” she said. But she said she would feed meters in the heart of downtown if the city eventually decides to install them.