Parking Commission Considers Upping Metered Parking to Fund Lot

By Alyssa Schnugg
News Editor
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

Like jugglers in a three-ring circus, members of the Downtown Parking Advisory Commission have been trying to find a balance between providing affordable parking options and creating enough revenue to pay for the city’s parking system that includes the new parking garage currently under construction.

On Thursday, the commission held a special meeting to review several revenue scenarios, choose one and make a recommendation to the Oxford Board of Aldermen.

According to Tom Sharpe, president of the DPAC, the purpose of the commission is to manage parking, to provide parking choices for everyone and to generate revenue that covers expenses, including a reserve.

“It’s not all about money,” he said Thursday. “But we’ve got to have the revenue to cover the program.”

Out of three scenarios, the commissioners went back and forth between two of them. In Scenario No. 1, the first floor of the new parking garage would cost $.75 an hour and the second, third and fourth floors would cost $.25 an hour. Parking around the Square would remain $1.25 an hour and the outer lots that are currently free would be $.75 an hour. The only free parking would be the city lot under the water tower located just off the southeast side of the Square. Permits would cost $25 a month for the garage and $50 for behind City Hall or the Simply Southern lots.

For two hours, the commissioners discussed Scenario No. 3 that originally had parking around the Square raised to $1.50 an hour and the second-fourth levels of the garage free all day. However, some of the commissioners felt that raising the hourly parking rate for on-street parking to $1.50 would chase people off the Square.

“I don’t want to make the Square a ghost town,” said commission member Cindy O’Donnell. “People might be able to afford to pay $1.50 an hour to park but they don’t want to and they’ll complain about a 25 cent raise and shop or eat on West Jackson.”

Leaving the parking lot free on the top three levels creates less revenue, that, on paper, could leave the city about $100,000 short each year. But the figures reviewed by the commission did not include increased parking garage costs during home football game Saturdays and special events like Double Decker.

Commissioner Mike Mitchell made the motion to recommend Scenario No. 1 since it was the “most fiscally conservative;” however, he suggested presenting the Board of Aldermen with a modified version of Scenario No. 3 as an alternative.

“This way they can decide if having the free parking available in the garage is worth a $100,000 subsidy annually,” Mitchell said.

The modified version leaves Square metered parking at $1.25 an hour, offers free parking on the second-through-fourth floors of the garage from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and $.50 an hour after 5 p.m. with the first floor being $1 an hour to park. Parking in the outer lots would be $.75 an hour like in Scenario No. 1 and the lot under the water tower would still be free parking.

The commission voted unanimously to approve Mitchell’s motion and present the two options to the Board of Aldermen during its April 16 meetings.

The board also instructed parking consultant firm Kimley-Horn to run the numbers for Scenario No. 3 before DPAC’s next regular meeting on April 5 where the commission will again review the two scenarios and could change their recommendation to the aldermen or leave the vote to remain as it stood Thursday.