Parking Is A Problem

July 22, 2016

UP AND DOWN LAKE MICHIGAN’S COAST

From Petoskey to Frankfort, towns that attract tourists are dealing with the same conundrum: How do you make sure parking is available for visitors when they arrive? How do you encourage more people to bike or walk into town? How do you get employees to park in satellite lots?

There are innovative solutions to these problems, but each seems to come with blowback and protest.

A DECK FOR PETOSKEY

Petoskey was the second city in the country to enable motorists to pay for parking with their phone. Petoskey adopted the new technology in 2008 because the city had received so many requests from people who wanted to pay with credit cards, said Becky Goodman, downtown director. Implementing a smart phone app turned out to be a less expensive solution than replacing the city’s parking meters.

Now Petoskey is grappling with too much demand for too few spaces. For years, Petoskey has waited for a development — and the parking deck promised to come with it — to fill what’s become known as “The Hole” at 200 East Lake St. That development never delivered, so city officials have decided to act.

They’ve hired consultants to draft two proposals — one for a mixed-use building with a deck, and the other for only a deck. Either proposal has to offer 150 public parking spaces, in addition to whatever the development would require if it’s mixed use, Goodman said.

In the meantime, Petoskey uses time limits and zoned meter rates to encourage downtown employees to park away from the city center. Goodman said she hears complaints from employees who don’t like having to park blocks away from where they work, but there isn’t a better option.

“Merchants see people circling the block and circling the block and circling the block, looking for a space,” Goodman said.

Parking rates were raised a year ago to open up mores spaces, but parking fines remain at $5, which is cheap enough to tempt many to take a gamble, she said.

AN EXPERIMENT IN FRANKFORT Frankfort’s downtown is quiet most of the year, but when summer comes, it explodes with activity and fills up with cars.

It’s often tough to find a place to park in July and August, so this summer, the city, business owners, and Benzie Bus teamed up to come up with a creative way to free up parking.

They asked employees to park at a school lot on the edge of town in exchange for the chance to win weekly prizes.

The program was seen as an alternative to installing parking meters or building a parking deck.

Bill Kennis, executive director of the Benzie Transportation Authority, said the experiment didn’t go well; no one wanted to park in a remote lot and take a shuttle.

“We could not get the employees motivated to do it. I don’t know if it was just [that we tried] to launch on the Fourth of July or what,” Kennis said. “But we decided to not continue, and revisit it when we can get employee participation. It’s certainly going to be challenging to change habits.”

EMPIRE’S PARKING METERS

Empire became Leelanau County’s first municipality to charge for parking when it enacted a controversial rate in 2014 in the face of incredible demand for beach-side parking.

The village council voted 4–3 to charge $1 per hour to park in one of the 87 spots at the village’s Lake Michigan beach. Residents of the village and Empire Township were exempted.

The move stirred passionate support and opposition.

Darlene Friend, deputy village clerk, said people still disagree about the meters.

“I personally think they are working just fine,” she said. “It is helping offset our costs immensely, and that was the purpose behind it.”

Concerns that the meters would force beach parking into the village have not been realized, she said. There are signs directing excess cars to the Lion’s Club parking lot; and on a sunny day, she said, that beach lot is full with or without the parking meters.

Friend said revenue last year exceeded the cost to run the program by $18,000, and the village was able to use that money to maintain the beach. Two items made possible: Increased frequency of street sweeper service and total coverage of the beach restroom’s $2,500 annual toilet paper budget.

“It’s not like we’re making a fortune off of it,” she said.