City to discuss parking changes in near future
By Brandi Makuski
Mayor Mike Wiza says city council members in this spring will be asked to consider approving changes to on-street parking.
Wiza said following months of internal discussion, and based in part on constituent concerns, he’s proposing a change to timed parking spaces, and to implement fee-based overnight parking using an odd/even system, on city streets.
“We’ve achieved enough of a consensus on overnight and hourly parking, where we can propose something,” Wiza said on Tuesday. “We’re not quite there on any consensus for the city lots.”
That “consensus”, Wiza said, involved input from city staff, the UW-Stevens Point Student Government Association, downtown businesses and the Central Wisconsin Apartment Association. A common complaint involves motorists jumping stalls. Simply moving a vehicle from one two-hour space to another further up the street isn’t alleviating parking concerns from residents, he said.
“In order to address that, the best we’ve come up with would be that you would not be allowed to park on that block after your time is up,” he said. “So whether it’s a 15-minute, 30-minute, a one-hour or two-hour spot, you have to move to another block when that time is done.”
City ordinance already prohibits the practice, according to Assistant Police Chief Tom Zenner, though the law’s language isn’t very clear. Ordinance 9.05 reads, “When signs or parking meters are erected in any block giving notice thereof, no person shall park a vehicle for longer than the period hereinafter specified.”
Due to the lack of clarity in specifying the law applies to an entire block, or at least a block face, Zenner said, the ordinance isn’t often enforced.
Wiza said parking complaints have been part of the municipal landscape since before his first term as an alderman in 2004. A potential solution to resolving some parking woes, he said, involves overnight parking permits.
“I think we’ve addressed a lot of the major concerns, and we’re going to be proposing something in April that allows overnight parking—but not free,” he said.
Overnight on-street parking is prohibited under city ordinance, but motorists are allowed to call into the Portage Co. Communications Center to request an exemption from dispatchers up to three times each month, provided they are parked legally. But with as many as 70 such requests in one night, Zenner said it’s not something dispatchers can maintain much longer.
“It’s not like those calls are coming in on a Tuesday night,” he said. “They’re coming on Fridays and Saturdays when calls for service are at their peak. We need to implement a new plan, because what were doing is not feasible anymore.”
Under the proposal, Wiza said motorists who seek to legally park overnight on city streets would pay a small fee—a cost of $2-$3 has been suggested, he said—-using an online system or a Smartphone app. For residents without internet access, Wiza said, it’s possible a permit could be purchased at the city’s police department, but the intent is to keep the system online as much as possible.
Permits are good for only one day, and there are no plans to offer weekly or monthly payment options, Wiza added.
The permits will be virtual, Zenner said, and are assigned to a vehicle’s license plate number read digitally by cameras mounted to police department vehicles.
Once a permit has been purchased, motorists will need to follow an odd/even system, parking vehicles on odd-numbered side of the street on odd-numbered days of the month, and moving their vehicle to even-number side of the street before purchasing a permit for the following night.
But plans so far have a few snags that need attention, not the least of which is staffing, Zenner said.
Hard Wired
- Motorists parking on the street overnight would be required to purchase a new permit daily
- Overnight parking would be permitted using an add/even system, an effort to avoid “permanent on-street parking spots”, Wiza said.
- Vehicles must be parked in legal parking spaces on public streets
- Permits would be purchased online, or via a Smartphone app
- The overnight parking program is separate from the city’s parking kiosks
- The city will take public feedback on the program following its presentation in April
“Let’s not kid ourselves; there’s a dollar amount when you’re talking parking,” Zenner said. “Plus, you need to consider that we only have three CSOs (community service officers) and they’re all part-time; they aren’t working every night. Not everybody wants to work night shift, and that’s a really tough spot to fill.”
Wiza said the plan also means it will take two nights, instead of one, to plow streets in the winter, and the streets department will need to rearrange how it sweeps streets, and in some cases, conducts roadway repairs.
“There’s going to be a learning curve, that’s why we want to start this in the summer,” Wiza said. “We’re also going to get people who complain because the plow goes by and plows them in, and they have to shovel their car out. People are going to have to understand if they want to park on the street, that’s going to happen.”