Council talks limiting parking
By Rochelle Moore
Published in News on September 12, 2016 10:11 AM
Full Size
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
City leaders consider parking restrictions in downtown Goldsboro to reduce congestion in the central business district.
Goldsboro officials are considering restricting downtown parking that could limit the amount of time downtown employees, visitors and others park along city streets.
Ideas about limiting parking into hourly blocks and questions about whether the parking restrictions could be enforced were discussed by the Goldsboro City Council during a work session last week.
Councilman Gene Aycock also questioned the results of the Goldsboro Traffic and Parking study -- an $80,000 document paid for by the N.C. Department of Transportation, at $64,000, and the city of Goldsboro, at a $16,000 cost.
"For what we paid for this study, we got very few results that we didn't already know," said Aycock. "I just don't believe it's money well-spent."
The study, which showed downtown has a surplus of parking, also recommended future planning efforts that could address parking space losses as development continues in the coming years. The study recommends metered parking as a last resort.
The report also included data, which could be used to show parking availability to potential businesses and developers, said Scott Stevens, city manager.
"We did pay close to $80,000, and it's a lot of money, but (with) the data we have, we can say to businesses that we have a parking surplus," Stevens said. "I agree what you got out of it is what we already knew. I know we have conversations with developers where it matters. I still think it's a study we needed."
VHB Engineering, which completed the study in the spring, estimates that downtown has nearly 600 parking spaces available during the busiest times of the day. Downtown development projects are expected to reduce parking by more than 300 spaces in three years, and lead to a parking deficit of almost 200 spaces by 2026.
The council approved the parking study during its meeting last week.
Downtown parking was discussed in greater length during an earlier council work session. James Rowe, city planning director, presented a parking enforcement plan for improperly or illegally parked vehicles in the downtown area. Code enforcement officers would issue citations for parking violations that come with a $50 fee.
The council discussed the possibility of having a lower fee of $25. Councilman Bevan Foster questioned if the fee would recover the cost of manpower to operate the program.
"I would rather see our people working on cleaning up around town now (instead of) worrying about where somebody parks downtown," Mayor Chuck Allen said. "I do think it's important. I do think we ought to enforce it, but I don't want to see our (enforcement) officers all downtown worrying about where somebody's parking when we have all the things we've got going on."
Members of the council talked about charging fees that may never be paid. Discussions then evolved into possible methods for collecting fees, including adding the charge to utility bills, seeking court orders or placing liens on personal property.
Stevens said city staff would explore enforcement options and present the information to council at a later date.
Allen suggested that parking time limits be established to prevent downtown workers and others from taking up parking spaces throughout the day.
"I think we ought to limit Center Street to two-hour parking or three-hour parking or four-hour parking, whatever it is," Allen said. "And let's figure out what we need to do because if you do something to fix the parking on Center Street, you're going to fix 75 percent of our problems downtown."
The parking enforcement plan proposed a start date of Oct. 1, but the council held off on making a decision until more information is provided by city staff.