City of Rialto - File #: EDC-20-0766

• File #: EDC-20-0766
• Version: 1
• Type: Agenda Item
• Status: Agenda Ready
• File created: 10/21/2020
• In control: Economic Development Committee
• On agenda: 10/28/2020
• Title: Request the Economic Development Committee to Provide General Direction for 1. Release of a Request for Proposal for a Comprehensive Parking Analysis and Parking Management Plan or; 2. Release a Request for Proposal for the Installation of Parking Meters within the Downtown Area of Rialto.

For Economic Development Committee October 28, 2020

TO:                                          Honorable Economic Development Committee Members

FROM:                     Michael Tahan, Interim Public Works Director

Title

Request the Economic Development Committee to Provide General Direction for

1. Release of a Request for Proposal for a Comprehensive Parking Analysis and Parking Management Plan or;

2. Release a Request for Proposal for the Installation of Parking Meters within the Downtown Area of Rialto.  

Body

BACKGROUND:  

Downtown Rialto is located on N. Riverside Avenue, between the Metrolink railroad tracks south of Rialto Avenue and the railroad tracks north of First Street. The Downtown area consists of commercial buildings, hair salons/barber shops, restaurants and hardware stores. There are approximately 108 parking spaces with a maximum parking allowance of two hours between the hours of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. All other times of the day have no restrictions as pictured.

In April of 2019, the 6^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that marking a suspected parking violator’s tire was an act of trespassing. The resulting decision prohibited parking officers from directly marking tires to determine a time frame to support a citation. Since the decision the police department has refrained from issuing parking violations in the downtown area to avoid potential federal liability exposure. The placement of parking violations will assist the police department in reestablishing parking violations in the downtown area.

To combat this issue, the City of Rialto is considering a paid, on-street metered parking program in the Downtown area. The goal of the Parking Meter Program is to improve parking space availability for patrons, and the overall experience of people who drive to Downtown Rialto.

On May 9, 2019 the Community Development Department brought forth a Staff Report to the Economic Development Committee regarding a comprehensive Parking Analysis and Management Program for the Downtown area of Rialto. The plan encompassed the following:

•                     An inventory of Parking spaces available in Downtown, including private and public spaces.

•                     Current utilization and turnover rates of parking spaces.

•                     Estimate of current and future demand, based on land uses and development potential.

•                     Strategy to maximize the efficiency of parking (both short-term and long-term) to meet the Downtown needs.

ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION:

ANALYSIS and MANAGEMENT PLAN 

The parking analysis would help the City determine parking needs including:

•                     Is there adequate Downtown parking to allow the City to realize its land use goals?

•                     Should the City consider installing parking meters or revising the current time restricted parking zones to better manage the parking spaces?

•                     Are there opportunities for shared use of parking at public facilities like the Metrolink station or City Hall?

The primary purpose of charging a fee for parking convenience is not the collection of revenue, although this is important, but rather to allocate a scarce resource efficiently. Most highly valued commodities in limited supply are rationed fairly by price. Charging appropriate parking fees allows the market participants to value each parking asset properly.

The proposed scope of work (Attachment 1) would include the following tasks:

•                     Task 1: Kick off meeting with staff.

The consultant will meet with staff to review Downtown information including land uses, parking history, stakeholders’ meetings, study area, special events that effect parking, and consultants’ approach to complete work.

•                     Task 2: Data collected and Analyzed.

The consultant will collect parking data in Downtown including inventory of parking spaces, parking lots available for public use, parking occupancy and turnover studies at all times, available on-site parking spaces, and identify perceived and actual issues.

•                     Task 3: Community Engagement.

The consultant will conduct a minimum of two community meetings with Downtown stakeholders including property owners, businesses, ad residents. At the end of the process, the consultant will hold a third community meeting for input on the proposed Parking Meter Plan.

•                     Task 4: Prepare Parking Meter Plan.

Based on analysis, data collection and community meetings, the consultant will prepare the draft Parking Management Plan that will include recommendations of actions to efficiency manage Downtown’s parking.

•                     Task 5: Final report and Parking Management Plan.

After the stakeholders, City Council and staff have reviewed and commented on the draft Parking Management Plan, the consultant will prepare the final Parking Management Plan for consideration and approval by the City Council.

•                     Task 6: Meeting Attendance.

The consultant will meet with staff and attend community meetings, Planning Commission meeting, and City Council meeting.

It will take approximately three months to advertise the RFP, review the proposals, and City Council to retain a consultant. It is unknown at this time how long the study will take, as the proposals will answer this question.

INSTALLATION PERAMETERS

Should the Economic Development Committee choose to install parking meters and bypass the study process, below are two options for parking meters for regulating parking.

Option 1: Install single pedestal meters that can be installed at each parking spot.

Option 2: Install multi-space meters with pay stations. It is recommended to install 1 pay station for every 10 spaces, for 108 spaces would need about 11 pay stations.

There are certain considerations to be take when installing parking meters. These include:

•                     Public’s reactions

•                     Aesthetics to the Downtown area

•                     Maintenance and operation costs

•                     Parking enforcement

•                     Current COVID-19 restrictions to businesses 

In order to develop the appropriate costs to implement, under the Economic Development Committee’s direction, Staff shall seek proposals from private vendors to supply, install and potentially operate the Parking Meter Program. Staff will request alternative approaches to purchase or finance the proposed equipment, including but not limited to, outright purchase, lease, or lease purchase. Additionally, staff would ask proposers to describe the costs associated with each including the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

Staff intends to use the responses from the received RFP to make a final recommendation on implementation and technology type. This process is open to all applicable solutions, based on the findings and evaluation criteria of the responses.

The City is also interested in any financing options offered by the vendor in order to facilitate purchase of the parking pay stations, software and equipment. The implementation could include an outright purchase of the selected equipment or a financing/lease agreement for the use of the equipment over a defined period of years, to be determined by mutual agreement between the City and the successful vendor(s).

Staff has included a sample proposal, without a cost proposal, from a vendor as Attachment 2 and 3.

NEIGHBORING CITY PROGRAMS

Staff contact other agencies to discuss their parking meter program. Below are our findings:

•                     City of Riverside - The City of Riverside was experiencing the lack of parking space turnover within their Downtown business area due to employees of the local businesses using the street parking as employee parking. The City recognized the need for a parking meter program. The City highly recommended reaching out to the stake holders and community group/advisory boards to gain their input on a parking meter program. The City purchased both individual parking meters and a collective machine for the parking garages. Pay options include cash, credit card, and a mobile App. The return on investment (ROI) took approximately seven months after the City of Riverside put up the initial investment capital. The parking meter program did curve the issue of employees parking on the streets all day, but with one note, the City found the more parking costs per hour, the more turnover they reported, thus opening parking for customers. Their parking meter company provides all the updates while City staff provides the maintenance and parking enforcement services.

•                     Metrolink - Staff contacted the Metrolink representative and was informed that any paid parking within the Metrolink stations under that City’s jurisdiction. Staff attempted to contact these City’s with no responses.

TECHNOLOGY

There are multiple pay options available for parking. The most common with today’s technology is pay by card or an “App” via a mobile device. A patron downloads a free “App” to their mobile device and inputs their credit card information. The patron then inputs the meter number and the fare is paid. If time is running out on the meter, rather than heading back to the parking spot to add more coins, the patron can add money via the “App” from anywhere.

ESTIMATED PROGRAM COSTS

Staff estimates installation costs to vary, depending on technology type selected from $75,000 to $160,000. This could include on-going maintenance as those costs widely vary with the technology and available options selected. These options vary from vendor to vendor.

For example, it will require 11 pay-point type machines for the 108 available spaces. Each machine requires yearly Data hosting, Maintenance and connectivity charges. See Chart 1 below for details.

CHART 1

EQUIPMENT	QUANTITY	COST EACH	COSTS
Pay-Point Collective Machine	11	$12,000	$132,000
Data Hosting, Maintenance and Connectivity	11	$2,000	$22,000
TOTAL ESTIMATE			$154,000

ESTIMATED PROGRAM REVENUE

An estimated revenue return would be for example, at 100% occupancy on all 108 parking spaces compared to 30% to 40% occupancy rate for the same 108 parking spaces. See Chart 2 below.

CHART 2

PARKING SPACES	ESTIMATED COST PER HOUR	AVERAGE HOURS PER DAY	TOTAL PER DAY	AT 100% OCCUPANCY YEARLY TOTAL	AT 30% OCCUPANCY YEARLY TOTAL
108	$1.50	8	$1,296	$473,040	$141,912

Of course, this is an inflated scenario, but a more accurate estimate can be calculated when all factors have been put into place. Such as rate of occupancy, type of meters, installation, financing (if applicable) and maintenance costs. All these variables will be determined within the cost proposals. 

Attachments:

1.                     Scope of Work

2.                     Sample Proposal - AmeriPark

3.                     Sample Proposal - Pacific Parking

FINANCIAL IMPACT:

The costs associated with this direction at this time would be Staff’s time to develop the RFP and advertise. Budget is available in the Traffic Safety budget, account number 010-500-7308-2021. Estimated RFP costs are under $500.

RECOMMENDATION:

Staff recommends the Economic Development Committee to Provide Direction for

1. Release of a Request for Proposal for a comprehensive Parking Analysis and Parking Management Plan or;                      

2. Release a Request for Proposal for the Installation of Parking Meters within the Downtown Area of Rialto.