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Proposed Changes to Austin Valet has Businesses Worried
by SHELTON GREEN / KVUE News
Bio | Email| Follow: @SheltonG_KVUE
kvue.com
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 9:21 PM
Updated Friday, Oct 14 at 9:02 AM
AUSTIN -- Some proposed changes by Austin’s Transportation Department regarding the city’s valet parking ordinances has some local businesses up in arms.
On Tuesday, representatives with the Transportation Department updated the Urban Transportation Commission on recommendations that their department wants to make to city leaders.
The biggest proposal local businesses have a problem with is changing the current cost of a valet parking space from $250 a year to $1 an hour per space.
Don Gurney, owner of Capitol Transpark says for some businesses that would mean a near 1,000 percent increase.
“If this actually passes, at this rate, we will be the first city in the state of Texas to impose such an expensive fee for simply utilizing a lane,” said Gurney.
The Transportation Department is also recommending that valets wear photo I.D. badges. They also want to limit the time a valet can let a car sit in a lane of traffic to five minutes.
“If it turned into five minutes and you were still saying goodbye to your friends, then I would have to approach you and say, 'Sir, you need to move your car, you're going to get a ticket again,'" Gurney said. "[It's] a little unrealistic."
Gordon Derr with Austin’s Transportation Department says Austin City Council asked his department to look at any needed changes to the city’s valet ordinance. It was last revamped in 1999.
Derr says the talk of extending parking meter hours at night in downtown Austin forced the city’s valet services into the spotlight. Derr also made it clear that the recommendations regarding valet services are not chiseled in stone.
“I certainly don't think that the current form is probably the final form that these will take but we need to put some ideas out so that we can get responses and have a discussion before we can take to council our final recommendation,” said Derr.
The Transportation Department will meet within the next few weeks to refine the proposed valet changes before presenting recommendations to City Council on Nov. 10.
See link to article and video: http://www.kvue.com/news/Proposed-changes-to-Austins-valet-ordinance-has-some-businesses-worried-131833388.html
Council Trims Expansion of Metered Parking Hours Downtown
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 1:43 p.m. Friday, Aug. 19, 2011
Published: 8:26 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011
After months of growing opposition to a plan to charge for evening and Saturday parking downtown, the City Council backpedaled Thursday. Parking downtown after 6 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will remain free, the council decided on a 6-1 vote, and paid parking Saturday will begin three hours later than originally approved in March. The new charges will go into effect Sept. 6, but the City will not begin issuing tickets until Oct. 3.
Council Member Laura Morrison, who had been the only "no" vote in March, likewise opposed the ordinance approved Thursday. The council, on a 4-3 vote , backed away from shrinking the area covered by the expanded parking hours. That district will remain bounded by 10th Street, Interstate 35, Lady Bird Lake and North Lamar Boulevard . Council Member Mike Martinez, after meeting with a variety of downtown interest groups that opposed expanded parking hours, had proposed moving the northern boundary to Eighth Street . That would have allowed lower-paid downtown workers at bars and restaurants to find free spaces, provided they were willing to walk a few blocks.
But after Council Member Chris Riley gave the council a brief history of parking meters — he said they were invented in Oklahoma City in the mid-1930s because downtown workers there were using up all the available on-street spaces — Riley, Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Council Members Bill Spelman and Sheryl Cole stuck with the 10th Street boundary. "It is very different than just collecting revenue," Riley said. "It is about managing a scarce resource."
Martinez said rejecting the compromise negotiated with those downtown interests will make it "very difficult to convince them that we're listening. \u2026 We've just thrown it in their face." Morrison and Council Member Kathie Tovo also wanted to change the boundary to Eighth Street.
Currently, metered parking across the city applies from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. As of Oct. 3, those citywide hours will shift slightly to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. But in that downtown district, the meters will be running until midnight Thursday and Friday , and from 11 a.m. to midnight Saturday . Outside that area, Saturday and evening parking will remain free. Meters take Sunday off citywide, and that isn't changing.
The newly revised parking hours will decrease expected added metered revenue from what had been an estimated $2.9 million to $1.7 million annually, and expected fine revenue would drop from $1 million to $645,000 in the 2011-12 fiscal year.
City Transportation Director Robert Spillar said the loss in metered revenue will leave less money for downtown maintenance projects. And less fine money probably would mean that newly hired meter enforcement workers, in order to support their salaries, would spend part of their time looking for non-meter parking violations downtown. With the lost revenue in mind, the measure approved Thursday also instructs city staffers to recommend by Nov. 10 changes in valet parking regulations and fees.
Valet services currently pay the city $250 per space, per year, to reserve parking on downtown streets. Some council members have said that figure is too low and that raising the fee could compensate for money lost by eliminating paid parking Monday through Wednesday evenings.
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
Central Parking Announces Appointment of a National Sales Team.
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
Central Parking System, Inc. ("Central") announced today that parking industry veterans, Daniel Huberty and Robert Cizek, have joined the company as Senior Vice Presidents to lead Central's new initiative of a national sales group. The national sales group will focus on large and complex projects throughout the United States, as well as servicing institutional real estate funds including REITS, private equity and infrastructure funds and portfolio clients. "The addition of Dan and Robert emphasizes our commitment to growth and serving clients at the highest level. The depth of their relationships and the parking and real estate experience each brings will be an immediate benefit to our organization and clients. I am very impressed with Dan and Robert and we're excited they have joined Central," said James Marcum, Chief Executive Officer and President.
Dan Huberty comes to Central from Clean Energy Fuels, the largest provider of natural gas for transportation in North America, where he served as Vice President. Prior to Clean Energy, he spent 16 years in the parking industry for one of the largest parking companies in the U.S. serving in various capacities including Vice President, head of the airport division, responsible for U.S. business development and operations throughout the country. Outside of parking, Dan represents District 127 in the Texas House of Representatives and serves on the Public Education and State Affairs committees. Robert Cizek has spent 22 years in parking including twenty of those years at Central Parking rising through the ranks to become Senior Vice President responsible for business development and operations in over ten states. Robert's relationships extend throughout the U.S. including during the past two years as he worked on advancing "intelligent transportation" technologies working with Park Mobile, the largest provider in the United States of pay by phone for on- and off-street parking, and StreetSmart a wireless vehicle detection technology company.
About Central Parking, Central is a leader in parking management serving large and small property owners, infrastructure funds and governmental clients to maximize service, revenue and value creation. With operations in 38 States and Puerto Rico, the Company's locations include: mixed-use developments, office buildings, hotels, stadiums and arenas, airports, hospitals, universities, municipalities and toll roads. In addition, through its USA Parking subsidiary, Central is one of the premier valet operators in the nation with more four and five diamond luxury properties including hotels and resorts than any other valet competitor. Central's over 1 million parking spaces operate under the brands Central Parking System, CPS Parking, New South Parking and USA Parking.