In 30 days, parking tickets will cost $10 more, setting them at $25 for an expired meter.
That’s just one of the increases set for parking in downtown Vancouver, aimed to address a lack of spaces and drivers flouting the cheap parking, according to city staff.
Vancouver City Council members also voted to give the city manager the ability to raise the parking meter fees to $2.50 an hour and parking permits in downtown Vancouver to $200 a month and $25 a day.
During the Monday city council meeting, Chad Eiken, community and economic development director, addressed final public backlash that mostly came from the city’s unfinished parking study.
Marcus Griffith of Vancouver said the city broke the law by using the $86,000 study by Dixon Resources Unlimited as support for passing the parking increases and not making it available to the public.
Proposed parking fee changes
• Raising the cap (or maximum amount the city manager can charge) for meters in downtown Vancouver from $1.25 to $2.50 an hour.
• Raising the cap for monthly parking permits from $100 to $200, and daily permits to $25.
• Raising parking tickets from $15 to $25.
• Increasing fine for missing deadline on parking tickets to $25.
• Extend time to pay ticket from 15 days to 30 days before fine doubles.
Eiken said the city “made a mistake in making it appear that we were relying on the study.”
But regardless, city Councilor Alishia Topper’s decision wasn’t swayed by the study because it’s clear there’s a parking problem in downtown, she said.
Griffith said moving ahead without the final report “would be a disservice to the democratic process.”
Eiken said he was getting the report ready for disclosure.
“Because we cited it, we do have to make it available to public. We’re working on disclosing them now,” Eiken said.
Eiken said the study is “basically to just take a scan of the parking program overall, identify efficiencies and inefficiencies, and plug those gaps.”
Workshop scheduled
The city will hold a workshop Oct. 16 addressing the results of the Dixon report.
The parking meter cap was last raised in 1999 to $1.25, and the city manager hit that cap in March.
The rapid increase in parking prices has upset most residents who have testified, but City Manager Eric Holmes said he has no plans to change the meter rates right now.
The ordinance passed 5 to 2, with council members Bart Hansen and Bill Turlay voting no because they said they think all rate increases should come before the city council.
“We’ve been subsidizing (parking) for a long time,” Mayor Tim Leavitt said. “Parking in downtown Vancouver is cheap. There’s no doubt about it.”
This article has been corrected to display the correct date for the Dixon Report workshop, which is on October 16.
