Parking plan approved for downtown Wichita

Parking plan approved for downtown Wichita

Parking plan approved for downtown Wichita

downtown-parking-2-2

Wichita City Council members have approved a plan to begin a system for paid parking downtown.

The parking plan is intended to raise revenue to recover costs for maintenance and operations of the parking system and provide for needed improvements.  Assistant city manager Troy Anderson said $18 million in improvements have been identified.

The City Council considered five options that were developed after public reaction to a plan that was advanced earlier this year, and the Council voted to delay the purchase of parking meters and other steps to allow for more public input.   The Council narrowed the options to two, but there were three variations on each option that were presented tothe Council.

Anderson recommended an option that would have parking rates of $1.00 per hour for an area east of the Arkansas River, and there will be rates for daily and monthly parking.  There would be no meters or time limits in the Delano neighborhood, and parking there would be evaluated after the city opens a multimodal facility that will be called The HUB.  There would be metered spaces in Old Town, but if property owners want to maintain the existing arrangement, they would have to petition the city for a Community Improvement District with a two percent sales tax, and they would have to increase non-retail payment-in-lieu-of-parking agreements to $15.00 per space per month.    Anderson said this plan is financially viable and will provide revenue to cover future capital needs of the parking system.

In response to questions from Mayor Lily Wu, Anderson said the city has not collected an average of $532,212 per year since 1999, because the city has not enforced increases under Old Town parking agreements.   Mayor Wu said that means the city lost out on $13 million in revenue that could have helped with deferred maintenance over the past 25 years.   City Manager Robert Layton said Old Town businesses had an understanding that they would pay a set rate for a period of time, but they now understand the difficulties with a limited revenue stream, and they have agreed to put over a million dollars in annual revenue to help with maintenance and improvements for the system.

Council member Brandon Johnson moved to approve the plan, and if there is no valid petition for a CID within 60 days, there will be metered parking in Old Town by the end of 2028.  The motion was approved with a 5-2 vote.   Mayor Wu voted against the plan, saying the city has still not provided all of the data that needs to be shared on the parking system.  She said she will continue to ask questions of staff to make sure it’s a clean and safe plan, and that all costs are accounted for.   Council member Mike Hoheisel was also a no vote, saying he still has concerns that the plan won’t do enough to address the debts that the city has with the parking system.

The city will purchase parking meters and equipment and test it, and the plan is to have a soft launch for the new system in June with a full start in July.

 

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