05-10-76 Council Meeting Minutes

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7 REGULAR MEETING MAY 10, 1976 REGULAR MEETING RECONVENED RESOLUTIONS (CONTINUED) NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COMMON COUNCIL OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA THAT THE fore- going resolution of the Board of Public Works be, and is hereby approved by the Common Council and shall be in full force and effect from and after its adoption by the Common Council and approval by the Mayor. /s/ Mary Christine Adams Member of the Common Council A public hearing was held at this time on the resolutions. Mr. Peter Mullen, City Controller, made a presentation for the resolutions. He said the intent of the second resolution was to facilitate a compromise on the hard work being enacted by the Downtown Parking Study Commission. He said the differences between the two resolutions is that the original resolution would bring into the city approximately $42,000 in additional revenue, whereas, the second resolution would bring an additional $33,000 on an annualized basis. Mr. Allen Bloomquist, Chairman of the South Bend Parking Facilities Study Commission, said he thought it appropriate to bring the views of the Commission to the attention of the Council. He said this was a body consisting of nine individuals and that it had a considerable diversity of views represented. He said some of the recommendations ranged from let's do nothing with parking rates to let's raise them quite a bit. He said the final recommendation was a compromise recom- mendation. He said the Council had all received letters of the April 23 recommendation, while there are some areas of agreement there was some disagreement as to the exact amount to raise the monthly rates. He said the Commission recommended that the Main and Colfax lot be raised to $12, and the Controller's recommendation was $13. He said there was agreement within the Commission that the daily rate should be raised and they recommended $1.35 a day, and the recommendation ap- proved by the Board of Public Works was $1.50. He said the impact was highly uncertain, because it is well to remember that the city has approximately 1/4 of the parking spots and the rest are controlled privately, and it is difficult to predict what the private lots will do. Mr. Lloyd Taylor, member of the Study Commission, said he represented the minority viewpoint relative to the Commission. He said the nine member Commission was not in full support of -the recommendations made by the Commission. He said he could appreciate the problem facing the Counc on the parking situation. He said if no other funds could be found to make up the deficit in the operation of the garages, then obviously some kind of increased income has to be generated. He said the thing that concerned him was the difference in rates between the Jefferson and Colfax garages. He said he thought this was penalizing those developers who have done the most for down town in trying to generate parkers. He said a developer who has worked very diligently to bring tenants and employees to the downtown area and now this section of town is being penalized by a differential rate, with quite frankly, very competitive buildings in other areas of the downtown. He said the Commission had proposed as somewhat of a compromise leaving the upper deck, the open part of the structure at $20, so this would relieve us a little bit, or at least we could say to a tenant that if they were willing to drive to the top they could continue at the same rate. He said he really thought the compromise proposal was a better solution than the proposed resolution Council Member Taylor complimented the Mayor regarding his selection of members to the Commission He said the Commission consisted of a number of businessmen representing our Community. He said he thought the people on the Commission were highly concerned regarding South Bend's fiscal res- ponsibility. He said he noted with interest the report the Council received from the Commission, that there was nothing stated about any one being overly concerned with a bad bond rating. He said the Commission did come up with a compromise. He said there was one paragraph in their report that influenced him, that was "It should be noted that there is support within the Com- mission for no change in rates at this time, preferring to wait for further developments in the downtown area. In part, the concern is for our ability to attract new enterprise into the down- town area, with higher parking costs. The entire Commission acknowledges this concern, and many others as well. Parking is clearly an important strategic element affecting the growth of South Bend, and stimulating the growth of the South Bend tax base. The determination of parking rates must therefore take into consideration not only the affect of immediate revenue, but also, on the long, long term impact on stimulating and preserving a healthy tax base." He said in his opinio he favored the report that came from the Commission, and he would support rejecting the resolu- tions as they now stand, and support a resolution that would reflect the compromise of the Com- mission. Council Member Taylor then made a motion to reject the two resolutions and to write a letter so stating to the Board of Works, and that we also state in the letter that we would de- finitely be in favor of adopting a resolution that would reflect the thinking of the South Bend Parking Facilities Study Commission, seconded by Council Member Horvath. Council Member Miller indicated that the equitability between the City operated and subsidizing some parking units, and there are private developers who have units, creates quite a problem since the City has one- fourthof the parking downtown, the City is in competition with private parking. He said the more we subsidize the more we are providing an unfair situation. He said at this time we do not have other sources of income to balance against this parking subsidy, tha we keep adding to constantly. He said that considering the political makeup of the Council, he did not feel the rates would be increased again for another four years. He said he thought this was a one shot deal and whatever is done now will exist for at least another four years. He said we need to get the money necessary to balance our parking deficit, by increasing fees. He said he was in favor of resolution.A at this particular time. Council Member Kopczynski said he concurred with Council Member Miller. He said he thought that the parking garages should be made to pay for themselves. He said it was unfair to the rest of the City to use any form of revenue to subsidize the garages. Council Member Adams asked if we would up this town development we could lose far more in our resolution was a compromise between his origin, said the City was faced with another bad month $23,600 behind last year; through March 31, we lost an additional $5,000 in April. to get the $33,000 extra revenue and stifle down - tax base. Mr. Mullen said he felt this second al resolution and the Commission's resolution. He in April. He said through April 30 they were are $18,558 behind last year, so we have in affec