Merchants Offer Proposals On Parking
Oct 9, 2009 12:35 - 3 Comments
A recent >opinion piece on the sticky question the Mayor and Council are facing when it comes to parking in Town Square has generated more comments than any other on Rockville Central (in large part due to the efforts of reader John Cooper-Martin to catalog the responses of City candidates to his questions on the subject).
At last night’s West End Citizens Association candidate forum, the question of parking in Town Square came up repeatedly, and various incumbents made mention that the Mayor and Council would likely be taking up the issue on Monday’s meeting (October 12).
The Town Square merchants are trying to reach a compromise with the City whereby they can reduce what they see as a parking arrangement that is too chilling to their business prospects, while still providing the revenue the City needs to begin to pay for the construction of the garages.
The merchants have sent a set of concrete proposals to the Mayor and Council, so that they can be considered.
(Please note that a city council candidate has been visible in this effort with the merchants, but this proposal is no single candidate’s proposal but is instead the work of many merchants working together. For more on Rockville Central’s policies when it comes to elections, please see the end of this article.)
Here are the proposals:
- Increase the current number of monthly parkers to 400 up from our best guess of the current 100. Merchants are willing to partner with the city in order to make this happen through in house marketing, word of mouth etc. $65 per month would generate incremental revenue $234,000. The 355 garage has 672 total spaces reserving 400 monthly total spaces still leaves 272 spaces for hourly parkers. As we discussed in our last correspondence the merchants are willing to help the city fill these spaces through in store advertising and using some of our mailing list. FRIT has also said they would be willing to include a message about this in their direct mail pieces. RTS merchants are also willing to take on the responsibility of designing a flyer to be printed by the City for distribution. This is by far the best guarantee the City has for increased revenue. . . .
- Monday through Friday parking from 6-10pm at $1 per car (also in line with ALL surrounding garages). Increased revenue from $1 per car would be $121,420. Based on [the City's figures] the anticipated decrease in revenue from the garages is actually only $25,980 not the $141,970 [previously discussed]. . . .
- Increased revenue from the above totals $355,420 without the increased revenue from on street parking from 7-10 estimated . . . at $101,250. This already brings us to $456,670, well above the original estimates of $300-400k. These assumptions don’t include any paid parking in Town Center on Saturday. The merchants strong preference is that Saturday parking remains free to keep us competitive with surrounding shopping districts.
Note: The information in this article was submitted to us by Trapper Martin, who is a candidate for City Council. Rockville Central does not endorse candidates. We are encouraging towards all people who choose to run for office the city and try our best to make ourselves open to all. We actively encourage candidates to submit opinion pieces and other news. We don’t include every last bit, but we try to be fair to all and give useful information about what is happening. We ran this piece because it adds to the substantive debate on a subject that people are concerned with.
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While I am happy to see that some “incumbents made mention that the Mayor and Council would likely be taking up the issue on Monday’s meeting (October 12)”, look at the agenda for the meeting. No where on the agenda is the RTS parking issue. Those suggesting there will be a discussion are counting on it being brought up during New and Old business, which is scheduled for almost 11:00 PM. Given the items on the agenda, that might be an overly optimistic time estimate. It is 4 hours after the meeting starts…how many loyal TRC11 watchers will be awake and interested by then?The fact the topic is not on the agenda is a disservice to Rockville residents, RTS businesses and city council members. Who thinks beginning any discussion on an issue as topical as the RTS parking garages 4 hours into a meeting that includes a Public Hearing, discussion on the $2.4 million State budget cut and what the City Manager recommends cutting to make up for it, the FY2009 fourth quarter review, etc., makes sense? After 4 hours of meeting time and a full day of work, well, that could easily be a 16 to 18 hour day for some mayor and council members. I question anyone’s judgement or decision making prowess under those circumstances.Two things come to mind immediately…the first is to drop this notion that there isn’t enough city business to justify having weekly meetings. Why did this idea become the norm rather than the exception? Whose idea was this anyway? Monday’s agenda could have easily filled a minimum of two council meetings.The second thing that comes to mind is the attempt of Councilmember Marcuccio to get the issue on the agenda back on September 14th, a full moth ago. She made a motion and it failed for lack of a second. Had it passed, the council could have discussed it three weeks ago and possibly have some staff recommendations to vote on this Monday. Instead we are left with the hope it gets full attention under New and Old business. I’m not even sure which “business” it falls under.The mayors attempt on September 21st, to get a motion to postpone the extended hours by a week, did nothing to allow open and meaningful dialogue on the issue. All it would have done is put off the inevitable by a week. Maybe something positive will come out of the meeting on Monday. You will have to wait and see, if you can stay awake that late.
Joe, I am pretty sure I heard Phyllis, who’s campaign you are running, say at the candidate forum that it would be brought up on Monday, also.Perhaps you could clarify her position. I thought she also was for postponing it for one week.Isn’t also true that the Mayor cannot make or second a motion? So if the motion failed, it was not the Mayor’s fault.
It is true, the impartiality required of the presiding officer, in this case the Mayor, precludes the right to make motions while presiding. That is why Mr. Britton made the motion to postpone extended parking hours. It failed and no vote was taken.During the debate, Ms. Marcuccio did not say the issue would be brought up on Monday; Ms. Hoffmann did say “On Monday we are going to deal with the parking.” But it isn’t the point of my comment. By the issue not being on the agenda, it won’t be discussed until the very end of the meeting, when most citizens are not at City Hall or watching from home. The merchants who will be there to hear the discussion will have to wait until the end of the meeting. Citizens who might speak out at citizens’ forum will have to wait. By the issue not being on the agenda, there is no way people like you and me can see any research, analyses or recommendations from the staff before the meeting. That is not what I consider open and transparent government. The “Council shall determine its own order of business” according to the City Charter. If there was stronger leadership, a more cohesive governing body – one that meets more regularly – there could have been a solution by now. Remember, after Monday there is only one meeting scheduled before the term of this Mayor and Council is over.