Parking Garage And Library Changes This Week

This Thursday, July 1, 2010 the >parking rates and hours in the three City-owned Rockville Town Square garages will change. You now must pay a $1 flat fee to park during the day on Saturdays. We all will have to get used to the change. Don’t walk away without paying. The fine is $40.

The new rates and hours for the garages at 215 N. Washington Street, 330 Hungerford Drive (Route 355) and 30 Maryland Avenue are:

Monday through Friday, 7 AM to 6 PM, $1 per hour;
Monday through Friday, 6 to 10 PM, $1 flat fee;
Saturday, 7 AM to 10 PM, $1 flat fee; and
Parking is free after 10 PM Monday through Saturday, all day Sunday and City holidays.

The parking meters in Rockville Town Center will continue to require payment of $1 per hour between 7 AM and 10 PM, Monday through Saturday. Parking at the meters is free after 10 PM Monday through Saturday, and all day on Sundays and City holidays.

All the Town Center parking options are here.

Libraries:

Also on July 1, 2010, you will no longer be able to park for free in the City garages to visit the Rockville Memorial Library. Montgomery County had to eliminate the parking reimbursement to the City of Rockville during the budget cuts. Parking is free on Sundays but the Library will be closed on Sundays after July 6th.

Library Hours Starting July 6th are confusing because they are different for our two libraries:

Rockville Memorial Library:
Monday – Thursday, 10:00 AM – 8 PM, Friday, Saturday, 10 AM – 6 PM.

Twinbrook Library:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, 10 AM – 6 PM, Tuesday, Thursday, 1 – 8 PM.

Parking has always been free at the Twinbrook Library.

Once we’re used to these changes, this should be it for a while. I’ll miss the library visits on Sunday afternoon.

Editorial Opinion by Cindy Cotte Griffiths: Missed Opportunity With The Parking Garages

>Last Friday I did a little Christmas shopping in Rockville Town Square. When I pulled into the parking garage on Rt. 355 by CVS, only 170 spaces were left. (Here’s a picture of me fooling around with the mirrored ceilings in the elevator. Usually when I’m in the garages, I don’t need to go up a few levels to park during the weekdays and since I was all by myself, well, you know.)

The garages seemed well-used and I doubt the drivers of all those vehicles were shopping or eating in the Square. Were commuters taking advantage of the free parking in our City garages through January 3rd instead of parking in the Metro lot?. Even in the cold, I think at least some of these drivers were willing to park and walk over to the Metro to save money because when the garages were first opened and free, they were packed with commuter cars.

During the election season, when the Town Square merchants asked for changes in the parking fees, the mayor and council agreed to a $1 flat fee for evening parking and no charge on weekends. In order to increase revenue, a goal of attracting 200 additional monthly parkers was set and projections were based on a total of 400 monthly parkers.

Everyone agreed that the monthly rate of $65 would have to be advertised. People suggested handing out flyers at the Shady Grove Metro.

• At our monthly rate of $65, people would only have to park 14 days per month at Metro’s $4.75 rate in order to come out even.
• Metro’s monthly rate is $55 to reserve the spot but you must pay $4.75 per day on top of the rate. So, if you parked 20 work days in a month your total would be $150.

Our garages offer quite a savings for commuters.

So I wondered why there hasn’t been more advertising during this free parking season. We, as a City, are giving away the parking and possibly attracting people who are willing to use the City garages for commuting, yet we aren’t taking any actions to convince them to be the monthly customers we so desperately need. These are our best prospects.

Personally, I don’t like the flyers on my windshield but these drivers are parking on our dime so we have every right to bombard them with advertisements. The only sign I noticed was a small plastic tent with “Free Parking”. A few more signs and banners would help the effort.

This is a prime opportunity being lost. In the business world, if you get them in the door, you do everything possible to make the sale. We need to be much more business-like if we are going to pay off our parking garage debt with something other than our tax dollars.

If you know someone who parks in the Metro lots to commute, let them know about the Rockville garage savings, a nice present for the New Year. Parking passes for the City’s 355 Garage P3-P5 levels can be purchased from the garage pay stations.

Mayor And Council Voted to Change Parking Fees for Town Center

At >last night’s meeting, the Mayor and Council unanimously approved a new parking fee plan for Rockville Town Center. As many readers know, all the parties involved have been grappling with the expanded parking fees which went into effect on October 5, 2009.

Although the item was not on the Agenda, Councilmember John Britton made a motion containing history, explanations, and commentary, which needed to be clarified a few times. To the best of my knowledge, the motion included the following. If it’s not exactly right, please let me know.

1. Increase in monthly parking spaces available to 400 while charging a competitive $65 per month. The City will partner with the merchants to market this campaign and attract additional monthly parkers using Metro.
2. Street meters will charge from Monday to Saturday from 7 AM to 10 PM at a rate of $1 per hour.
3. Garages will charge $1 per hour from 7 AM to 6 PM. From 6 PM until 10 PM, the charge will be a $1 flat fee per visit.
4. No charge for parking in the garages on Saturday.

Mr. Britton explained his reasoning for the motion and here my interpretation. Even in the highest usage days, 400 monthly parking spaces could be accommodated. Charging at meters will encourage a good turnover of spaces so that the same vehicles are not parking for free all day. Data indicates Rockville is overcharging in the evenings compared to Silver Spring and Gaithersburg.

The motion was seconded by Councilmember Phyllis Marcuccio, who was the first to clarify the wording. She detailed her recent efforts to have the parking fees reconsidered by the City Council. Her second allowed the motion to be discussed.

Councilmember Anne Robbins said she wanted to bring a sense of reality to the parking fee discussion. She spoke about the United States being in the greatest recession since the 1930’s so we can’t say we will have business as usual. She declared we need to do something because the worst thing would be for Town Center to fail.

Councilmember Piotr Gajewski found the proposal attractive and said he would start referring to it as the “Trapper Martin Motion”. For readers who don’t know, Trapper Martin, a business leader in Town Center who is running for Council, has been working on a proposal from the merchants which was posted on Rockville Central. Councilmember Gajewski recounted the history of the vote on November 8, 2008 when all five council members decided to expand the paid garage parking hours. He tried to table the motion so that it could be put on the agenda within the next couple of weeks and allow time to study the proposal. He did not like governing “on the fly” and said a free-wheeling discussion is not good governance. He wanted the opportunity to deliberate and speak with his neighbors. He felt he was being forced to vote using his “best guess”. The biggest question in his mind was how much the changes will cost the City. He said he would support the motion if the budget cuts necessary to fund it were identified.

Staff were providing new analysis during the meeting because the motion was slightly different than Trapper Martin’s original proposal which was reviewed for the Mayor and Council earlier in the day. The staff estimates for revenue were based on usage at 75% of the current levels. Burt Hall, Director of Recreation and Parks, reported a new calculation which estimated the reduction in revenue to be about $180,000. City Manager Scott Ullery said the City could draw on the reserves which were healthy in order to cover the lower projections for one year. Mayor Susan Hoffmann questioned which reserves, and Mr. Ullery responded “the parking fund”.

Mayor Hoffmann spoke about meeting with the merchants last week and stated she was 100% committed to the success of Town Center. She said we need to do everything possible to keep it healthy and she saw this motion as the best approach.

Councilmember Marcuccio called the question and the vote was unanimous in favor of the motion. However, no beginning date was included.

When questioned, Mr. Ullery thought the parking garage could be reprogrammed by this Saturday, but he did not know how long it would take to reprogram the changes for the weekday rates.

So, you most likely will be able to park in the Rockville Town Center garages for free this Saturday. Soon you will also be able to pay a flat $1 fee in the garages after 6 PM on weekdays to go to dinner or do your shopping. If you want the convenience of a parking meter, you’ll have to pay $1 hour from 7 AM until 10 PM.

UPDATE: It looks like the entire system will be reprogrammed for this weekend. The City of Rockville Press Release on the new paid parking hours states:

Beginning Friday, Oct. 16, parking in the garages Monday through Friday will cost $1 per hour between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. and $1 per entry between 6 and 10 p.m. Parking in the garages will be free weekdays after 10 p.m., Saturdays, Sundays and City holidays.

County Council Pays For Rockville Library Parking

According to a >Montgomery County press release, the County Council approved the $143,500 special appropriation to the City of Rockville to pay for patron parking at the Rockville Library, plus an additional $3,890 for lost revenue due to free parking by employees of the Rockville Library, which amounts to a grand total of $147,430 in parking reimbursements. The 6-2 vote insures 2-hours of free parking in the garages for library visitors in FY 2010.

Those in favor were Council President Phil Andrews, Vice President Roger Berliner and Councilmembers Marc Elrich, Valerie Ervin, Nancy Floreen, and Nancy Navarro. Those against were Councilmembers Mike Knapp and George Leventhal. Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg was absent.

The County does have a policy to provide free parking for patrons at all County libraries, including up to two hours at libraries in urban locations, such as Rockville Town Center.

From the press release:

In spring, the Council decided it would postpone a decision on funding this portion of the FY10 budget, which went into effect on July 1, so it might revisit its policy at parking at public libraries. The Council has adopted a policy of not charging residents for parking during the first two hours while using any County library located in areas where parking is normally charged. Currently, this applies only to the Rockville and Bethesda libraries, but could apply to future new libraries in Silver Spring and Wheaton. However, no resolutions have been sponsored and introduced that would either repeal or amend the current policy, nor to set a rate for the Bethesda Library

“The Council today showed its support for the policy of providing free parking at all libraries,” said Council President Phil Andrews. “In difficult economic times like we are experiencing right now, library use has increased for a variety of reasons. People are using libraries, in some cases, in their search for jobs. Charging one dollar an hour for parking could discourage people from going to the library. We do not want anything like that to be a financial barrier to using our libraries.”

Here on Rockville Central, a Contributor Opinion by Joe Jordan: County Using Tax Dollars To Subsidize Free Parking has generated quite a few comments. The exchange goes beyond the County paying for library parking to include the more general issue of parking charges in Town Center as well as some handy public transportation advice.

Parking Transaction Time In Rockville Town Square

As everyone knows, I started out as a> real booster for the parking system that we have in Town Square. I thought it was pretty neat and I enjoyed interacting with it.

But with use, I’ve discovered to my frustration that every transaction just seems to take longer than it should. I know I am an impatient fellow, but I am often tapping my toe in frustration. In fact, I will go out of my way to use a parking meter, driving blocks out of my way, because it is faster to feed a meter than the machines.

I know part of that is definitely me. But I wanted to check and see just how long it takes to park, under the best of circumstances. So I made this video:

As you can see, the transaction took almost one full minute, from the point at which I pressed the “go” button until when it said I was done. Yes, I talked a little bit in the transaction, but I also had a perfect dollar bill at the ready and I wasted no time wondering what to do next with each screen — so I think this was a very fair test.

Certainly much fairer than the video I started to shoot a few days earlier, when there were people ahead of me in line:

I am not someone who thinks we need to provide free parking — we’ve got to pay for it somehow. But, I think that we need to make it easy to pay.

Some options are:

• Upgrade software (is this possible)
• Gate-and-ticket system like most county garages
• Parking meters at every stall
• Some kind of EZ-Pass type prepay system

The key here is convenience, in my mind. The system has to work speedily and easily.

I am certain this is now cost prohibitive, so I am probably just compaining. If even ten percent of people are exhibiting the same characteristics as me, we are leaving revenue on the table.

Mayor and Council On Pay And Parking Fines

Since I was at part of the >Mayor and Council meeting last night, May 18, 2009, I thought I’d pass along a couple of other decisions.

Pay Raises

Every two years prior to an election, the Compensation Commission is required to meet to discuss any increase to the Mayor and Council’s monetary compensation. The Mayor and Council voted on the recommendations. Although they did not give themselves raises for the next Fiscal Year 2010, they did approve raises for the following Fiscal Years 2011 and 2012. The vote was 4 to 1 with Councilmember Gajewski opposed.

This decision partially rejected and partially confirmed the Compensation Commission’s recommendation for increases in the annual compensation for the Mayor and Councilmembers. The compensation would only be increased if there is a positive change in the Washington – Baltimore metropolitan area CPI-U for the twelve months preceding the previous November. Councilmember Britton clarified the decision could be re-evaluated in the future.

Town Center Parking Garage Fines

The Mayor and Council amend Section 23-22 entitled “Notice of violation; payment of penalty; failure to pay penalty; issuance of summons” to reduce the fines for expired parking meters/stalls located in City-owned parking garages in the Town Center with a vote of 3 to 2. Mayor Hoffmann and Councilmembers Robbins & Britton were in favor. Councilmembers Gajewski and Marcuccio were opposed. The fine will be lowered from $40 to $12 per ticket. About six tickets are issued per day.

Councilmember Gajewski pointed out that it will cost more to issue the tickets than what the City will get in fines and $40 is equitable to the rest of the County. Councilmember Marcuccio agreed that the fine is $40 elsewhere and she could not agree to lowering it in Town Center. The stated goal for the change is to provide “a customer-friendly retail and residential environment in the Town Center”.

Personally, when I was 15 minutes late returning to the car after lunch with a friend, we had a ticket. We all lose track of time, but you can’t in Town Center. Now I always overpay an hour to avoid this situation.

City Mulls More Paid Parking

>The Gazette reports in a front-page piece today that the Mayor and Council took up the question of whether to extend the hours people will need to pay for parking in Town Square:

City staff on Monday recommended that paid parking be extended to weeknights and Saturdays.

Patrons currently pay between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. weekdays.

City Manager Scott Ullery said the added revenue is needed to repay money borrowed to construct the garages. That money is currently coming out of the tax-generated general fund.

Evidently, this amounts to a transfer from the general fund to the parking fund of $950,000 this fiscal year.

The proposal on the table is to require payment from 7:00 am until 10:00 pm Monday through Saturday.

City officials estimate that this extension would generate $818,887 per year. This does not completely cover what the city needs to repay for the financing of the parking structures — this fiscal year, the city is transferring $950,000 from the general fund to the parking fund to cover this. But it does make a dent.

Town Square businesses are understandably concerned that this will put a damper on customers:

Alan Gozhansky, owner of Town Square Jewelers on Gibbs Street, said he and another business owner counted the number of people who visited their stores and saw a 30 percent to 40 percent drop the week the city started charging for parking.

“If you continue and increase the hours and start charging for parking on weekends, it’s just going to get worse,” Gozhansky told council members Monday.

Council member John Britton was absent from this meeting, so the full Mayor and Council will take it up again at a future date.

Stay tuned.

The Rockville Town Square Parking Shuffle

On my way to yesterday’s >enjoyable lunch with the Rockville Roundtable, I thought it would be a fine opportunity to put Town Square’s new paid-parking system through its paces. I had been waiting for this day — anyone who knows me knows I love new gadgets. I see this new parking system as a giant new gadget.

Indeed, I had already become enamored with the little green-and-red lights above each spot that let me figure out just where to park (although they encourage me to drive faster than I should in the parking garages because I no longer have to examine each space to see if it’s empty). Just find a green lamp and pull in! How cool is that?

So, I was excited that, today, I would add a new machine into the mix: the pay station. The fact that I was paying to park didn’t bother me, as I am not someone who believes that parking should necessarily be free. And the apparent complexity of the system didn’t faze me because I love a technological challenge.

But I have to admit that, even knowing the procedure going in, I was little confused at first about what I was supposed to do. So, in case you are in the same boat, here it is all broken down.

1. First, I parked, by finding a spot with a little green light glowing above it. I remembered my space number (in this case, #153) and looked for the “pay station,” which was at the nearest pedestrian exit.

2. I walked up to the pay station, which had a blank screen. I pushed a button (any button will do) and the screen came to life, offering me English or Spanish. I chose English, then entered spot number 153.
3. Then the screen offered me two options. I could either pay for a maximum of four hours of parking, or choose fifteen minutes free to go to the Library. Since I was going to be having lunch, I went for option #1 (I’ll try out the Library system sometime soon and let you know how it goes).
4. Then the machine asked me how long I planned to stay. I chose 2 hours. I then was able to either insert dollar bills or use a credit card to pay. I admit I was ecstatic to be able to use a card — I hate feeding money into machines because half the time I get rejected. I must be hard on cash or something.
5. So, anyway, I paid, satisfied with myself for having done so well. And I waited, staring at the machine for something to happen. I got an “authorized” screen, but then . . . nothing. What was up? I took a step back and put my hands on my hips.
6. Then I noticed a little receipt had fluttered down behind a window ‘wayyy down at the bottom of the machine. I reached in and grabbed it.

I remembered from the parking tutorial that, if I wanted to add time to my stay, I would need the code printed on this receipt. I took it and went off to lunch.

You see, what was confusing me was that there was no parking ticket. We’ve been conditioned to think that when we’re paying for parking there needs to be some sort of ticket that you take, and then use to get out of the garage. The ticket either is literally your ticket out, or it’s proof you paid. This system does away with all that, and it will take getting used to.

Here in Town Square, there’s no ticket. So, be forewarned: you will very likely be subliminally expecting to get a ticket out of the “pay station” when you purchase parking. It’s just what we’re used to. But, you won’t get one.

Instead, think of the pay station as a fancy parking meter. Or perhaps an automated parking attendant. When you park at a meter, you decide ahead of time how long you plan to stay, and you insert the right amount of money. You’re doing the same thing here, only at a central spot.

At first I was frustrated and thought this a silly departure from how we conventionally park. But now I think it’s a good idea, though it will take getting used to. Having a central walk-up pay station and no “ticket” means there is no bottleneck either coming or going. During busy times, there won’t be a line of cars waiting to get out of the gate, nor will there be a line of cars waiting to come in. So that’s a good thing.

At the Rockville Roundtable lunch, a manager of one of the Town Square businesses was there and we all got to talking about parking. Here are a few suggestions that perhaps could be implemented as we move forward:

• The basic unit of parking is one hour, for one dollar. Why not break it into 30 minute increments? Lots of people might go over one hour but not even approach two full hours.

• Make it clearer where the pay stations are. I knew what I was looking for and still had to look around.
• Make big signs that tell people they need to pay. Lots of folks are conditioned to NOT pay for parking. We put up good signage warning people they were going to have to pay, but then when Monday rolled around there were no signs reminding people that they now HAD to pay. Just a small thing.
• Stick a big sign on the machines that reminds people to take their receipt. While you’re at it, stick a big sign on the machines that explain how to pay for parking. But, see below.
• Because the system is a little complicated and also is different than most people are used to, it would be a good idea to reexamine all the signs and brochures to make sure they are all saying the same thing, offering the same instructions — and that those instructions are as simple as they possibly can be but don’t omit any steps or assume knowledge that people don’t have.

So, overall, I have to admit I was a bit surprised at how complicated I found parking, but it was not a deal-breaker for me. I understand the advantages of this system. It’s just going to take some getting used to.

The City, and the folks running the parking operations, should take that into account and work extra hard at being extra clear — because I am sure there will be a few bumps in the road at first!