The city concluded it’s parking pilot in the north garage on Aug. 31.

Over the summer, staff presented data indicating the test wasn’t performing well during a Parking Advisory Commission meeting in July, that they later determined to be inaccurate.

During the Sept. 19 meeting, city staff presented updated data that they’ll also be presenting during the City Commission work session on Oct. 1.

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Looking at their updated numbers, city staff said they’d seen an overall increase in daily users during the trial period, which ran from June 1 to Aug. 31.

For daily users, the summer numbers were:

• 630 in June, up from 329 in 2023
• 857 in July, up from 302 in 2023
• 949 in August, up from 359 in 2023

Overall, that was a 114.8 percent increase in daily users.

Daily fees in the north garage decreased over the summer by $896.36, or 22.3 percent for this summer from last summer.

Police calls to the garage decreased from 18 last summer to six this summer, according to staff, which could be attributed to more people using the garage, increased patrolling or the chain blocking access to the upper decks at night.

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For the three summer months, total parking program revenue, which includes garage fees and permits, meters, kiosks, surface lots and the Passport app, was up $3,191.99, or 2.7 percent, according to city data.

Staff said they felt the pilot was a success and that more people were now aware that the garage is available for public use.

The city owns and operates two public parking garages, in addition to multiple surface lots and meters downtown.

The north garage wasn’t performing as well as city staff would like and it had the infrastructure to monitor the free two-hour parking which is why the city selected the north garage for the test, which they hoped would reduce strain on metered street parking. Currently the south garage is only open to monthly permit holders during normal operating hours, which are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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Since the pilot has ended, paid parking has resumed in the north garage at the normal rates of 50 cents per hour, capped at $5 per day, or $51 per month. Monthly permits are also available.

City staff said the next steps they’re considering are garage improvements including new gate controls and more signage. They’re getting quotes to look at costs and bring those back to the parking board for consideration.

Staff is also recommending keeping the current parking fees in place through the spring to collect more data before recommending any changes.

Tena Grigsby, who works for SP+ that is now Metropolitan, the city’s parking contractor, said that some coffee drinkers were using the garage over the summer for the free parking, but have continued using it through September and when they realize it’s only 50 cents are tipping parking attendants.

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Jayson Olthoff, who was appointed to the parking board earlier this year, said he didn’t know about the rates in the garages before he was on the board, so now he parks in the garage to walk around downtown.

The north garage is currently free parking after 6 p.m. because the gate controls are antiquated and not functioning properly, so staff said they want to replace those to have the option of paid garage parking in the evenings and weekends.

Staff said that currently events at The Newberry have a minimal impact to after hours parking, but with garage improvements, there may be opportunities to collaborate with downtown business for major events such as the Christmas Stroll.

Lonnie Hill, deputy planning director, said that that staff has discussed the impact single events can have to the parking numbers and that’s an opportunity to direct people to the garages during those major downtown events.

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The downtown business improvement district is discussing the possibility of incorporating the city’s garages into the mural program, specifically commissioning a piece that would indicate public parking.

The city hasn’t been able to collect unpaid parking tickets since about 2022 due to an issue recognizing license plate numbers in the system to identity the correct vehicle owners.

Hill said staff had been been working to correct the issue and it’s now fixed so they intend to start booting vehicles again and collecting unpaid parking ticket fines.

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He said quite a few people had racked up unpaid tickets.

A boot is used after five or more unpaid citations that are more than 30 days old and the offender has received a letter that they have late citations, staff said.