Tuesday, October 8, 1996

Downtown parking: Problem or positive side effect?

By ANTHONY WILSON
Staff Writer

Parking downtown is not a problem.

The increasingly futile searches for prime parking in front of a favorite restaurant or shop is instead a positive side effect of rejuvenation, downtown leaders insist. Nevertheless, the nuisance is being addressed.

The Abilene City Council on Thursday will receive a report offering short- and long-term recommendations for easing downtown's occasional parking woes.

Among the suggestions are cracking down on parking abusers, initiating a park-and-ride system with trolley buses, selling parking vouchers to businesses to cover their customers' tickets, and convincing citizens to rethink downtown parking.

"Not too long ago, we were all trying to figure out how to get people to come downtown again," reads the report, drafted by the Tax Increment Financing District's parking committee.
"Congratulations! We did it! They're here! Now it's time to tackle another project."

The parking committee concluded that, except for "inevitable" inconveniences such as construction zones and lunch-hour traffic, downtown parking is adequate.

The biggest problem, the group concluded, is downtown workers hogging visitors' spaces. Businesses should insist their employees park in designated lots, the report said.

The committee also urged a "consistent" enforcement of parking laws, including use of the infamous "boot."

Despite tough talk and great hype two years ago, the city has yet to lock the boot - a device that immobilizes a vehicle - on the car of any habitual parking offender. The boot was supposed to deter parking scofflaws and assure offenders pay their fines.

But city Finance Director David Wright said the city lacks adequate personnel to use the boot to enforce the law, a condition that should change this month with the hiring of a city marshal.
The council created the marshal's office in the 1996-97 budget to add security in the municipal court.
"If we have to, we won't be hesitant to use (the boot) once the necessary measures are in place," he said.

Wright reported the number of outstanding tickets has dwindled from 12,000 in 1994 to approximately 2,800 tickets, totaling $40,000 in fines. He attributed the change to voluntary compliance and a notification program for offenders.

The report endorses selling parking vouchers to businesses at discount prices to cover some customers' parking tickets.

The committee also advises educating the public not to expect to park directly in front of the business they intend to patronize. Instead, the report said, shoppers should think of weather as "the only difference between downtown sidewalks and the halls of the mall."

"The silly thing is people will park a block away at the mall and never think twice about it," downtown jeweler Jack Fulwiler said. "But if they can't park in front of a store downtown, they'll fuss about it. It's a psychological thing."

Some of the problems may be alleviated next fall with the arrival of two trolley buses.

The council is expected to approve bids for the purchase of the buses Thursday. Bus routes may be redrawn so the trolleys can shuttle workers and visitors from parking lots to downtown destinations.
The committee suggested targeting downtown outskirts for future parking lots and studying the feasibility of expanding existing garages.

Fulwiler, who served on the committee, said action should keep downtown parking from becoming more than an annoyance.

"We'll cure the problems before it gets here and gets worse," he said. "With more people coming downtown, there will be more problems. But it's positive to have that problem. You wouldn't want it dead here all the time."