Girtz on parking fees

As noted last night, the $2.50 per hour fee suggestion is only tied to the proposed Clayton Street parking deck and not necessarily applicable to all of downtown Athens-Clarke County's parking.

Adding further clarification is Athens-Clarke County District District Nine Commissioner Kelly Girtz who, in addition to reiterating that central point, also suggested in an email that a more modest hike is more likely ...

On the issue of parking rates: the $2.50/hr notion assumes that only revenue from the deck is being used to repay the debt. However, the deck will exist as part of the entire inventory of downtown parking options, and should draw from the total pool of revenue for repayment. A $.25 hike in hourly meter fees produces about 500K of annual revenue, while annual debt service on the new deck will be 570K. Thus, if rates rise to $1.00/hr for metered parking (from the current $.50/hr), we would fund debt service on the deck as well as produce additional revenue that could pay for other long-advocated downtown mobility options like a shuttle/bus to move people easily through the area. In addition, debt service on the College Ave. deck will be retired after FY2014, freeing-up about 350K/year.

I want the public to understand that Tuesday's vote will not accept any "assumed" fee structure for parking in the deck or elsewhere. What it would do is create an agreement for use of the space and maintainence responsibilities between ACC, the Athens Downtown Development Authority, and Batson-Cook the developer of the private space, as well as approve the deck design.