Parallel parking plans discussed

PORTSMOUTH — Some city officials are calling for a larger discussion about how Portsmouth regulates parking and how the growing revenue from meters and the city’s parking garage should be spent.

“ I think we need to have a comprehensive look at the policies we put in place relative to parking,” City Councilor Stefany Shaheen said this week. “Including looking at how we manage the revenue.”

Calls for a broader discussion about parking policy comes as city councilors have offered a variety of recent parking plans, and the city seems to be moving closer to settling on a site for a second city-owned parking garage. At the same time, the amount of revenue coming in to the city from parking fees continues to grow.

The city received $3.8 million from parking revenues in fiscal year 2011, according to statistics compiled by City Manager John Bohenko. That jumped to $4.98 million in fiscal year 2014, and is expected to reach $5.4 million in fiscal year 2015, according to city projections. If that estimate proves accurate, the city will have enjoyed a 42 percent increase in its parking revenues in four years.

At the same time, the amount of money the city has taken from parking revenues to use for general fund expenditures has also increased substantially, according to city figures. In fiscal year 2011, the city used $1.5 million from parking revenues for general fund costs and is projected to use $2.4 million during fiscal year 2015, a 55 percent increase, according to the city budget.

The amount of money going toward parking and transportation expenses has increased from $2.2 million in fiscal year 2011 to $3 million in 2015, a 32 percent increase.

Parking fund

Shaheen suggested creating a parking enterprise fund at this week’s City Council meeting. It’s difficult to match parking revenue with parking and transportation costs, she said, because so much of the money ends up being spent on non-parking or non-transportation costs.

“I think we need to look at each carefully, the same way we do with the water and sewer enterprise funds,” Shaheen said.

Bohenko has advocated for creating a parking enterprise fund in the past where the revenues would stay in the fund. But he said this week if the council does create a parking enterprise fund, it should do it over a period of years so the city’s general fund doesn’t lose all the money that now goes toward general fund costs all at once.

Discussion comes as the city continues to try to build a second downtown parking garage and also needs to make repairs to the High-Hanover parking garage.

Asked if she thinks all parking revenues should be focused on just parking and transportation costs, Shaheen said, “I wouldn’t want to say that yet. I’d want to better understand the long-term financial picture.”

City Councilor and former Mayor Eric Spear raised the idea this week of hiking meter rates at the most used spots in the city, extending the meters’ hours and installing meters at the Parrott Avenue parking lot, where people now park for free. His plan could raise more than $1 million each year, which he wants to go to property tax relief, but he withdrew the motion Monday night at this week’s City Council meeting when some councilors questioned which committee he should submit it to.

Spear also believes it’s time for the council to have a larger discussion about parking in the city, particularly when it comes to looking at what city residents pay.

Making the tourists pay

“The council is going to need to sit down and look at parking revenues, and how can we make sure Portsmouth’s downtown is still accessible and affordable for Portsmouth residents,” Spear said. “I’m all for getting the tourists to pay more.”

Spear said he’d like to see the city “maintain the current balance” of splitting the parking revenues between general fund costs – like lowering the tax rate or paying other city expenses – and transportation and parking expenses.

Bohenko projected during fiscal year 2015, which ends June 30, 2015, the city will use $2.4 million or 44 percent of its parking revenues for its general fund, while $3 million or 56 percent of parking revenues will be used for parking and transportation expenses.

This year’s tax rate did not increase as much as it could have because of increased city spending, only because of increased parking revenues, Bohenko has said.

Parking revenues help pay for a variety of related expenses, including snow removal in the downtown and the police officer who works the downtown beat, Spear said. “A lot of people come to Portsmouth and use Portsmouth’s services,” Spear said. “I think they need to support those services.”

Negotiations are continuing with the owner of the Gary’s Beverages property on Deer Street to potentially use that land to build a second parking garage, Bohenko said this week.

A second garage will not only play a huge role in helping alleviate the parking crunch downtown, once it's paid for, it will continue to bring in revenue for all its years of operation, Spear said.

“It acts like an ATM machine,” he said.

This year’s budget projects that the city will receive $1.95 million in revenue from the city's High-Hanover parking garage.

Mayor Robert Lister said Friday he, too, believes the city needs to “have a more extensive conversation about parking.” He credited the council with coming up with some ideas — Councilor Esther Kennedy has also suggested making parking free at meters in the downtown on Sundays in the winter — noting additional revenue can help “offset the tax rate.”

Lister has previously supported free Sunday parking, and noted city residents can already park for free all day Sunday in the garage. However, he believes the city can’t afford to provide free parking at meters on Sundays and build a second parking garage.

“(We) can’t have it both ways,” he said.

A broader conversation about parking should include ways to make sure tourists help pay for city services, while looking for ways to lower parking costs for residents and downtown workers.

Helping residents, workers

“People come to the city and use our city," Lister said. "It shouldn’t be the residents who continually pay for that." The city needs to address that issue “before we start talking about what’s happening with the parking garage,” he added.

It’s likely the city will have to find temporary solutions, like using part of the Port of New Hampshire or the McIntrye Federal Building, for parking while the second garage is being built, Lister said.

Assistant Mayor Jim Splaine said it’s important that at least part of the city’s parking revenues are used to pay for the second garage, do maintenance on the existing garage, and make it more affordable for city residents to visit downtown. He also suggested looking at implementing a 1 or 2 percent local room tax on hotels in the city to raise money, so people who visit the city help pay for city services.

“I’m one of those people who doesn’t have a lot of income so it comes into my mind when I’m visiting the downtown that I have to pay $2 to park downtown and then $2 for a coffee,” Splaine said this week. “That might discourage me from going downtown.”

The debate about parking — and if city residents should be given more free or reduced price parking — highlights what Splaine describes as “two myths about Portsmouth.”

“Most people in this community don’t go downtown frequently despite what people think, unless they really have to go,” Splaine said. “And there’s a lot of people who aren’t very wealthy in the city.”

That’s why it’s important to make downtown parking more affordable for city residents, he said. “People who live in the city and pay taxes on homes they own or rental properties shouldn’t have to worry about the cost of parking downtown,” he said.

Councilor Jack Thorsen believes charging residents for “parking is a tax.” Ideally, the city could try to create a system that only charges parking fees for visitors, and makes parking free to residents, or at least give them “a steep discount.”

But he also warned about charging tourists too much. “At some point, visitors will start seeing Portsmouth as an expensive place to park,” Thorsen said. “When that change in perception happens, we will fall into the trap of being penny-wise and pound-foolish.”

Like other officials, Thorsen also suggested creating a discount for people who work in the downtown. He said any proposal to meter the Parrott Avenue lot should not apply to residents and downtown workers. And he wants to wait untill the second parking garage is operational before making any decisions on parking rates.

“It will also make sense to move the parking passes from the High-Hanover garage to the new facility and open up a greater number of free spaces in the core of the downtown,” Thorsen said.