The Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board will consider raising rates in almost every area of downtown parking at their monthly meeting today – part of a long-term plan designed to help fund another city parking deck.

Faced with both a reduction in surface parking due to multiple new commercial and housing developments and increased demand from a skyrocketing number of visitors, DDA staff have compiled a 2015-2018 parking plan that would significantly increase parking system revenues in order to develop more facilities.

The DDA is “pursuing the purchase of land for a west side parking deck,” according to the report – but diminishing availability of tax increment financing (TIF) funds means the city must look to other funding mechanisms for the project.

“We have to rely on something else, and the logical (choice) is the parking system fund,” says DDA Executive Director Rob Bacigalupi. “Parking (revenues) won't completely pay for a deck...but we want to get them closer to where they could help.”

Bacigalpui says market considerations also support the recommended increases, which include higher hourly meter rates (60 cents to $1 for most downtown spaces), daily bagged meter fees ($10 to $15), event rates ($6 to $10) and parking violation fines ($15 to $20-$30 for many offenses). Urban planning best practices call for setting parking fees in such a way as to achieve a 80-90 percent capacity usage; any less and the city is under-utilizing its parking, any more and users become frustrated and thwarted in their attempts to find parking. Numerous Traverse City lots are beyond 90 percent capacity during peak tourist season.

Compounding the summer stress, points out Bacigalupi, is the fact many of the city's prime beach-adjacent parking spots are free to use. Staff will recommend today adding some of those lots – such as West End and Bryant Park – to the city's parking system via meters or pay stations. Frequent users could choose to purchase a seasonal beach permit for $10.

While raising parking rates is rarely a popular move among residents, the DDA's parking plan outlines several ways in which services would be improved and the parking infrastructure enhanced as a result of higher revenues. In addition to the long-term goal of constructing another downtown deck, the plan calls for offering amenities including additional bike racks and shelters, online services (including auto-renewals for permits, citation appeals and reservations for event parking), credit card-accepting meters, flexible parking spaces that can be customized to users' needs and 24-7 accessible decks.

Other recommended changes offer trade-offs for parkers: Staff want to limit free evening and weekend parking in the Larry C. Hardy Parking Deck to the holiday season only (the day after Thanksgiving through January 7), but also seek to expand the program to include the Old Town Parking Deck. Surface and garage permit parking is similarly balanced: quarterly and annual rates are recommended to increase, but monthly rates would drop under the new fee structure.

Bacigalupi says he is expecting “lots of feedback” on the proposed new parking plan at today's meeting. Since the recommended changes also have to go through the city commission, the executive director anticipates some ideas could be implemented “more quickly than others.”

“Right now it's a proposal, so this is the starting point,” he says. “It's going to take some time to go through the process."