title
CC - (1) Adoption of a Resolution (a) Establishing Specific Locations for the Installation of Parking Meters within the City’s Parking Meter Zones (Including New Meters in the Culver City Arts District on Washington Boulevard between Helms Avenue and Fairfax Avenue and on the Commercial Segments Generally Between the Alley to the South and the City Boundary to the North of All Streets Intersecting Washington Boulevard in the Culver City Arts District), and (b) Rescinding Resolution Number 2014-R081; (2) Direction to the Public Works Director/City Engineer to Install Parking Meters in Such Locations; and (3) Approval of Agreements Authorizing the Purchase of New Parking Meters, Meter Housings, and Services to Install New Meter Posts in the Aggregate Amount Not-to-Exceed $1,010,000.
body
Contact Person/Dept: Gabe Garcia/Public Works
Phone Number: (310) 253-5633
Fiscal Impact: Yes [X] No [] General Fund: Yes [X] No []
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [X] Attachments: Yes [X] No []
Commission Action Required: Yes [] No [X] Date:
Commission Name:
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Meetings and Agendas - City Council (01/21/16)
Department Approval: Charles D. Herbertson, Public Works Director/City
Engineer (01/19/16)
______________________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the City Council (1) adopt a resolution (a) establishing specific locations for the installation of parking meters within the City’s parking meter zones (including new meters in the Culver City Arts District on Washington Boulevard between Helms Avenue and Fairfax Avenue and on the commercial segments generally between the alley to the south and the City boundary to the north of all streets intersecting Washington Boulevard in the Culver City Arts District, and (b) rescinding Resolution Number 2014-R081; (2) direct the Public Works Director/City Engineer to install parking meters in such locations; and (3) approve agreements authorizing the purchase of new parking meters, meter housings, and services to install new meter posts in the aggregate amount not-to-exceed $1,010,000.
BACKGROUND
In January 2011, staff presented to the City Council proposed objectives and policies to guide the future installation of parking meters. The policy direction received from the City Council was to install parking meters adjacent to all business/commercial/ industrial streets, except places of worship, schools, State and Federal government facilities, and residential frontages. In order for staff to install parking meters at specific locations, the explicit authorization from the City Council is still necessary through adoption of a resolution.
Since then, staff has annually installed new parking meters and replaced some existing mechanical meters with smart meters. Approximately 1,000 smart meters have been installed thus far. In continuing the policy direction received from the City Council to install parking meters on all business/commercial/industrial streets, in this report, staff proposes the installation of smart parking meters in the Culver City Arts District (CCAD).
DISCUSSION
Culver City Arts District
Generally, the CCAD is located along Washington Boulevard and is bounded by Helms Avenue to the west and Fairfax Avenue to the east. In the commercial street segments, the CCAD presently has approximately 91 metered parking spaces and approximately 316 unmetered parking spaces (a total of approximately 407 parking spaces).
The existing meters have time restrictions related to the adjacent businesses’ needs, such as 30-minute green curbs, 2-hours, and 10-hours. The meters are in operation Monday through Saturday, from 8 am to 6 pm. All new meter installations are proposed to conform to the same hours of operation.
Staff proposes that all new meter installations on Washington Boulevard be set to a 2-hour time-limit. However, as with previous meter installation projects, staff will work with the nearby businesses to determine the best fit on a block-by-block basis and accommodate the needs of the majority on the block. The rate proposed is $1 per hour, which is the standard rate Citywide, outside of Downtown.
CCAD Side Streets
One hundred fifteen (115) parking spaces are located on the commercial segments of streets intersecting Washington Boulevard, generally between the alley to the south, and the City boundary to the north. The streets to the south are Caroline Avenue, Sherbourne Drive, Cattaraugus Avenue, Fay Avenue, McManus Avenue, Roberts Avenue, Reid Avenue, and Sentney Avenue. The streets to the north are Hutchinson Avenue, Sherbourne Drive, Cattaraugus Avenue, Fay Avenue, McManus Avenue, La Cienega Avenue, Melvil Street, Hargis Street, Comey Avenue, Dauphin, Avenue, Ernest Avenue, and David Avenue.
Staff recommends that these 115 spaces be metered for 10-hour parking to accommodate employee parking demand, at the present rate of $0.25 per hour. This will encourage employee parking on these segments of the side streets and free-up parking spaces on Washington Boulevard for customer and client parking, at the present rate of $1 per hour.
New Meters Outside of the CCAD
Additionally, staff recommends that the City Council approve the installation of new parking meters at two locations not in the CCAD as part of this proposed meter installation project.
National Boulevard
On the west side of National Boulevard, between Wesley Street and Eastham Drive, there a total of approximately 80 parking spaces. Based on staff’s observations, the majority of these spaces are used for employee parking. To accommodate this demand, staff recommends these meters be set to 10-hours at the rate of $0.25 per hour. Some businesses have indicated to staff that they need parking turn-over for client parking, and staff would work with businesses that express this need to accommodate 2-hour or 30-minute parking in their adjacency.
King Fahad Mosque
Recently, the City Council approved the installation of parking meters on Washington Boulevard in the vicinity of the King Fahad Mosque located at 10980 Washington Boulevard. However, in keeping with the City Council’s adopted policy directives, no meters were installed in the adjacency of the mosque. After a few months, the president of the mosque contacted staff to request that meters be installed on their Washington Boulevard adjacency (and subsequently followed up with a written request), because the unmetered parking spaces are always occupied by employees of the businesses in the vicinity, and the mosque members do not have an opportunity to park there. Meters will provide turn-over and the opportunity for the mosque visitors to use the spaces. Staff recommends the approval of the installation of five meters with 2-hour time-limits.
Community Outreach
Community notification prior to installation of the parking meters will be conducted, and when necessary, community meetings may be held to address issues of operation, such as appropriate time-limits for a given block.
Existing Mechanical Meters Change-Over
There are approximately 800 mechanical parking meters installed throughout the City. Staff proposes to phase these out over the next three years to provide the benefits of smart meters to the adjacent businesses. Some of the advantages of smart meters are the ability to accept credit card and smart card payments (like a debit card), reporting operational health and notifying staff when maintenance is needed, and reporting of revenue data and statistics.
Additionally, the City has sold “Cash Keys” which could be loaded with a pre-paid amount of money at City Hall, and these cash keys were used by businesses to feed the mechanical meters through a key-port in these meters. Businesses used these to pay for metered parking for employees and clients, in lieu of keeping a large number of coins available. However, due to a recent upgrade of the City’s computers, the mechanical meter vendor does not support the software used to pre-pay for parking using the Cash Keys, except under an older, unsupported operating system. This has rendered the Cash Keys obsolete and caused inconvenience to some businesses that depend on it.
The following existing mechanical meter locations are recommended for upgrades from the existing mechanical meters to the smart meters:
• Washington Boulevard from Wade Street to Walnut Avenue: approximately 190 meters with 2-hour time-limits - because of past, superseded policies, some parking spaces within this segment are not metered, and staff recommends approval of meter installations in such locations, in compliance with existing policies.
• Transit-Oriented Development vicinity - approximately 31 meters on Robertson Boulevard, between Hoke Avenue and Washington Boulevard, on National Boulevard, between Washington Boulevard and Venice Boulevard, and on Lindblade Street, between Ince Boulevard and Higuera Street.
• Hayden Tract - approximately 73 meters on Eastham Drive, between Warner Drive and Higuera Street, Warner Drive, between Hayden Avenue and Eastham Drive, and Ince Boulevard, between Culver Boulevard and Carson Street, all 10-hour meters. Also in the Hayden Tract, Steller Drive, between Eastham Drive and Higuera Street; and Hayden Avenue, Steller Drive to Warner Drive, 1- and 2-hour meters.
• Fox Hills Neighborhood - approximately 116 meters on Uplander Parkway, between Bristol Parkway and Hannum Avenue, and Hannum Avenue, between Uplander Parkway and Buckingham Parkway.
• Overland Avenue - approximately 39 meters between Culver Boulevard and Washington Boulevard.
• City-owned parking lot - approximately 7 meters located at 3715 Robertson Boulevard.
A total of approximately 456 existing mechanical meters are recommended for replacement with smart meters as part of this project, and no City Council action is required to accomplish this, since these are existing previously-approved meter installations. Again, the other meters will be changed over within the next three years.
Purchase of IPS Smart Meters
Staff recommends that the City Council approve the purchase of 1,000 IPS smart meters, which is the City’s current standard meter, to meet the needs of this proposed project and an additional number for replacements due to repairs, to fill the gap locations on west Washington Boulevard indicated previously, and to keep some in stock to respond to operational needs.
Hours of Operation
Staff recommends that the hours of operation of all parking meters in the CCAD be the standard hours of operation Citywide, outside of Downtown, which are 8 AM to 6 PM, Monday through Saturday -the same hours as the 91 existing meters. A 2-hour time-limit is proposed. However, as with previous meter installation projects, staff will work with the businesses to determine the best fit on a block-by-block basis, and accommodate the needs of the majority on the block. The rate proposed is $1 per hour - the standard rate Citywide, outside of Downtown.
Installation Timeline
Should the City Council authorize the purchase and installation of these parking meters, installation of the meter posts can begin in Spring 2016. Installation of the meters can begin afterwards and is projected to be completed during the latter half of 2016.
Electronic Locks
With the advent of smart meters, it is important to keep other integral systems current with technology. One present deficiency is the key type that is used for accessing the cash boxes in the parking meter housings. The traditional keys are susceptible to being lost. When keys are lost, all parking meters in an entire revenue collection route consisting of approximately 100 meters, are at risk. The solution is to replace all the locks in all the meters that are exposed. This is a costly and time-consuming task.
To avoid this, staff recommends that along with the purchase of new smart meters, a new electronic lock be purchased with the housing units, and that all existing meter housings be retrofitted over time. Electronic locks and their keys are programmable, and the key combination can be changed at an authorized computer in the Police Department’s revenue collection office should an electronic key be lost. Additionally, like smart meters, electronic keys/locks also provide certain advantages. For example, keys are able to open meters only when scheduled, and only open certain meters in a predetermined set or collection route. However, their major benefit is in limiting or eliminating risk when keys are lost.
This proposed parking meter installation project contains the new meter housings with electronic locks and keys. Staff recommends that all existing locks be retrofitted over the next three years, and that all new meter housings purchased have the electronic locks. The electronic locks are part of the housing unit and can be specified when purchasing the new housings. However, for a future retrofit, the meter vendor will need to be hired to perform the retrofit.
Meter Technician
Staff estimates that at the completion of this proposed meter installation project, there will be approximately 2,300 metered parking spaces. The industry standard maintenance workload for one Parking Meter Technician is approximately 1,000 meters. The technology in smart meters has allowed the City to maintain them with only one technician. However, as we increase the number beyond 2,000, staff recommends that the City Council approve a staff enhancement of one Casual, Non-Benefitted, Part-Time (30-hours per week) Parking Meter Technician position to supplement the existing one Full-Time Benefitted Parking Meter Technician, to adequately address parking meter maintenance. Staff will propose this staff enhancement in the upcoming budget process for the City Council’s consideration.
FISCAL ANALYSIS
In 2015, the revenue from the smart meters alone was over $910,000. On average, each new smart parking meter has an annual revenue of approximately $1,000.
Staff estimates that the approximate 316 new metered parking spaces will generate approximately $300,000 in annual revenue, based on 2015 figures. Additionally, staff estimates that the change-out of mechanical meters for new smart meters will also generate more revenue due to the additional payment methods, but we are unable to estimate the amount due to insufficient experience with change-out scenarios.
The project’s costs are as follows:
Item Description Quantity Cost Extension
1 Duncan Model 90S 110 $277.60 $30,536
Parking Meter Housings
2 Duncan Model 90D 220 $524.60 $115,412
Meter Housings
3 Electronic Medeco Locks 330 $281.00 $92,730
& Keys for new Meters
4 Electronic Medeco Locks 456 $281 $128,136
& Keys for existing Meters
5 Set-up and Installation 1000 $20.00 $20,000
6 Meter Post Installation 175 $130.00 $22,750
7 IPS Smart Parking Meters 1000 $495.00 $495,000
8 Freight 1000 $7.50 $7,500
9 Signage 150 $35.00 $5,250
10 Spare Parts 1 $8,000.00 $8,000
Subtotal $925,314.00
9.5% Sales Tax $83,843.58
Total $1,009,157.58
The City has purchased all our existing smart parking meters from IPS Group, Inc. Previously, the meter housings had been purchased from a different vendor, but staff is in the processing of phasing out that vendor and their equipment. Therefore, staff recommends that the meters, housings, and the electronic locks and keys be purchased from IPS Group.
The IPS smart meters communicate wirelessly with network servers for reporting of transaction data, with City meter maintenance, and meter revenue collection staffs, and with credit card processing services. Additionally, a web-based parking meter management software is provided by IPS to manage and run reports. These services represent an on-going cost of approximately $5.76 per meter per month, or $5,760 per month when all 1,000 meters are installed. The annual ongoing costs for these meters when all are installed is anticipated to be $69,120.
Additionally, the City pays two fees to its merchant bank for each credit card transaction: 1) a flat fee of $0.34 per transaction; and 2) a fee of .027 multiplied by the amount of the transaction. The total amount of fees for credit card transactions paid by the City to its merchant bank cannot be accurately projected due to the variation of parking meter payments. However, based on past data, the average fee per parking meter transaction is approximately $0.35.
Competitive Bidding Requirements Do Not Apply
Section 3.07.045.B of the Culver City Municipal Code provides that the requirement for formal competitive bidding does not apply when the equipment: …”Is a component for equipment or a system of equipment previously acquired by the City, and is necessary to repair, maintain or improve the City’s utilization of the equipment.”
Proposed Project Budget, PZ-949, available funds: $1,011,000.
Estimated Project Expenses: $1,009,157.58
There is sufficient funding available in the City Council Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2015/2016 as part of Project PZ-949 New Parking Meter to pay for this project’s proposed agreements and purchases. The on-going costs will be paid from the parking meter operations fund (10160260 - Parking Meter Maintenance), and there is adequate funding to pay for the cost during this fiscal year. The Public Works Department will incorporate the recurring costs and maintenance in future budget requests.
ATTACHMENTS
Proposed Resolution.
RECOMMENDED MOTION(S)
That the City Council:
1. Adopt a resolution establishing specific locations for the installation of parking meters (a) in the Culver City Arts District on Washington Boulevard and the commercial segments of other streets as described in this report and as contained in the attached resolution, (b) on the west side of National Boulevard between Wesley Street and Eastham Drive, and (c) on the south side of Washington Boulevard, adjacent to the King Fahad Mosque; and direct the Public Works Director/City Engineer to install parking meters in such locations, and rescinding Resolution No. 2014-R081; and,
2. Authorize the purchase from IPS Group, Inc., of 330 parking meter housing units (110 model 90S and 220 model 90D), with standard gunmetal gray, with Medeco electronic lock, electronic vault, and large sealed coin box, in an amount not to exceed $366,814, plus sales tax and freight, to be paid from PZ-949 New Parking Meter project;
3. Authorize the purchase from IPS Group, Inc. for the purchase of 1000 new parking meters, setup and installation, spare parts, and freight, in an amount not to exceed $528,250, plus sales tax and freight, to be paid from PZ-949 New Parking Meter project;
4. Approve an agreement with James Oh Construction, to provide and install up to 175 parking meter posts, in an amount not to exceed $22,750, to be paid from PZ-949 New Parking Meter project;
5. Authorize the City Attorney to review/prepare the necessary documents; and
6. Authorize the City Manager to execute such documents on behalf of the City.