City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
Meeting Date: 03/23/15 Item Number: A-2
CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM: Adoption of a Resolution (1) Establishing Parking
Meter Fees (Including a New Parking Meter Rate of $0.75 for 15 Minutes), the Time
Period Covered by Such Fees, the Time of Operation for the Parking Meter
Locations, and (2) Rescinding Resolution Number 2013-R063.
Contact Person/Dept.: Gabe Garcia/PW Phone Number: (310) 253-5633
Fiscal Impact: Yes [X] No [] General Fund: Yes [X] No []
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [X] Attachments: [X]
Commission Action Required: Yes [] No [X] Date: _______________
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Meetings and Agendas – City Council (03/18/15); (E-Mail)
Downtown Business Association (03/18/15); (E-Mail) Chamber of Commerce (03/18/15);
(Courtesy Notice Advertisement) Culver City News (03/19/15).
Department Approval:
Charles D. Herbertson (03/12/15)
City Attorney Approval:
Carol Schwab (by H. Baker) (03/16/13)
Chief Financial Officer Approval:
Jeff Muir (by M. Noller) (03/17/15)
City Manager Approval:
John M. Nachbar (03/18/15)
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt a resolution (1) establishing parking
meter fees (including a new parking meter rate of $0.75 for 15 minutes), the time
period covered by such fees, the time of operation for the parking meter locations,
and (2) rescinding Resolution No. 2013-R063.
BACKGROUND:
The Downtown Business Association (DBA) has recommended that, in the interest
of the downtown restaurants and service to their patrons, a certain number of
parking spaces be available for restaurant patrons to park for short periods of time in
order to pick-up food previously ordered. The DBA has requested that the City
Council consider converting six parking spaces, strategically situated throughout the
Downtown area, from the existing 2-hour time limit to a 15-minute time limit.
DISCUSSION:
Staff has reviewed the DBA’s proposal and determined that it is appropriate to
support the request for short-time parking time limits as well as the locations of the
six parking spaces. The original request from the DBA was for seven parking
spaces, but staff recommends only six spaces at this time and expanding to the
seventh space in the future, if the need is substantiated.
City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
During the review process, staff made random observations of the parking turnover
at the proposed parking spaces. It was staff’s conclusion that due to the popularity
of Downtown restaurants, the parking spaces proposed by the DBA are infrequently
available, and the time limit of 15 minutes will contribute to these spaces’ availability
for food pick-up.
In determining the appropriate rate for 15-minutes, staff considered the following
criteria: 1) the meter transactions need to cover the cost of third-party fees that the
City pays to its vendors and merchant bank; and 2) a rate that would discourage
general Downtown patrons from occupying these spaces intended for food pick-up.
Staff proposes that $0.75 for 15 minutes would meet the above criteria. (The City
pays approximately $0.36 per credit card transaction to various vendors in the
handling of each transaction.) This rate is likely to discourage most general
Downtown patrons from parking in these food pick-up parking spaces, since the rate,
if extended to one hour ($3 per hour), would be double the cost of parking at 2-hour
parking meters. Signs at these six parking spaces would provide notice to the
motoring public that these spaces are for food pick-up, but such signage is not
legally enforceable.
Any parking patron paying with coins would be able to purchase 5-minutes for $0.25,
10-minutes for $0.50, and 15-minutes for $0.75. While a patron paying with credit
card would need to purchase a minimum of 10-minutes for $0.50 in order to cover
the credit card fees charged by third party service providers. The proposed six 15-
minute parking spaces would be metered during the same hours as all the meters
Citywide: 8 am to 6 pm, Monday through Saturday. The DBA supports the
proposed meter rate and time-limit.
Staff discussed the potential 15-minute parking time limit with the two manufacturers
of the existing meters in the Downtown area (IPS Group and Duncan Parking)—
three of the parking spaces are currently managed by IPS individual parking meters,
and the other three by Duncan multi-space meters. Staff determined that the
existing meter technology is capable of accommodating this new configuration.
In discussing the operations and enforcement of these six parking meters with the
Police Department, it was collectively determined that each of these parking spaces
should be equipped with a parking meter sensor. The sensors would prevent adding
time to the meters exceeding 15 minutes. The car will have to vacate the parking
space before the meter will accept additional payment.
Additionally, a 10-minute time limit was considered, but on advice of the Police
Department, this was changed to 15-minutes, with consensus from the DBA. The
shorter time-limit would have set unrealistic expectations for enforcement.
Enforcement of the 15-minute time-limit will be on the same cycle as enforcement of
the general Downtown parking meters. City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
FISCAL ANALYSIS:
Should the City Council adopt this new rate, staff is able to implement the change to
the IPS meters. However, the configuration of the Duncan multi-space meters would
need to be performed by Duncan. The cost for such configuration would be
absorbed in existing appropriations.
Staff expects that the change from 2-hour parking time limits to 15-minute time limits
for a relatively small number of meters will not result in a significant change in
parking meter revenue.
The cost for the parking meter sensors would be as follows:
QTY DESCRIPTION COST EXTENSION
6 In-ground sensors $225 $1,350
6 Freight 15 90
6 Installation* 40 240
TOTAL $280 $1,680
*Estimate
Additionally, there would be an ongoing monthly fee of $6.25 per sensor. There is
adequate funding in the City Council Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2014/2015 to
cover the cost for the sensors, signage, parking meter configurations, and ongoing
fees.
ATTACHMENT:
1. Proposed Resolution
2. Letter of Support from the DBA
MOTION:
That the City Council:
Adopt a resolution establishing parking meter fees (including a new parking
meter rate of $0.75 for 15 minutes), the time period covered by such fees, the
time of operation for the parking meter locations, and rescinding Resolution No.
2013-R063.
Culver City Downtown Business Association I PO Box 1322 I Culver City, CA 90232 I 310-202-6060
March 10, 2015
Gabe Garcia
Traffic Engineering Analyst
Culver City
Dear Gabe:
The Board of Directors of the Culver City Downtown Business Association would like to
request a change to seven of the currently metered parking spaces in downtown, from
regular metered parking to 15 minute parking spaces. These spaces would be for
customers picking up to-go orders etc., alleviating the need to find street or garage
parking, and thereby improving the flow of traffic as well as our parking inventory. We
understand that there will be a need to change the parking cost to 75¢ per 15 minutes to
cover parking and credit card costs, and to assure the spaces are used as intended.
The Parking Project Team has determined which spaces would best serve our needs:
? CC 45 & CC 46 (on Culver near Starbucks)
? CO 34 & CO 33 (on Cardiff near Ugo)
? DA 01 (on Irving close to Washington)
? Main St- 18 & 29 – (in front of BottleRock & in front of Public School)
We appreciate your consideration of this request.
Sincerely,
Eric Sims, President
Culver City Downtown Business Association