ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: March 16, 2001
Author/Local: RGM/7347

RTS No. 01981

CC File No. 5654

Council: April 10, 2001

TO:	Vancouver City Council
FROM:	General Manager of Engineering Services in consultation with the Director of Finance
SUBJECT:	Review of Parking Meter Program - Capital Improvements and Meter Rate Changes

RECOMMENDATION

A) THAT Council approve a two year parking meter replacement program as outlined in this report at an estimated cost of $1,442,000; source of funding to be the Reserve Meter Fund ($360,000) and from increased parking meter revenues ($1,082,000) as detailed in the report.

B) THAT Council approve parking meter rate changes detailed in Appendix A, and THAT the Director of Legal Services bring forward the necessary By-law changes to reflect the parking meter rate changes.

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The General Manager of Engineering Services RECOMMENDS A and B.

POLICY

Council policy is to provide parking meters to improve street use, with the support of local businesses.

Council policy is to set parking meter rates to reflect market rates and to encourage turnover in street parking.

PURPOSE

This report reviews the City's parking meter operations and recommends continuation of themeter replacement program. The report also recommends selected meter rate changes to better reflect market conditions.

BACKGROUND

Parking meters provide a service to the public and to the business community. They are popular, and revenues have grown steadily. In 2000 the gross revenue after GST was over $14,000,000. This revenue, after roughly 10% in operating costs, goes to the City's revenue budget and reduces taxes.

In June 1996, Council dealt with a report on On-Street parking control equipment and approved the following motions.

THAT Engineering Services continue its ongoing review of on-street parking equipment options to insure that the technology used by the City of Vancouver provides the best value for the citizens of the City. Currently electronic parking meters provide the best value with the potential for future use of debit card technologies.

Since 1996 the City has invested in meter security by upgrading meter casings and locking mechanisms. In addition, the mechanisms in 2600 of the City's 6,600 meters have been converted to electronic mechanisms. These new add a significant degree of security to the City's parking meter operations as well as providing a high level reliability of timing accuracy and less expensive maintenance. In addition, these mechanism provide the City with the opportunity to take advantage of smart card technology.

PROPOSED PARKING METER REPLACEMENT/ PURCHASE

The parking meter program is a large City business unit and attention is needed to ensure it provides good service and value for the public. The City's parking control equipment is generally functioning well; however, some of the City's older mechanical equipment is at the end of its life, and the other mechanical mechanisms do not have the reliability of the electronic mechanisms and have higher levels of maintenance and malfunctions.

The City still has 4000 mechanical parking meters. In order to continue the replacement and upgrading program, it is proposed to replace 1,000 of these meters in 2001 and the remaining 3,000 mechanical meters in 2002 with new electronic meters. The mechanical meters have higher maintenance costs than electronic meters and do not have the electronic meter's flexibility. Moreover, from a financial perspective, there is a good business case to replace these mechanisms.

With the purchase of more electronic parking meters the City would be in a position to take advantage of a smart card technology being developed by the financial services industry. The various card options have been discussed with different groups including the banks, Translink, Telus and other card vendors. While more discussion is required before a card is considered, the proposed equipment upgrades will not preclude any particular option. This will be reported on later this year.

The recommended replacement/purchase of parking meter equipment in 2001 is estimated to be $692,000 and in 2002 is estimated to be $750,000 as outlined below.

Replace/Purchase in 2001
Replace 1000 mechanical mechanisms which are at the end of their life @ $220		$220,000
Replace 650 meter housings @ $440		$286,000
Replace 180 single meter housings @$240		$43,000
Upgrade meter programing for 1600 electronic mechanisms @ $30		$48,000
Purchase hardware to retrofit 1000 electronic mechanisms @ 40		$40,000
Purchase 1000 meter locks@ 35		$35,000
Parts and labour for meter rate change		$20,000
Total estimated costs in 2001		$692,000

Replace/Purchase in 2002
Replace 3000 mechanical mechanisms near end of life @ $250		$750,000

Funding for the 2001 replacement program can be provided from the Parking Meter Replacement Reserve ($360,000) and from the additional revenues to be generated from the propose meter rate adjustments recommended in this report. Funding for the 2002 portion of the program would be provided by allocating a portion of the additional revenues to be generated in 2002. In addition $185,000 annually will be set aside starting in 2002 to completely fund future replacements.

PARKING OPERATIONS

The parking operations consists of two groups - the coin collection and meter maintenance groups - that have recently been combined into Parking Operations. However, physically, the groups continue to operate at separate locations, with marking meter maintenance in the Cambie yards and coin collections in temporary accommodation at 456 W. Broadway. With the development of the new works yard, these operations will be consolidated into a single facility.

The new Parking Operations facility will consist of approximately 400 m² of building for a meter repairs and testing shop, secured meter storage, coin cart storage, offices, crew dispatch and ancillary facilities. A secured parking area will also be built within the yard for the overnight parking of the vehicle fleet. The Parking Operations facility will be located within the new works yard and will share overall site development, security, showers, meeting room space, and stores receiving.

The cost of the Parking facility is estimated at $1,012,000. Funding for the yard development is being finalized and the details of this relocation and the development of the City works yards will be presented in a separate report of the General Manager of Engineering Services.

METER RATE CHANGES

Council policy is that parking meter rates reflect off street rates to minimize circulating traffic, and that they be set to provide short term parking for area visitors. A balanced rate between parking meters and off-street parking increases the availability of on-street parking spaces. This reduces the long-term parking usage of the meters, typically by employees, and reduces the traffic congestion created by people looking for parking spaces.

Short term parking meter rates are generally the same as or lower than off-street parking rates, however, over longer periods, rates are intended to be higher than off-street parking alternatives to encourage turnover. It is proposed that parking meter rates be changed over the next two year period. The proposed rate changes are detailed in Appendix A. The average meter rate would increase to $1.43/hr. in 2001 and $1.50/hr. in 2002 compared with the present average meter rate of $1.36/hr.

The proposed rate changes have been discussed with a number of the affected areas. Generally there is support for market pricing of the parking, and both the Yaletown and Gastown areas support the proposed changes. The South Granville area expressed some concern for the change this year so it has been deferred to 2002.

It is recommended that parking meter rates be adjusted as noted in Appendix A and shown on Appendix B1, B2, B3 and B4. These recommended rate changes are estimated to increase parking meter revenues by approximately $400,000 in 2001 and $1,000,000 in 2002

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APPENDIX A --- Proposed Parking Meter Rate Changes - March 2001

		Existing Rates	Proposed Rates 2001	Proposed Rates 2002
Downtown area
	Central Core	$1.50	$2.00	No Change
		$2.00	No Change	No Change
		$3.00	No Change	No Change
	Downtown South	$1.00	No Change	$1.50
	Downtown/Stadium	$1.00/$1.50	$1.50	No Change
	Robson Street	$1.50	No Change	No Change
		$2.00	No Change	No Change
	Coal Harbour	$1.00	No Change	$1.50
	Denman Street	$1.50	No Change	No Change
	Davie Street	$1.50	No Change	No Change
	Gastown	$1.00	$1.50	No Change
	Chinatown	$1.00/$1.50	No Change	No Change
	Yaletown	$1.50	$2.00	No Change
Broadway Area
	West Broadway	$1.00/$1.50	$1.50/$2.00	No Change
	VGH	$1.50	No Change	$2.00
	South Granville	$1.00	No Change	$1.50
	Burrard Slopes	$1.00	No Change	No Change
	Main Street	$1.00	No Change	No Change
	Cambie Street	$1.00	No Change	No Change
Kerrisdale		$1.00	No Change	No Change
Commercial Dr		$1.00	No Change	No Change

Total number of meter spaces - 6700 Average meter rate now - $1.36
Number rate changes 2001 - 900 Average rate 2001 - $1.43 - +5%
Number rate changes 2002 - 700 Average rate 2002 - $1.48 - +3%

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(c) 1998 City of Vancouver