WESTFIELD – The Legislative and Ordinance Committee (L&O) will present a parking ordinance amendment to the full City Council following a discussion with the officials of the Off-street Parking Committee last night.
The parking ordinance requires landlords to provide at least one parking space per residential unit in the C.O.R.E. district, but also provides a waiver process which allow the landlord to pay a one-time fee of $2,500 per space for an exemption from that requirement.
The parking and wavier issue is addressed in Section 3-100.5, paragraph 3, lines 3A, 3B, 3C. 3D and 3E.
Line 3B states that: “Notwithstanding 3(a) above, and where not otherwise indicated in this Article, a payment of $2,500.00 for each of the required
parking spaces not provided into a municipal fund dedicated to addressing the parking demand in the CORE District shall be allowed by right to satisfy zoning requirements. (12/6/2012)
The problem is that the ordinance also created a “special account” controlled by the City Council to hold that money for acquisition of new parking, money that parking officials could use to maintain and improve the existing off-street parking facilities.
Off-street parking administrator Denise Carey said that the fund has not collected sufficient revenue to increase the city’s off-street inventory of parking and that the money would better serve the public if used for maintenance of the existing lot.
There is already a revolving fund for parking permit fees and parking meters in the Franklin Street lot which generates between $16,000 and $20,000 a year, money used for sweeping, painting space lines, rubbish disposal and pruning trees.
Off-street Parking Commission member Brian Hoose said the mission of the parking board is to “have as much good parking, and maintained in good shape for downtown residents, businesses and stores as possible.”
The ordinance language prohibits the use of the wavier fees for that goal.
L&O Chairman Christopher Keefe said the “original intent of the ordinance was to build up the fund, but I wonder how many years would have to pass to build up the fund before the city could buy land for (additional) parking?”
Keefe said the fund is “collecting money from people who then are using existing spaces, but is not doing anything to add parking to make up for those used spaces.”
“It may be more expeditious for that money to go to the commission for maintenance,” Keefe said.
Community Development Director Peter J. Miller Jr., said that there is interest in creating additional housing downtown where available private parking is extremely limited.
“There’s going to be other projects. People will have to pay into this fund,” Miller said, adding that industry projections estimate the cost of additional parking at $20,000 per space, with the wavier fee accounting for about 10 percent of that cost.
L&O members James R. Adams suggested an amendment to the existing ordinance that would divert wavier fees to the Off-street Parking Commission, but with a limit.
“We could always cap that account if a big chunk (of money) came in some day (connected with a major building conversion to residential use),” Adams said.
The committee voted 3-0 to recommend the amendment with a cap of $25,000 to the City Council.
