by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
In August 2000, Mayor John Delaney asked the Downtown Development Authority to form the Downtown Parking Task Force. Later that month, DDA member Bob Rhodes chaired the first Task Force meeting that featured a mix of civic leaders and downtown businessmen.
The group’s charge? Look at every aspect of downtown parking, both good and bad, and produce a comprehensive study of the issue and make recommendations as to how to solve one of downtown’s biggest problems for workers, businesses and visitors.
Six meetings later, on April 4, 2001, the Task Force delivered a 38-page summary of their findings, complete with short-term, mid-term and long-term recommendations, maps and analyses comparing Jacksonville to several other cities and their parking conditions to include available spaces, rates and parking fine levels.
Based on comments voiced by a few downtown business owners at Wednesday’s DDA meeting, there is growing concern that the recommendations the Task Force spent months compiling have yet to be implemented. The frustration stems from the fact that a majority of the recommendations are of the short-term — 0-6 months — variety. Meaning, they were supposed to be addressed and implemented between March and October of last year.
Among the short-term recommendations were: raising the parking rates in City-owned, central civic core parking structures for the purpose of indirectly forcing downtown workers to use peripheral lots and ride the Skyway into downtown; the building of two new public parking structures to accommodate a 2,500-space shortfall; expansion of the Trolley service to include some north-south routes; and increasing the parking fines to make meter-feeding and ignorance of expired meters less attractive.
Patricia Vail, who runs the Legal Aid Association on West Adams Street, said her 65 employees are all accounted for, parking-wise. The problem is her clients, many of whom are very poor and/or speak very little English.
“Often, they circle and circle until they find on-street parking,” said Vail, who, like the rest in her office, uses the First Baptist parking garage and walks six blocks to work. “Most of the meters only allow for an hour. We find them looking at their watches and running outside to put money in the meter. Many of our clients are refugees and it’s hard to explain to them they need to bring change.”
Vail’s contention is that there isn’t any foresight concerning the parking situation, especially as construction projects attract more and more workers downtown.
“The problem is the surface lots were closed before other parking was provided. I am really surprised that there isn’t more of a grasp on the issue as much as it’s discussed,” said Vail, who addressed the DDA board Wednesday but left without definite answers. “What this did, I think, is show that there is more confusion than ever.”
Rhodes acknowledged that parking is a contentious issue that may never be solved to the satisfaction of everyone. One short-term recommendation that has been addressed is the issue of construction parking. With several large-scale projects currently underway, finding unobtrusive parking for hundreds of construction workers was an immediate priority that was handled. Rhodes views that issue as one of the easier recommendations his Task Force handed down.
“Let’s just say the low fruit has been picked and now we have to stretch to get the tougher recommendations considered,” said Rhodes. “We had a long list of recommendations. Are they controversial? Yes.”
According to a report card compiled on the Parking Task Force’s recommendations, several of the short-term issues have been tackled, a few are pending and several have not been addressed at all. Two items that seem to go hand-in-hand may be the toughest of all the recommendations to get accomplished simply because so many elements have to come together. Raising the rates at City-owned parking facilities while getting the rates at the Kings Avenue garage — which is controlled by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority —may be the trick of the year.
“That recommendation came down to one specific facility, the Yates Building parking garage,” said Jason Thiel, project manager for the DDA and the staff member assigned to the Task Force. “That is owned and operated by the public parking division of the City and any rate changes will have to go through City Council. Kings Avenue is operated by JTA and they would have to approve a rate reduction.
“Both are real issues and they impact the bottom line. Those people are going to have a say in what happens and some people are not going to be too happy. It’s not that simple to change.”
Thiel said that issue alone may have directly stalled the implementation of the rest of the Task Force’s recommendations.
“The increased rates at City-owned facilities recommendation garnered quite a bit of attention and it hampered the recommendations overall,” said Thiel. “When you have a lot of recommendations, it’s hard to have them all considered.”
City Council vice president Suzanne Jenkins was a member of the Task Force. She believes part of the problem now is there isn’t someone to bridge the gap between the Task Force and the other City entities that must approve any recommendations.
“They have not been looked at by anyone to take them and make them reality,” said Jenkins. “I guess people don’t want to deal with parking. I’d like the Parking Task Force to make a presentation to TEE [the City Council Transportation, Environment & Energy committee]. I think it would be helpful for the committee to hear from the DDA. I don’t have all the answers. We really need to tackle this issue and it looks like it’s going to be me [that gets the ball rolling] by default. If I have to do it, I’ll be glad to. I’ll go to Elaine [Brown, chairman of TEE] and tell her that I’ll make the presentation.”
Jenkins said the single biggest issue concerning downtown parking isn’t necessarily the lack of spaces available in the central core district but rather the abundance of parking on the peripheral of downtown.
“We’ve got to change the mind set on fringe parking,” said Jenkins, alluding to garages on the Southbank, the Trolley lot and the Skyway lots. “Do we want downtown to be nothing but parking? Or, do we want our downtown to be restaurants and businesses? That, to me, is our first issue. We have to look at downtown in 20 years and change the public’s perception of fringe parking.
“But, don’t forget the high-heel factor. People tend to forget the high-heel factor. Professional women who have to wear high-heels don’t always want to wear tennis shoes so they can walk to work, but they may have to.”