AUBURN — With increased monitoring to prevent abuse, Auburn will continue allowing up to two hours of free parking on streets in its downtown area.
Stephanie DeVito, executive director of the Auburn Business Improvement District, kicked off a discussion on downtown parking with Auburn City Council at a meeting earlier this month.
A pandemic-driven program offering two-hour on-street free parking was started by the city with BID's support in late May. It was intended to help bring people into local businesses as establishments were fully reopened from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The city also introduced a program where a parking violator receives a courtesy ticket educating them about a first violation instead of a parking ticket that carries fine, if they haven't gotten a parking meter violation ticket in the last six months.
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DeVito said over 200 businesses in the downtown district were sent a survey asking how they and their customers felt about the parking situation, any suggestions they had and if they'd like to see the two hours of free parking continue. Eighteen businesses responded by that afternoon, including Prison City Pub and Brewery, Rudolph's Sugar Shack, Sam's Shoe Service, VapeKult, Silbert Optical, Cayuga Community Health Network and the Cayuga County Clerk's Office.
Auburn City Councilors, the head of traffic enforcement for the Auburn Police Department and the executive director of the Downtown Auburn Business Improvement District discussed the city's two-hour free parking program during a Dec. 9 meeting.
DeVito read off comments from the respondents and noted that business owners said their customers love the two hours of free parking. She also said a common concern from business owners was that they feel monitoring of the spots was needed became some drivers were continually parking in the same spots in front of businesses all day.
"I do rounds three times a day. I do see that that is a concern. I can definitely see vehicles sitting there all day and if they're not in one spot for three or four hours, then they've moved four or five spots down the street and sit there the rest of the day," DeVito said.
She later said that all 18 respondents are in in favor of the two-hour free parking "if there was monitoring" so people weren't parked in the same spots all day.
Around six years ago, DeVito spoke to downtown business about getting owners and employees out of street parking spots so more customers could park there. DeVito noted that many of those employees were paying the parking meters but she argued that employees of downtown businesses shouldn't be taking the "prime spot" in front of those establishments so customers couldn't get to them. She said most employees stopped taking those spots initially.
"A lot of things have changed over the years, so some folks have slid back into their old habits whereas others have really took hold of that and held true to helping us out with that," DeVito said.
BID plans to visit businesses about that issue again with the two-hour free parking program continues.
Sgt. Greg Gilfus, the traffic coordinator for the Auburn Police Department, said the department's enforcement program isn't set up to monitor two hours of free parking, but software efficiently tracking that could be purchased. Buying such software would be a one-time cost of $4,000, he said.
Gilfus said the courtesy ticket program has been going well, and he also shared feedback on the two-hour parking initiative that he received from his personnel.
"The atmosphere downtown from the two-hour parking is much better. They feel the people, the customers, everybody seems to be a little less on edge about parking and if they're going to get a ticket or not," he said.
In a presentation on parking, which is available on the city's website, parking fees and tickets from May 28, 2018, to Nov 1, 2018, were shown along with fees and tickets from that same time period in 2021.
Data from 2020 was not included because of the impact of the pandemic business shutdown, and in 2019, the enforcement program was shortstaffed.
Ticket revenue dropped by $40,745 this year. The difference in the amount of money collected from meters and kiosks for those same period was $82,936, with $86,316 collected in 2018 and $3,379 in 2021.
Gilfus mentioned that the parking meters and kiosks on the streets wouldn't be needed anymore due to the two-hour free parking, and noted people use the meters to judge where the parking spots are, so painting and other factors would need to be taken care of. He said there would need to be a system to mark all of the parking stalls as well.
Councilor Jimmy Giannettino suggested giving Gilfus and parking enforcement enough time to get the new software set up and after that, revisit the parking issue in six months and evaluate if the new parking enforcement works.
"I don't know that we should make a long-term decision until we have an enforcement process in place and we can make sure it works," he said.
The possibility of revisiting penalties to deter people from abusing the two-hour parking system came up as well. Gilfus said the fines in the city are not as high compared to other cities "and that may be a part of our problem." DeVito also advocated for a "monetary enforcement" for some sort.
Gilfus said it "shouldn't take us more than a month or two" to get the software and ways to effectively address the parking enforcement up and running. Because the consensus reached at the meeting was to revisit the issue in about six months, parking meters and kiosks will remain in place for now.
Speaking with The Citizen Friday, City Manager Jeff Dygert said the APD will be buying the new software, and that $4,000 would come from the department's operating budget. He said he believes it is important to efficiently monitor the free two-hour parking system.
"We want to be able to do a better job of monitoring because there are people abusing it," Dygert said. "And right now it's difficult to enforce so with the software we'll be able to enforce that and hold some of those folks that are abusing it accountable."
Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau.
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