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A Dallas-based firm will put together a formal proposal for management of parking in downtown Altoona, following an introductory presentation this week to the Altoona Parking Authority.
The authority invited Platinum Parking to make the presentation after a company official with local origins reached out to offer help as the authority grapples with the upcoming retirement of its office manager and with choosing and installing parking technology, as recommended in a recent study.
The authority and city are "in the investigatory stages," prior to floating a request for additional proposals for technology hardware and perhaps management services, according to City Manager Omar Strohm, speaking at a City Council meeting this week.
Now that the study is done, the city and authority want to ensure they make the right moves, so that a lack of parking capacity doesn't inhibit additional development, so the technology they buy isn't quickly obsolete, so the system they devise generates enough revenue to keep the burden light on government and so parking remains convenient and affordable, according to authority member Steve McKnight, CEO of Altoona Blair County Development Corp., and authority Chairwoman Sherri McGregor.
"We want to keep investment moving and not make parking a pause point," McKnight said.
There have not been as many complaints about parking issues recently, although the red-tagged closure of the privately owned Gables building garage has resulted in things tightening up, officials said.
The coming addition of housing units will also create a type of parking need that differs somewhat from the more familiar commercial parking needs, because it's more round-the-clock, one official said.
Whatever changes take place, there is bound to be disruption, given that people "inherently don't like change," said Platinum Regional Vice President Bradford Lang, whose office is in Cleveland.
"I don't see how you don't make people upset," Lang said.
Restrictions on the amount of free parking available downtown could end up being among those disruptions.
Currently there is free parking for one, two and three hours, depending on location.
Free parking is not really free, according to Lang.
There's always a cost connected with providing and maintaining spaces and with using them, with one or more entities paying that cost -- whether the driver, businesses or taxpayers, Lang said.
Taxpayers pay for street construction and maintenance and for municipal lots; drivers may need to pay fees at meters or for leased spaces; and businesses may pay for their parking lots, or by leasing municipal spaces or covering customer parking charges through validation. Businesses also pay by losing customers when nearby street or lot spaces are occupied by
non-customers, including their own employees, Lang said.
There should always be a "barrier" for drivers using spaces, no matter how small the barrier, Lang said.
While the city is interested in Platinum's ideas and its upcoming proposal, officials at this point don't plan to eliminate no-cost parking for visitors downtown, McGregor said after the meeting.
The city could, however, ratchet down the free time allotted to one or two hours, McGregor said, conceding that being able to pull into a spot without paying has become an ingrained expectation in this area.
Evidence shows that third-party management is effective for municipal parking arrangements, according to Lang.
It pays to hire a firm that specializes, he said.
Hiring Platinum would mean that people connected with the firm would be working locally, backed by "a network of people behind them," said Mike Rickard, Platinum Area Manager in St. Petersburg, Fla., and former owner of an 11th Avenue business.
Hiring Platinum would also mean that the city would be kept abreast of best practices, Lang said.
A key advantage would be access to data gathered by the company that could help inform a variety of parking-related decisions.
Platinum is not tied to any particular technology firm and chooses equipment that best fits particular clients, he said.
The firm has about 550 locations in the U.S., most of which involve private clients, and more than 70 locations in Canada, Lang said.
"We want to be sure we're working with someone who knows what they're doing," McKnight said.
Mirror Staff Writer William
Kibler is at 814-949-7038.