Altoona officials have been searching city files to locate ordinances that support the Altoona Parking Authority’s right to enforce parking regulations on the streets, at the request of Metropolis, the firm the authority hired recently to manage parking in the downtown.

Metropolis made the request to ensure that it is on solid footing in enforcing the on-street parking requirements as the designated management agency for the authority.

“I’m pretty sure it exists,” authority Chairwoman Sherri McGregor said this week of such an ordinance.

The effort to locate the ordinance is part of a broader plan to collect various ordinances related to downtown parking in order to consolidate all pertinent requirements into a single ordinance, according to McGregor.

One ordinance that has been located mandates that between 12th and 17th streets and 11th and 12th avenues there should be a maximum of two hours free parking per vehicle per day, officials said.

But it doesn’t clearly specify what agency is responsible for enforcing those directives, according to McGregor.

State law gives municipalities the power to create parking authorities that can unilaterally set reasonable fees for their off-street parking facilities, but the municipalities themselves must set the fees for on-street parking, according to McGregor.

The city is hoping to preserve access to a small parking lot on the 1200 block of 15th Street, owned by Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. The authority has leased that lot, month-by-month, for years, but it is being sold to a family that lives nearby, with a closing scheduled soon.

The sale will result in “the cancellation of all leases,” the resident told board members.

The family bought the lot to preserve its access to parking, on the expectation that otherwise, the family would have a harder time finding parking on the street, given recent expansion of a neighboring apartment house, according to Metropolis office manager Nadine Miller.

Once the closing happens, the city will seek to renew its lease with the new owner, according to McGregor.

The spaces in that lot have been designated in recent times for Penn State Altoona students.

Working out the kinks

Metropolis is continuing to write $5 tickets for parking violations, but would like to be able to raise the fine to $20, because $5 provides insufficient deterrence against drivers parking illegally, according to Metropolis senior manager Jessica Bilko.

Too many drivers — including students and downtown employees — consider $5 a satisfactory price to pay for being able to park in places that businesses would like to remain available for short-stay customers, officials said.

In addition, Metropolis would like to move ticketing to its electronic system, which would make it less time-consuming for employees and better for tracking repeat offenders, according to Bilko.

One downtown proprietor has been pushing for free parking spaces for its patrons — a push that authority officials are resisting, based on its not being fair to other proprietors who are paying for spaces.

Spaces can be reserved through monthly rentals or paid for by validation, with patrons presenting electronic tickets to proprietors, who process those tickets, so that the proprietor pays a discounted amount to Metropolis.

It would be ideal if the issues discussed at the meeting are settled before students begin arriving downtown toward the end of the month, officials said.

The authority controls 720 off-street spaces in its garage and its five surface lots.

Of those, 573 are leased to monthly parkers, while 147 are available for transient or daily parking for customers, patients and others, Bilko said.

Most available spaces are in the garage, which many drivers avoid if they can find spaces on the street or in a surface lot.

An expert who examined the elevator shaft and nearby stairwell in the corner of the parking garage closest to the intersection of 13th Street and 11th Avenue determined that cracks noticed there by a workman are not a symptom of structural damage, officials said.

The city provided the authority $165,000 to use for Metropolis technology that hasn’t been put fully into place yet.

Metropolis pays the salaries of its workers and other operational costs out of the income from parking operations.

Metropolis receives $18,000 a year in management fees from the authority, an amount that is set to rise 3% per year; and also 5% of operational profits realized on gross revenues beyond $317,000 a year.

The authority covers the cost of Metropolis transactions for individuals using the parking system — $4.99 per month for each monthly customer or 3% of the amounts involved in those transactions, whichever is greater, so that Metropolis doesn’t pass that cost on to customers.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.