Despite having commissioned a consultant’s downtown parking study in 2022 and having hired a company last year to manage parking in the downtown, the city may hire another consultant to take an overall look at the situation.

The new plan came to light at a Parking Authority meeting Tuesday, after board member and Mayor Matt Pacifico expressed several concerns with the current parking situation, leading to postponement of street parking enforcement, which had been expected to be in effect by now, after City Council’s recent passage of an ordinance that allows the authority to conduct such enforcement.

The concerns include distrust about the results of the prior study; concerns about non-uniform rules for street parking in the downtown; concern among residents and businesses that the methods for paying fees and fines are too limited; concerns that technology processing fees for the fines are too high; concern about the possible need for a new parking structure, especially given the pending demolition of the Gables parking garage; and concerns that additional development will create a parking squeeze whose approach isn’t being adequately addressed.

“I think there are a lot of things we need to do before we pull the trigger” on street enforcement, Pacifico said.

“We’ve got to get this right,” he said, adding that continuing the development momentum of the last few years depends on not allowing parking to become an obstacle.

The previous study concluded that there wasn’t a parking problem, suggesting that as a pressure release valve, the authority could lease private lots to use when the owners — especially churches — didn’t need them, Pacifico recalled.

But there really is a parking problem, given the pace of growth with new businesses and housing, he said.

And the leasing of private lots was always an impractical idea, he said.

The current parking regulations call for free parking for two hours generally on 11th Avenue and metered parking in the area near City Hall, with other variations in other places, according to Pacifico.

It isn’t fair for people in one area of downtown to pay as soon as they park and those a couple avenues away to park for free for two hours, Pacifico said.

“I agree,” said Jess Bilko, senior manager for Metropolis, the authority’s management company. “One hundred percent.”

The variability in the rules has also created confusion.

There needs to be both consistency and clarity, said authority board member and City Manager Christopher McGuire.

Metropolis has initiated a payment system for visitors parking in the authority’s lots and garage that call for them to scan QR codes or else type in the company’s website to register their license plates, so they can make payment — a one-time process that would be similar to the process that motorists would be using to pay fines or to pay for parking on the street.

It would be better if there were payment kiosks along the avenues that accept credit cards, so that individuals who aren’t comfortable with scanning or who don’t have smart phones would find it easier, according to Pacifico and McGuire.

“I’m not a fan of QR codes,” Pacifico said. “We have a lot of people here who (collectively) need to have different ways to pay for things.”

Metropolis could install pay-station kiosks, but they’re expensive — as much as $8,000 each — and their use in other localities has been declining, Bilko said.

Metropolis’ technology processing fee for fines — which themselves have recently escalated from $5 to $15 — is $6.50, almost half as much as the fine amount.

That is too high, according to McGuire.

It’s as if Metropolis has gone from being a parking management firm that employs technology to a technology firm that happens to do parking, McGuire said.

“There’s got to be a way to streamline the back-end fees,” McGuire said. “(They) make it a hard sell to the community.”

On and off in recent years, authority officials have talked about the possible need for an additional parking structure — whether a full-scale garage or deck on top of a surface lot.

That potential need is part of the “holistic” picture, according to McGuire.

But it’s uncertain how the city or the authority would pay for it, McGuire said.

The parking garage that is part of the Gables building was once part of that holistic picture, but it’s been closed for years due to deterioration, and is apparently beyond repair, officials have said.

It’s destined to come down, according to McGuire, under the new Gables owner, Altoona Blair County Development Corp., which is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.

The downtown has outgrown its old parking system and needs to create a new one that aligns with current conditions, according to Pacifico.

“I think there are blind spots and issues we’re not seeing,” McGuire said.

It’s not certain yet whether the hiring of the consultant, THA Consulting of Blue Bell, would be done by City Council or the authority, McGuire said.

He does not see hiring the consultant to constitute a threat to the authority’s contract with Metropolis, McGuire said.

Not everyone is going to be happy with changes that may be made, McGuire said.

Ultimately, though “it’s a good problem to have,” given that it means that the downtown is growing, he said.

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