Parking firm: City doesn't need new downtown parkade

The private parking firm hired by City Hall to manage the city's parking system says the city doesn't need a new downtown parkade right now.

That news at last night's City Council meeting surprised council member Justin Shields, who said he repeatedly has been told by downtown interests that companies won't relocate to downtown unless the city builds a new parkade.

Jon Rouse, Republic Parking System general manager in Cedar Rapids, told Shields that the certain businesses might want a new parkade in a particular block or area so their employees or customers don't have to walk very far.

But overall, Rouse told the City Council that Republic's study of the utilization of five city parkades revealed that 918 spaces in those parkades were not in use during peak parking times. Rouse said that number really equates to some 1,400 available spaces if the city correctly oversells spaces to accommodate users who need parking at different times of the day.

Council member Monica Vernon did not sound convinced that the downtown did not need another parkade as what she called a catalyst for downtown economic development. And she asked Rouse where the city ought to consider building one if it did build one.

Rouse said he would not build a new parkade on the site of the flood-damaged First Street Parkade, which is slated for demolition at some point. That site, he said, is prime downtown real estate better suited for a property taxpaying building.

Rouse said most cities these days build new parkades on the downtown fringe and do not take up valuable space in the downtown's core for parkades.

The city's downtown parking system has operated over the years as an enterprise department, paying most of its bills from parking fees and fines. The city currently is subsidizing the system at the rate of more than a $1 million a year, and council member Chuck Wieneke noted that the subsidies will continue at a rate of $600,000 a year even if the council raises monthly parking rates and hourly meter rates, as Republic is suggesting.

Wieneke said he isn't happy with the subsidies from property taxes and he said he doesn't favor building a new parkade just so some employees don't have to walk quite so far to work. People ought to walk more and lose weight, he suggested.

Rouse said the city's parkades are “more rundown than I'm used to seeing.” Republic, headquartered in Chattanooga, Tenn., manages systems in Rochester, Minn., Lincoln, Neb., Ann Arbor, Mich., and elsewhere. But, he said, they can be fixed up.

He said he didn't think the city needed to build a new parkade to bring more businesses downtown.