Parking in downtown Anchorage may cost a bit more starting in July, with officials pushing for the city's first rate increase since 2008.
At a recent meeting with members of the Anchorage Assembly, staff with the Anchorage Community Development Authority — the agency that manages the city's EasyPark downtown parking meters, garages and parking lots — said a rate increase is necessary to keep up with inflation and costs.
"We cannot go another year without a rate increase," Andrew Halcro, ACDA's executive director, said in a presentation to Assembly members.
A 5 percent across-the-board bump is being considered, Halcro said, though the agency is still collecting comments on the plan.
It currently costs $1 an hour to park in EasyPark's garages, and $1.25 an hour for meters with two- and four-hour limits. Meters with 10-hour limits cost 75 cents an hour. Monthly parking permits for garages range from $85 to $105, and monthly permits for lots range from $25 to $90 a month.
For the meters, a 5 percent increase would amount to about 10 or 15 cents an hour, Halcro said. He said in an interview the target date for the increase would be July 1.
The last time rates increased was in 2008. Since then, maintenance costs have risen, with EasyPark's garages averaging 30 years in age, said Brian Borguno, director of EasyPark. He said the agency is having a hard time keeping up with inflation, and future capital improvements and investments in new technology will require more money.
Halcro said a study of parking rates in six similarly sized cities in the Lower 48 — Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Boulder, Colorado; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Eugene, Oregon; Boise, Idaho; and Missoula, Montana — found the lowest rates in Anchorage.
"We've just consistently slipped behind," Halcro told Assembly members.
That's not completely true. In Boise, for instance, parking meters come with the first 20 minutes free; in a parking garage there, the first hour is free. For the first four hours, Boulder's parking meter rates are just like Anchorage's — $1.25 an hour.
Parking enforcement officers in Anchorage are also writing fewer tickets, Halcro said. That's a good thing from a public policy standpoint, he said — more people are following the rules. But it also meant about $160,000 less in revenue in 2015, he said.
The discussion about parking-rate increases comes as the ACDA spearheads several initiatives aimed at boosting public safety and security to help make downtown a more pleasant place for visitors. For example, Halcro has offered up the parking authority's 22-hour daily dispatch system to align downtown security communications with the Anchorage Downtown Partnership and private security companies.
Borguno told Assembly members that the timing of the rate increase is "necessary" to offer better services downtown overall.
"We want to continue to have a vibrant parking system," Borguno said.
With technological improvements, such as allowing customers to pay fees online instead of at a customer service desk, EasyPark is able to shift employees to its dispatch center, Halcro said.
South Anchorage Assemblywoman Jennifer Johnston said she hoped ACDA had a solid plan in place if cost savings were being used for community security.
"If you move (those employees) to the dispatch center … I'm hoping it's with purpose, and not with vision," Johnston said.
The planned closure of Anchorage's downtown bus depot is a major factor in the effort to boost security. Halcro, Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and other city officials say the building has become a magnet for criminal activity and bad behavior, and hope to shut it by the end of this year. The goal is to open a revamped "City Center" sometime in the spring of 2018, Halcro said.
An initial price tag for the new building, $8.1 million, was unveiled last week.
But Halcro stressed that parking revenue, and the proposed rate increase, won't be footing that bill. He said the cost for the bus depot improvements is expected to be covered exclusively by rent from future tenants.
A broker hired by the ACDA is in discussions with grocery and pharmacy retailers about leasing the new space, Halcro said. In response to a question from Johnston, Halcro said construction won't start until ACDA and its lenders are confident that rent can cover the debt.
Halcro did say that janitorial and security costs at the bus depot are eating into the ACDA's budget. He said it cost the agency about $800,000 to service the building in 2015, almost twice as much as it generated in rent from tenants.
Any proposal to increase rates will have to be approved by the ACDA's board of directors, Halcro said. The Assembly won't vote on it.
The ACDA has posted an online survey on its website for anyone who wants to weigh in.