From this week’s Issues Update:
The City owns and operates several parking lots on the Peoria Riverfront. These are the Michel East and West Lots, Edgewater Lot, and Liberty Lot, which are collectively known as the MEL Parking Lots. These lots are controlled by means of three sets of ticket booths and gates, which are accessed from Water Street. Since 2006, the MEL Lots have been posted two?hour free parking in an effort to promote short?term parking for customer use. Parking meters and permits are available for long?term parkers. During this time, the ticket booths have been vacant and the gates lifted. Additionally, complaints have been received that the ticket booths sometimes confuse new visitors trying to park in the lots.
These facilities had been left in place in case the City would again decide to charge hourly rates in these lots. However, it is unlikely that the City would choose to provide manned ticket booths for this area. A more viable solution would be to install an unmanned area parking system to control these lots. Since these facilities no longer serve a purpose, they should be removed to create better access to the lots and remove any confusion by the motorists. The Public Works Department, using in?house labor and equipment, plans to remove the ticket booths and gates and to provide clearer signage for these lots. Our first priority will be to remove the gates at the foot of Liberty Street to allow two?way access to the lots during the Water Street construction. The rest of the ticket booths and gates will be removed over the course of the summer, as scheduling allows.
I’ve seen “unmanned area parking system[s]” in Chicago. They’re easy to understand and effective. I would like to see the City get out of the parking-subsidy business before they lay off any more police officers or fire fighters. Subsidizing downtown parking is definitely not a necessity.
This is at least a month old. A couple of the booths are already gone and the gates are all gone.
I remember reading this several weeks ago. Old news!
Maybe not but I remember a few years ago when some businesses almost went out of business when the city was charging a nominal fee for parking. People in Peoria just will not pay for parking. It’s s shame.
“heyheyhey”: Yes, it’s a repeat from April 30, but it did appear anew in the Issues Update this week. I don’t know why. Nevertheless, I think it’s silly that they’re subsidizing downtown parking.
Alex: The downtown businesses can subsidize the parking for their customers, just like all businesses outside of downtown do already. Customers may not want to pay for parking, but is that any reason for the City to pick up the tab?
I thought you guys would realize that the city subsidizes parking even when it’s out in a corn field. The cost of urban sprawl is much greater than subsidized downtown parking.
How much did it cost to expand roads, sewer, public fire and police protection etc. out to the Shoppes of Grand Prairie. Sure they have “free” parking but at what cost to the tax payers?
Is there even enough demand to justify charging for parking on the riverfront? If the riverfront isn’t flourishing with free parking, charging hourly for parking isn’t going to make that any better.
Not to mention the new parking capacity coming soon with the museum.
The city needs to adopt a comprehensive parking study for downtown to establish rates, optimal locations and (most importantly) lots that can be closed and reverted to developable land. Most of the parking decks downtown are built for office workers who only use them during the day and sit mostly empty on evenings and weekends. If some of these decks can be opened for public use and charged appropriately (CAT AB parking deck, looking at you), riverfront parking would be accomodated for and could even lead to the removal of some riverfront lots for additional recreational or commercial spaces. A plan leading to the removal of the surface lot bounded by I-74/Water Street/Hamilton Blvd/Washington Street would open up a huge chunk of land centrally located in downtown.