Council talks downtown parking leases with more upper story housing on the way
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The Marshalltown city council spent the last 20 minutes of Monday night's regular meeting discussing downtown parking leases as Willard's/Hopkins building owner Janelle Carter was requesting to lease stalls for the future tenants of her upper story apartments.
In addition to hearing from Carter on her situation, the council also received a general update on downtown leases from Public Works Director Heather Thomas, who had indicated it was a subject former City Administrator Jessica Kinser suggested bringing back up for discussion at some point this year.
Currently, the city utilizes urban core zoning for most of the downtown area, which does not require off-street parking for different buildings.
"While it's awesome and great that we're getting some redevelopment downtown, especially with second story housing, that is going to present a challenge for parking, and we need to accommodate and change our ordinances to be able to allow that," Thomas said.
Thomas added that Carter's request pertains to parking lot H, which is located behind the Tremont, and said another downtown business had recently indicated they no longer wished to lease spots at a separate lot at 113 E. State St. City code says leased parking spaces should cost $25 per month per stall -- although in practice, the numbers have varied widely -- and as Thomas explained, there are other variables related to maintenance and snow removal as well as time restrictions. For the sake of comparison with nearby communities, Ames charges $50 a month, while Toledo charges $16.66.
Carter then stepped forward to the podium, noting that her 14 housing units are nearing completion and expressing hope that the opportunity to park "somewhat close to their unit" in a lit parking lot would increase their safety and security. Councilor Gary Thompson asked the first question, wondering when tenants would be moving, and Carter said she was aiming for January or February.
Councilor Jeff Schneider asked Carter if she would like to see a "full service" arrangement where the city takes care of snow removal, handle it herself or have the tenants bear the responsibility. She indicated she preferred full service because it would be more uniform, and she believed there could be flexibility if vehicles ever need to be moved.
Another councilor, Barry Kell, asked Thomas if the city would have the right to vacate a parking lot to accommodate a public event, and she responded that because leases aren't signed yet, that language could be included. Thompson then followed up with another question about who would take care of the signage costs for the leased spots, and she also indicated that could be included in the leases when they are signed.
"Specifically to this request, I do think this is our first one of this kind, but likely not our last. So that's why I thought it was important to bring this discussion item (up)," Thomas said. "The city's not in the parking lot business, and I don't know that the parking lot business is a money making proposition. But I also believe that there's gonna be a lot of businesses that may have some opinions on the situation too, and concerns, where we lease all of our stalls out."
She then gave a breakdown of the cost of building the lot in question, which was over $1 million, and said that while she wasn't fond of the idea of handling snow removal for individual leased stalls, the fact that Carter wanted to lease a block of them made it more doable. Ultimately, she hoped the council would give her some direction on a policy going forward.
In response to another question from Councilor Gabe Isom about what type of leases she was seeking, Thomas said Carter would prefer a 24-hour lease space with a designated parking pass that isn't stall specific with her commercial and nonprofit tenants in the lower level buildings to park in them during the day as well -- "first come first serve" on the number of stalls they lease.
Thompson indicated his preference for a uniform policy applying to all lots capped at one or two spots per living unit, and he didn't think businesses like offices or restaurants would need to lease spaces.
"All's I would ask is that, like in Janelle's case with the Hopkins and Willard's buildings, (tenants) aren't parking on Main Street, that that's for the shopper, and I don't know why she'd have to buy spots for the business entities because they're transient," he said. "It's during the day. They're not there 24/7, but they can park in the open lots. And that may help her budget wise too."
Councilor Mike Ladehoff wondered how the overhaul of State and Main streets will affect the parking situation, and Thomas said it would result in a small net loss of spots, with some added on Main and some lost on State.
The only public comment on the matter came from Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO John Hall, whose organization is now housed out of the Hopkins building at 34 W. Main St. He made clear that the Chamber is not asking for any designated parking spots.
"We have found an abundance of parking available. We park in the last row intentionally knowing that we don't want to take the closest to business spaces," Hall said. "The proposal that Janelle has offers maximum flexibility with minimum impact to the most available spaces for business turnover."
He lamented that the 24-hour restricted spaces in Ames can be a burden for those who travel into the community and wish to park but can't find a space, but he believed Carter's proposal would work better for everyone involved.
Thomas told the council and Mayor Joel Greer she would get to work on drafting an agreement and bringing it back to a future meeting.
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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or
rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.