Chapel Hill Town Council discusses downtown parking and Orange County Transit Plan -

The Chapel Hill Town Council discuss parking options for the town and the Orange County Transit Plan at a work session Wednesday night. Staff writer Grace Caroline Larcade live-tweeted the meeting.

Downtown parking is related to economic opportunities and how we create jobs in Chapel Hill.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Parking is a concern according to the community's survey reporting relatively low satisfaction with a 250 parking space deficit in 2015
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Recently increased parking limit on downtown streets from 2 to 3 hours to encourage turnover parking.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

1 of 10 cities working with AT&T to broadcast available parking spots.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Added 22 spaces at the Courtyard lot and preserved Rosemary street parking and installed a bike lane.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Seeking to provide a balance between pedestrians, bus riders, bicyclists, and drives in downtown Chapel Hill
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Public parking supports entire downtown and must be balanced with private parking that supports businesses.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

currently control 20% downtown parking and are seeking to control around 40%.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

"We have decent coverage in proximity to uses among these lots, but how does the distribution match the demand?" asks Ben Hitchings.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

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With new projects downtown we have a projective future demand in Chapel Hill parking that will raise some concerns.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

" We have information on the supply but the information on the working demand is still in progress" says Hitchings.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Strategies include exploring payment in lieu option, designated parking for car share vehicles, and "unbundle" parking from housing
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Payment in lieu is used in several towns, money is aggregated and then used to build decks and lots that don't disrupt historic downtown.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

"Unbundling" has been tried where development charges a rate to an apartment and parking costs an additional fee.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

The "unbundling" strategy poses a risk for consuming parking spaces that could be used by general public.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Chris Blue, Chief of Police, speaks about Basnight Lane Parking expansion.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Seeking to make some arrangements in the courtyard lot with private properties to have 36 more spots from the 20 spaces added last month.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

these 36 new spaces will cost $115,000 with an estimated pay-back period of 5 years.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Plan to reconfigure Basnight for one way vehicle traffic.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

This lease with the private properties is estimated to be a 10 year lease, but the negotiation is still ongoing.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

If Basnight is made one way , there's a concern that delivery trucks will unload and cause more traffic backing up into Franklin Street.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Chris Roberts, Manager of Engineering and Infrastructure, speaking on Wallace Parking Facility which provides 319 spaces.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Wallace requires about $1 million in repairs to plaza.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Adding parking levels will avoid repair costs, but will cost $2.4 million per level (consisting of 100 spaces).
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

3 floors will cost $8.4 million but will add 300 new spaces.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Looking to put a pay station in to catch people who leave their car overnight, after the attendant leaves, without paying additional fees.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Ken Pennoyer, Director of Business Management, discussing financials of Wallace Deck expansion.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

The occupancy ramp up for 1 floor option will take 3 years to get to 49% and the 3 floor option will take 10 years to get to 49%.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Both options have a negative cash flow with the cumulative deficit for 1 level being $500,000 and 3 level at $4.1 million
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Construction time for 1 level is 1 year and for 3 levels is 2 years.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Deficit means that the parking doesn't start paying back till after deficit of 3 or 10 years so it will have to be subsidized in some way.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

This project does not generate sufficient revenue to support the costs.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

The parking fund operates at break-even.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

2 financial plans: stand alone(higher rates/flexible timing) or combined (lower rates/timing inflexible)
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Topic moving to Parking Pay Stations!
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

current equipment is dated, challenging to use (2010 models)
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

updating them means easing of use improved data!
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Parking pay stations at break even, cost would be $400,000 to replace.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

2 options : add one penny to Downtown tax rate to cover meter replacement OR increase hourly parking rate from $1.50/hr to $2/hr.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

CHTC discusses why this is aimed at just downtown, not in all areas. Questions raised about more residents or visitors using these meters.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Agenda item #2: Update on Draft Orange County Transit Plan.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Patrick McDonough, GoTriangle, Manager of Planning and Transit Oriented Development, to speak on this.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

CASA, low income housing project, brought up for budgetary issues.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Concerns about costs of parking vs using money toward other projects to benefit downtown.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Now moving onto Draft Orange County Transit Plan....
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Why transit plans? access to jobs,housing, capacity in congested areas, growing economy, promotes health.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Durham and Orange county transit plan working with Wake County via creating commuter rails, bus systems.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

2012 plan: 35,300 revenue hour expansion of bus service and associated buses in 1st five years.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Implementation since 2013: adopted 5 year transit plan and 23,700 revenue hours of bus services are funded.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Durham Orange Light Rail Project completed projected development phase in Feb. 2016, awaiting permission to enter engineering phase.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Wake-Durham Commuter Rail delayed from original plan for five years, planning to begin in 2017.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

2015 introduced a cap of $500k for light rail projects, replaced in 2016 with 10% project cap.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

Reduced state and federal funding means additional commitment of local transit taxes.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

sales tax growth forecasts: durham: 3.6% and orange county: 3.5%
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

local funding: more borrowing against anticipated revenues
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

re-negotiation of cost share for funding is ongoing, draft plan assumptions are starting point for discussion.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 12, 2017

plans: increase local funding for vehicles and bus facilities , draft has 5.4 million dedicated in local funding for 10 million in projects
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 13, 2017

$6.1 million commitment maintained for funding of MLK bus lanes and maintaining funding level for Hillsborough Train Station.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 13, 2017

meeting runs over as debate continues about funding transit projects.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 13, 2017

Orange county cash balance slightly over $1M in 2030.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 13, 2017

Total capital and financing costs for Orange County is $339 M.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 13, 2017

additional needs : expanding transit fleet with service levels, improve/expand facilities, improve funding
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 13, 2017

still a lot of debate on reallocating cash balances and redeploying service hours
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 13, 2017

Seeking to learn more about how people are riding to determine how to reallocate cash and maximize benefits for everyone.
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 13, 2017

identifying risks: cost overruns, federal funding and state funding availability and schedule
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 13, 2017

mitigating risks: possibility of having private funding campaigns, land donations, value engineering and cost cutting areas identified
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 13, 2017

ongoing activities: annual budgets, project specific agreements, regular meetings of staff working groups, periodic updates to plan
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 13, 2017

Staff working groups recommend final plans on April 21
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 13, 2017

and with that the floor is open for questions, that's all for tonight on local government folks! pic.twitter.com/x8I1VFJmxq
— DTH City (@DTHCity) April 13, 2017

@gclarcade3

city@dailytarheel.com