Bloomington looks into different solution for parking problem

In August, city officials in Indianapolis put the city’s parking meters up for lease for the next 50 years.

Affiliated Computer Services, Inc.  was the highest bidder and offered Indianapolis a $35 million upfront payment, $400 million in ongoing revenues during the 50-year agreement and the creation of 200 jobs  in exchange for jurisdiction of the city’s parking system.

The deal is expected to make up for budget shortfalls that have prevented infrastructure improvements and parking meter upgrades.

ACS has proposed investing $10 million to remove and replace the existing meters with new meter technology that supports credit card payments.

Although the city has agreed to enter into a contract with ACS, the terms of the lease are still going through negotiation due to the public criticism that ensued following the announcement of the sale.

“The city will be held hostage to this private company for the next 50 years,”
Indianapolis resident Ben Wiley said. “They will be able to raise the rate however high they want. ACS has the rights to collect parking ticket revenue, but that’s money I want going directly to my city.”

City officials have taken these complaints into consideration and recently released a revised proposal.

The new lease allows the city to terminate the contract early for a monetary penalty and projects approximately $620 million in revenue, but a $15 million decrease in the upfront payment.

City-County Councilor and the proposal’s council sponsor, Barbara Malone, said she is not sure the deal will pass even with the recent revisions.

However, she said she is optimistic that the city will be able to negotiate terms that will make citizens feel more comfortable.

But ACS, which provides parking management solutions to more than 25 U.S. cities, said Bloomington does not have enough meters to make the program efficient.

The statement did not upset Stephen Volan, Bloomington’s 6th District City Council
member.

“I think it’s a bad idea that they’ll probably regret down the road,” Volan said. “The leasing of the toll road in Northern Indiana, which made it privatized, was pretty catastrophic. Anyone who criticizes government because they think the free market is a magic bullet is pretty naive.”

Rather than leasing Bloomington’s parking system to a private company, Bloomington has hired REI Property Management, an Indianapolis-based company, to manage the city’s parking garages.

However, Volan said he believes the city’s parking system can be improved.

“People are always saying they don’t want to go downtown because they can’t find a space (on the street),” Volan said. “That’s because it’s free when really on-street parking should be the most valuable.”

However, Volan said the paid parking garages located on the square are under utilized and only being used at around 55-60 percent of their capacity.

While parking meters could redistribute the demand for parking, Volan said he would rather consider other alternatives to paid on-street parking.

“We’re not going to be installing more parking meters downtown,” Volan said. “They’re just very expensive to install.”

Volan said it is important to make sure parking situations are not hindering economic growth of downtown businesses.

“People who work in businesses in Bloomington leave their car in the street all day long,” Volan said.

However, he said those cars prevent downtown customers from finding parking spots.

“We’re not trying to make lots of money through parking,” Volan said. “We just want to increase the use of downtown.”