Parking plans go to council

GLENDALE — City officials are poised to revamp parking in Glendale after the Transportation and Parking Commission this week approved a plan to increase meter rates at some parking stations around town, reduce parking rates in one public structure and lengthen the hours of operation for pay stations in specific areas.

The parking plan is headed toward City Hall, where the City Council is slated to take up the issue at its meeting on Tuesday and consider whether 50 new parking meters will be installed on Brand Boulevard; whether the hours of operation for on street parking in some sections will be stretched from six to seven days; and whether meter rates at existing pay stations will jump to 75 cents and $1 per hour.

The installation of new meters and signage reflecting time limit shifts is expected to cost the city $45,000 while the increase in hours and the resulting money from new pay stations on Brand Boulevard could generate as much as $750,000, Transportation and Parking Commissioner Bill Weisman said.

“I don’t think its any secret the city needs revenue,” he said. “But the reason we’re moving forward with it now is . . . that we’re trying to control the parking situation downtown.”

Merchants along Brand Boulevard have complained that free parking along one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares — despite the two-hour limit — leads to little turnover, making it tough for potential customers to find spots.

Meanwhile, police have said enforcement is difficult without a modernized mechanism to gauge whether a parker has stayed past the restricted time.

The 50 new parking meters on Brand Boulevard and in surrounding lots — to be constructed by the end of the year — are slated to feature a large color display monitor in which drivers will be asked to input their parking space number before paying, which they can do with either a debit card or coins, city officials said.

With new meters on Brand Boulevard, come new rates for other pay stations around town. The hourly fee for the city’s existing meters in downtown could increase from the current rate of 60 cents to $1 an hour, a fee the new meters would charge as well. Hourly rates for the four public lots around town that charge 40 cents, and the six that charge 50 cents, would jump to 75 cents. The city has not increased parking rates since meters were first implanted in 1998, Weisman said.