By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff
City staff returned Feb. 4 to the Sandpoint Planning and Zoning Commission, presenting an updated draft parking management plan that includes a new schedule of fees for off-street parking at a number of city-owned facilities.
Sandpoint Community Planning and Development Director Jason Welker introduced the plan to P&Z on Jan. 21, where a number of citizens weighed in on the fee structure — specifically as it relates to paid parking at City Beach.
If adopted, the plan would institute paid parking at the city lot at Third Avenue and Church Street; the lots at Sand Creek, the Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail and Dock Street (Windbag Marina); and City Beach.
At the Jan. 21 meeting, both city and county residents said the fees should be higher, in order to capture more revenue from out-of-area users; the amount of time given under a permit should be longer; and county residents should be allowed to purchase permits at the same price as those living in Sandpoint city limits.
Many of those concerns were addressed in the revised draft presented Feb. 4, including raising the cost for a city resident annual pass from $10 to $15, non-resident annual passes from $20 to $30, downtown business passes from $200 to $250 and marina slip occupant passes from $100 to $150.
For non-permit holders, the daily maximum for parking at the city lot, Sand Creek and Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail lots would remain $16, while the daily maximum for parking at City Beach and the Windbag would go from $20 to $24.
Meanwhile, city and non-resident passes alike would provide up to three hours of parking per visit at all the identified parking areas other than City Beach — which is an increase from two hours — while permits at City Beach would be good for up to four hours. After that, parking lot users would be charged between $2 and $3 per hour, based on the season or day.
Finally, the updated draft plan included boat launch fees at City Beach and Memorial Field of $10 per launch for Idaho residents and $15 per launch for out-of-state residents, with a $50 season pass available to Idaho residents and $100 season pass for those coming from out of state.
According to a new entry in the fee schedule, any vehicle or trailer combination measuring 21 or more feet would increase the fee to two-times the ticket price, and no trailer parking would be allowed without a vehicle.
Welker said that while Bonner County has the most amount of water in the state, it’s also the only county in Idaho that doesn’t charge fees at its public boat launches.
“Of course, when we start to charge for boat launching and for boat trailer parking, we’re going to naturally see more parking available for vehicles at City Beach, as some of that boat traffic will choose to go to other boat launches that are either pay or free elsewhere in the county,” he said.
The purpose of the fees is to generate revenue to be reinvested in improving and maintaining parking facilities, while the city estimates it could raise nearly $370,000 a year, based on the proposed rates.
It’s unclear at this point what kind of technology would be used to manage the paid-parking program, as Welker said, “[T]he implementation of a policy is much further down the road and I can pretty much commit to this commission tonight that there’s going to be no rollout of a policy in the next year. This is something we’re looking at for the future, so we’re just at the very preliminary policy stage right now. …
“There’s no timeline for when this might come to City Council at this point; it’s all based on the mayor’s priorities, when he thinks this is ready to bring to council, but it’s just a work in progress right now,” Welker said.
Find a PDF copy of the city’s parking study and updated fee proposal in the agenda packet for the Feb. 4 P&Z meeting at bit.ly/42SQzcD.
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