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Youngstown is considering licensing downtown public parking lots and garages
YOUNGSTOWN
The city is considering licensing downtown public parking lots and garages, charging $1 per space annually.
The proposal, sponsored by Mayor John A. McNally, will be in front of city council today. But McNally said council will refer the proposal to the planning commission, which will meet Tuesday to hear public comments on the matter.
“We’re doing it to get uniformity of the downtown parking lots,” McNally said. “It will help better market parking in downtown, and it will make sure all the parking lots look good.”
Terry Coyne of Mary Coyne Investments, a Cleveland company that owns numerous downtown parking lots, said, however, the family business is barely making it in Youngstown, and a decision to charge $1 per spot annually probably would result in the company closing at least one or two of its lots and increasing its parking rate.
“The returns haven’t been the greatest, but we’re here for the longterm,” Coyne said. “It doesn’t seem fair to target specific groups. It doesn’t seem like a good business decision.”
Paid parking lots owned by the city are managed by a different company, and those lots would be subject to the fee, said city Law Director Martin Hume.
The proposal requires specific rules for lots and garages to obtain licenses including having readable signs at entrances displaying the international parking symbol – a white letter P at least 14 inches in height on a purple circular background that is at least 22 inches in diameter – as well as signs displaying parking rates in numbers which are the same size – a minimum of 5 inches for dollar amounts and 3 inches for cents – and if there are employees working the lots, they must wear a uniform or a badge paid by the lot or garage operator identifying them as an employee.
The city-owned lots would be required to follow the same rules, Hume said.
The area that would be impacted by this proposal is bordered on the Mahoning River on the south; South Avenue, Commerce Street to Watt Street on the east; Wood Street on the north, and Belmont Avenue on the west.
That also would include, among others, the Eastern Gateway Community College parking deck at 101 E. Federal St., the A-1 Parking deck at 23 W. Boardman St., and about five lots downtown owned by the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp.
Dave Kosec, the CIC’s project manager, said he wants to see the proposal before commenting.