Parking meter rates doubled

Erin Neff

Thursday, Aug. 3, 2000 | 11:08 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council doubled the fee to park at meters Wednesday despite concerns that such a move would keep people from coming downtown.

The 6-0 vote hikes the current fee from 50 cents to $1 per hour of parking at meters citywide. People aged 62 or older can purchase a programmable key from the city for a 25-cent discount.

The move came as residents continue to argue about the lack of parking near City Hall and signs plaster the entrance to Municipal Court warning that parking tickets will no longer be excused by officials if hearings or other judicial business run long.

"Now people won't even come to the downtown area," said Al Gallego, who frequently has trouble finding parking for the meetings he attends at City Hall.

City staff argued the fee increase was needed to defray the cost incurred by the city to construct three parking garages downtown. One of the three garages, a two-story structure underneath the planned Neonopolis, is finished, but will not open until the entertainment center is built above it.

The other two garages, at the City Centre Place office tower and across Stewart Avenue from City Hall, won't be complete until late 2001 or early 2002.

But the city is already paying debt service on the construction of the Neonopolis garage. When interest payments from the bonds for the other garages kick in, the city's Parking Enterprise Fund faces a $2 million deficit, according to Finance Director Mark Vincent.

"The fund is intended to run as a business," Vincent said. "It's supposed to pay for itself."

The idea to make "parking pay for parking" makes sense to most. But the 100 percent increase in meter feeding doesn't sit well with everyone.

"It don't make any sense to pay a buck here when I can park free down at Binion's as long as I get a (validation) stamp," said Eugenia Watson, fishing in her change purse to feed a meter in the lot across from City Hall.

The fee increase will generate an estimated $865,936 annually, according to Detention and Enforcement Director Mike Sheldon.

"Parking is really at a premium right now in the downtown area," Sheldon said. "While raising fees is never a popular item, we think this is the best option for funding these parking garages."

Gallego scoffed at the idea, saying: "We are giving a lot of concessions to a lot of developers in the downtown area."

Although the Stewart Avenue garage will be a city-only project, the Neonopolis garage is a joint venture with Prudential and the City Centre Place garage is a joint venture with the Pauls Corp.

Both of those developers got the city to build the garages at their proposed projects -- a projected cost to the city of at least $40 million.

Marcia Holmberg, a former city communications specialist who now lobbies on behalf of University Medical Center, asked the city not to include the meters near UMC in its rate hike.

"As a hospital, we are very different than a downtown business," Holmberg said. "People come there out of necessity, not out of choice."

But City Manager Virginia Valentine recommended that the hike include the UMC meters to encourage "turnover" of the parking spaces.

Valentine said hospital employees park at the meters and feed them throughout the day -- taking spaces away from patients and visitors.

City Councilmen Michael McDonald, Gary Reese and Lawrence Weekly all expressed reservations about the hike and asked to delay a vote on the item. Councilmen Larry Brown and Michael Mack and Mayor Oscar Goodman, however, said they felt comfortable enough to vote on the item Wednesday.

Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald, who is attending the Republican National Convention, was absent.

The meter increase can take effect immediately, but Sheldon said he will likely impose a 30-day warning-only system until residents are aware of the hike.