City Council Report - Berkeley City Council Meeting Agendas

Office of the City Manager

WORKSESSION May 31, 2016 To:

Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council

From:

Dee Williams-Ridley, City Manager

Submitted by: Phillip L. Harrington, Director, Department of Public Works Subject:

Citywide Residential Preferential Parking Expansion

INTRODUCTION This worksession shall present an overview of the Residential Preferential Parking (RPP) program; anticipated steps needed to expand the RPP program citywide; policies that would govern the citywide RPP expansion; and the block-by-block “opt-in” process for qualifying residential areas. CURRENT SITUATION AND ITS EFFECTS There are presently fourteen RPP zones (Zones A-N) 1 that cover the central areas of Berkeley, most of which neighbor adjacent commercial areas or the University of California at Berkeley campus. These existing zones are roughly bounded on the north by Rose, Hopkins and Eunice Streets; on the east by the UC Berkeley campus; on the south by Woolsey and part of 62nd Street; and on the west by Sacramento and Chestnut Streets. Permit parking has been established for the majority of blocks within the existing RPP zones as shown on the map in Attachment 1. Approximately 1,600 city blocks currently participate in RPP, and approximately 300 additional blocks do not have permit parking restrictions. Streets within the established boundaries, and in conformance with Berkeley Municipal Code Section 14.72.050(A)(1) will be added to the Program when residents on specific blocks submit a qualifying number of signatures (exceeding 51%) on petitions to “opt-in” to the RPP Program, and a parking survey of affected blocks show 75% of available on-street parking spaces are occupied during the mid-morning and mid-afternoon time periods. Residential areas outside the existing RPP zones are not protected from spill-over parking demand from adjacent commercial areas. In an Information Report presented to Council February 24, 2015, staff provided Council estimated costs to extend RPP Citywide. Those costs were based on the expectation that an additional 300 new blocks would participate in the existing program for a projected total of 1,900 blocks. ___________________________________ 1 2

RPP Map: http://bit.ly/23F6WAG April 7, 2015 Referral: http://bit.ly/1T9f1uy

2180 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA 94704 ● Tel: (510) 981-7000 ● TDD: (510) 981-6903 ● Fax: (510) 981-7099 E-Mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.CityofBerkeley.info/Manager


WORKSESSION May 31, 2016

In response to the April 7, 2015 Council referral item, this report shall 1) determine what if any environmental analysis is required for the citywide expansion of the RPP Program, 2) provide cost estimates for the implementation and maintenance of the citywide expansion of the RPP Program, 3) identify the timeline for implementation of the program’s expansion, and 4) provide a fee structure for cost recovery for citywide RPP Program. Council requested staff evaluate an expansion pilot program for RPP limited to 100 blocks that would be sensitive to the parking impacts created by the mix of neighboring commercial and residential uses. The cap is expected to limit participation to 100 blocks in order to control program costs and resulting permit fees. Our analysis has shown program costs cannot be proportionally reduced by a numerical reduction in the number of participating blocks. Indeed, by reducing the number of blocks from 300 to 100, program costs are reduced only by $120,000, or about 14% at RPP program year five. PROJECTED PROGRAM COST SAVINGS YEAR 1

YEAR 2

YEAR 3

YEAR 4

YEAR 5

TOTAL COSTS WITH CAP

$843,000

$861,000

$861,000

$861,000

$861,000

TOTAL COSTS WITHOUT CAP

$843,000

$889,000

$935,500

$966,000

$981,000

$0 0.00%

$28,000 3.25%

$74,500 8.65%

$105,000 12.20%

$120,000 13.94%

CAP SAVINGS $ CAP SAVINGS %

Further, Parking Enforcement staffing and costs, startup and mobilization costs for signage fabrication and installation, and administrative costs associated with the RPP program are not beneficially impacted by reducing the RPP program from 300 blocks to 100 blocks. Thus, while a 100 block cap would limit resident participation to one third of the originally projected level, it would not proportionally decrease accompanying costs of the expansion. Because the ultimate goal is expansion of the RPP program to 300 residential blocks, none of these program costs would likely be mitigated by a 100 block cap as mobilization costs for sign installation, program management and enforcement will likely be proportionally higher, compared with extending the program to 300 blocks without any caps. Thus, staff is developing an expansion proposal to limit program costs without capping the level of participation.

Page 2



BACKGROUND As commercial and business parking demand increases, residents without access to off-street parking find themselves in an increasingly difficult situation. Council has heard from residents unable to park near their homes who have enumerated the hardships caused by parking scarcity especially in cases of disability, or from those simply managing the ordinary activities of daily living. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY Expansion of the RPP Program could encourage some drivers who work in commercial areas to gravitate towards using public transportation. At the same time, based on the observations of streets in the existing RPP Program (especially in residential areas adjacent to commercial zones) it is expected there will be some rotation of non-resident vehicles every 2 hours, which have an adverse impact on air quality and gas consumption. Commencing FY 2017 the City will receive a $950,000 grant from Metropolitan Transportation Commission to fund a pilot program to evaluate mechanisms for demand responsive pricing of visitor parking in RPP areas. That pilot is expected to be designed and tested over the next three fiscal years commencing FY 2017, and may reduce unnecessary vehicle movements, as well as establishing more cost effective enforcement options. It should be noted, some areas outside the current RPP boundary are not as well served by public transit. Thus, shifting to public transit as the primary mode of transportation may not be feasible for many employees who work in these areas. POSSIBLE FUTURE ACTION Technology acquisition and implementation, such as paperless permits and license plate recognition enforcement, could improve efficiency and lower costs. Some of these modalities may be used in the pilot program funded by the new MTC grant. FISCAL IMPACTS OF POSSIBLE FUTURE ACTION Imposing a 100-block cap on the program would result in no savings in the first program year and nominal savings in successive years. Further, there would be no significant savings in the long term given the mobilization and administrative costs associated with sign installation and program enforcement. Alternative cost saving strategies will be developed to limit fiscal impact to residents. The following chart and graph further illustrate estimated savings associated with a 100 block cap assuming no other changes in current parking enforcement methods and coverage. An alternative to the cap may be limiting expansion of parking enforcement least until new technologies can be tested.

Page 3


YEAR PROJECTED OPT-INS

1 50


2 100/150

3 225

4 275

5 300

COST WITH CAP

ENFORCEMENT $500,000 $800,000 $800,000 $800,000 $800,000 FINANCE $14,000 $28,000 $28,000 $28,000 $28,000 TRANSPORTATION $329,000 $33,000 $33,000 $33,000 $33,000

WITHOUT CAP

ENFORCEMENT $500,000 $800,000 $800,000 $800,000 $800,000 FINANCE $14,000 $41,000 $62,000 $76,000 $83,000 TRANSPORTATION $329,000 $48,000 $73,500 $90,000 $98,000

WITH CAP $1,000,000 $800,000 $600,000 $400,000 $200,000 $0 1

2

3

4

5

Years ENFORCEMENT

FINANCE

TRANSPORTATION

WITHOUT CAP

-

$1,000,000 $800,000 $600,000 $400,000 $200,000 $0 1

2

3

4

5

Years ENFORCEMENT

FINANCE

TRANSPORTATION

Costs assume no change in administration or enforcement technologies or procedures.

Page 4



CONTACT PERSON Matthew Cotterill, Traffic Engineering Assistant, Public Works, (510) 981-6433 Attachments: 1. RPP Zone Map

Page 5