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Additions to Council, February 28, 2011 ADDITIONS TO COUNCIL, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2011 Committee of the Whole 1. Boy's Soccer Club Presentation (Hand out in blue folder) Council Planning 1. PD- 2011 -15 - AM- 2010 -013, Zoning By -law Amendment Recognition of Three Unit Dwelling a) Correspondence from Tricia L Davis. Communications 1. Memo from Karl Dren re: Downtown Board of Management's request for free two -hour parking P lanni I " Scann ed ile' . % / L _ City of Niagara Falls February 22, 2011 4310 Queen Street AM go7C Niagara Falls, ON d� - CQ C L2E 6X5 RE: City File: AM- 2010 -013 D & A Armenti Subject Property: 5415 Elm Street (Roll #: 2725 - 010 - 012 - 03600) Attention: Director of Planning & Development To Whom It May Concern: I live at 5426 Elm Street and I am OPPOSED to any change in zoning for this subject location. The property, as it currently sits, does little to contribute to the betterment of the surrounding neighbourhood. Adding another unit will not change that. The yard is unkept, the building is in rundown shape, and the tenants are not the type of people that I want to attract and /or encourage to live in my neighbourhood. I notice that the owners of the house next door to the subject property have put their house up for sale. They should not be forced to move due to an increase in the amount of tenants in the building next to their property. RECEIVED FEB 2.S 2011 PLANNING & EIEVELOPMENT We live in a single family dwelling area and there are already enough multi dwelling units on Elm Street. Adding another unit to this location will not do anything to better the neighbourhood or increase property values. If I had ever seen any effort put into the subject property, ie. mowing the lawn, replacing the windows, proper fencing for the backyard, or anything of the sort, I maybe wouldn't be so opposed to the application. I don't care to see the collection of items that is in the back yard due to a lack of privacy fencing. If the application were approved, where would all that stuff go ?? I want to see my neighbourhood get better, not worse. Therefore, as a property owner on Elm Street, I want to make it clear that I DO NOT support this Application in any way, shape or form. Please feel free to contact me to discuss this issue further if you require any clarification as to my position. In addition, I would like to request notice of the outcome of this application. Regards, Tricia L Davis 5426 Elm Street Niagara Falls, ON L2E 2V6 City of Niagara Falls Transportation Services Inter - Department Memorandum TO: Mayor James M. Diodati DATE: February 28, 2011 and Members of the Municipal Council FROM: Karl Dren Director of Transportation Services RE: Downtown Board of Management Request for 2 hour Free Parking on Queen Street/Valleyway Impact on the General Purposes Budget Appearing on tonight's Council agenda is a request from the Downtown Board of Management to the City to provide 2 hour free parking along Queen Street and Valleyway for the remainder of the year. In addition, they are requesting that monies not be taken from CIP funding to make up the short fall from this initiative. Impact on the General Purposes Budget Impact on Parking Operations Budget Gross Revenue $42,000.00 Impact on Parking Control Budget Gross Fine Revenue $16,000.00 Impact on Parking Control Budget Labour Expense $15,000.00 Total impact on the 2011 General Purposes Budget $73,000.00 Background Since 1966, the Parking operation has been treated as a self sustaining fund, in which, expenditures are offset by revenues. City Councils have reinforced the user pay philosophy for the parking operation on many occasions. The Downtown Board in the past has requested the removal of pay parking in the Downtown with the provison that it would institute a yearly levy to offset maintenance and operating costs. However, this method proved to be to costly for the Downtown Board, as well, not achieving the desired results. Queen Street is made up of a multitude of retail, restaurants, art galleries, theatre, commercial, government (local /provincial /federal), medical, financial professional and residential uses. The Municipal Parking System in the Downtown accommodates both short term and long term parking needs of the visitors and employees. For employees and business owners /operators there is lease parking opportunities. For visitors, there is a mixture of on- street short/medium term free and pay parking options as well as long term pay parking available in municipal parking lots. Parking Demand in the Downtown consists Short Term (Queen Street) - Banks, Post Office, Lawyers Accountants offices, Pharmacy, etc.; Medium Term (Side Streets) ie, Retail, Lawyers and Accountants offices, Doctors, etc and Long Term (Parking Lots) ie. Monthly employee /residential Niagara Falls...a great city...for generations to come. Parking Control • Parking Operations • Traffic Operations • Niagara Falls Transit • Transportation Planning Request for 2 hour Free Parking on Queen Street /Valleyway Page 2 lease, doctors, Retail, etc Services such as banks, pharmaceutical, post office, retail and other short visitation operations, rely on the availability of short term, convenient parking, to service their clientele. Pay parking adjacent to their businesses continues to successfully meet the needs of their customers. Facts Currently the free parking areas in the Core Area are underutilized Pay parking areas along Queen Street are well utilized. The Downtown Core has an equal number of Municipal on- street free parking as it does pay parking spaces. Short term service based businesses on Queen Street rely on turnover parking to meet their needs, which best can be achieved by pay parking directly in front of those businesses. Based on a full day of parking opportunity for a 7 days a week operation (9:00 am to 10:00 pm), there are more free parking hours then there are pay parking hours in the Downtown. Conclusions Providing parking free of charge makes it rarely available because it can be used by employees and customers for extended lengths of time and it is the first parking location everyone looks for, even though this makes it more difficult to find a space than when it was not free. We find that many people react to tickets negatively while paying a reasonable parkingfee is accepted. Free parking would also have an impact on monthly lease parking as patrons migrate from paid off - street parking to free on- street parking, so the financial impact may be greater than projected above. The best and highest use parking opportunities occur on Queen Street. These parking spaces provide short term parking opportunities for those businesses that require it. By providing free parking along Queen Street, there would be an impact on the short term clientele that those businesses rely on. There is acceptance of pay parking along Queen Street during regular business day (9:OOam to 5:OOpm) as demonstrated by the fact that parking along Queen Street is fully utilized as opposed to the underutilized side street free parking. The Downtown currently has a good balance of on- street free parking (for those who chose not to pay or who cannot afford to pay for parking) and on- street pay parking (for those who want the closest parking spaces and are willing to pay). Traditional methods of offsetting maintenance and operating costs for free parking requests in BIA Areas are instituted through a yearly levy or the use of other funds such as CIP funds used last year. The CIP funds utilized to offset budget shortfalls in 2010 were $22,000.00. Finally, revenues generated by the system are put back into the system to off set operational and capital expenses. Free Downtown parking would impact the Parking Operations and Parking Control budgets and would require extra Parking Control manpower to ensure parking turnover is taking place.