Privatizing public parking spaces will make parking your car more expensive, report shows

The City of Sacramento is preparing to debate the merits of leasing away 9 publicly owned parking garages and right to manage parking meters in the Downtown core for the next 50 years as part of their efforts to build a new arena at the Railyards. We here at ranSACkedmedia have received an early copy of the report scheduled to be released to the public on December 8th, and these are some of the more interesting points made in the piece:

• Currently, on-street meter rates are $1.25 per hour. The study assumes that the new company would increase that at least $0.25 per year until the rates reach $2.00 per hour, and then an additional 3% per year going forward. Monthly parking would increase $5.00 a year through at least 2015.

• The study assumes that at least an additional two hours of operation per day for Midtown parking meters, a move that would extend fees to 8pm from 6pm. Once that model is proven to be viable, there would be nothing in place to prevent the company from enforcing parking meters 24-hours-a-day.

• Current parking citations in Sacramento average $70 apiece. The new private company would increase that fee by 3% a year starting in 2012. Most of that revenue would go to the private company; $12.50 would go to the State of California. None of it would go back towards the City’s general fund.

• Commercial space in the parking garages would see their rents increase by 3% a year. Recently, Fog City Café left its location at a city-owned parking garage after not paying its rent for nearly two years. It’s hard to say how realistic it is to expect any business to afford such rent increases during the current economic hardships the city is facing.

• After Chicago privatized its parking meter operations in 2009, the public responded with an outcry over the 218% increase in meter rates. While in the past the city obtained about $20 million in annual revenue from its meters, the new private company is on pace to generate more than $73 million in 2011 alone.

• The study also assumes that there will be nearly 23,000 more employees in Downtown Sacramento in the next 20 years, and that 21,000 new housing units, an increase of over 260%, will become available during the same time-frame.

We’ve made the entire report available for you to read for yourself here.

In related news, sources close to the parking project have told the Sacramento Bee that the City of Sacramento might be able to get slightly more than $200 million in upfront cash by leasing its parking rights to a private firm. However, the City Council will also need to come up with a way to replenish the funds that they would normally receive from parking revenues. Right now, the city brings in an estimated $10 million a year from its parking department, and as it sits now, the city is already projecting multi-million dollar budget shortfalls over the next five years.

Related posts:

1. Report lists serious hurdles to overcome before new Downtown Arena becomes reality
2. “Here We Build” movement renamed, arena impact report released, NBA lockout looms
3. The most awesome public comment at a Sacramento City Council meeting ever