Parking revenue spikes in city
New programs and initiatives help to fuel modernization effort
New London — A boost in revenues to the city’s Parking Authority is helping to fuel a modernization effort at the city’s Water Street parking garage.
Budget projections indicate the Parking Authority this year, under Parking Director Carey E. Redd II, will experience a nearly 45 percent jump in revenues from 2016 — from $759,274 to at least $1.1 million. Redd initially budgeted for $960,000 in revenues but said he is confident he will far eclipse that number.
He attributes the increase to better accounting, the additional of more Electric Boat employees parking at the garage and most notably an influx of patrons of Cross Sound Ferry.
The revenues are offset in part by an expected $60,000 drop in revenues in parking violations — which Redd said is related to better parking compliance due to an overall improved parking system.
“We’re not finding that, ‘I don’t care I’m going to park here anyway,’ attitude,” Redd said.
“We’re not finding that, ‘I don’t care I’m going to park here anyway’ attitude.” CAREY E. REDD II, NEW LONDON PARKING DIRECTOR
Parking always has been a sensitive topic in the city, with the most recent controversy arising several years ago as the number of Electric Boat employees grew at their Pequot Avenue facility. Neighbors complained about the inundation of employees parking on side roads and in front of homes.
That issue was partially solved with a permitted parking program in and around the Fort Trumbull area. The city also instituted paid parking at the newly revamped municipal lot on Eugene O’Neill Drive. Reviews of paid parking in the downtown are mixed among business owners but Redd said the 50 cents an hour, with a two-hour minimum, is low enough to not deter visitors. Parking in the lot is free on weekends and after 6 p.m.
Parking meters were recently, and quietly, installed in the area of Hamilton and Howard streets and more meters are expected to crop up around the downtown in the near future.
Redd’s budget is part of an enterprise fund and the increase in revenues over the last two years is not only paying Redd’s $89,000 salary but this year will fund a $175,000 “parking and revenue control system,” equipment that allows visitors to use credit cards at the Water Street garage. Plans are also in the works to allow the entrance into the garage from Atlantic Street to be used as an exit when there is a flood of vehicles leaving the facility that at times causes delays and frustration.
The rush of vehicles coming in and out of the garage reached unprecedented levels this year and coincided with a jump in business at Cross Sound Ferry. Redd said the ferries expanded the number of days they are operating.
“Cross Sound basically blew the doors off the house because of their business model,” Redd said. “It’s had a positive effect, not only on the Parking Authority but the downtown as a whole. The trend over the next five years is that Cross Sound’s summer operations are going to increase 5 to 10 percent year over year for the next five years. They’re driving the bus during the summer months.”
A representative from Cross Sound Ferry did not return calls seeking comment.
Not only was the parking garage filling up more often this summer but Redd said that the Cross Sound Ferry customers were spilling over into an adjacent lot at Mariner’s Square, where the city has a contract for a number of spaces, and at the parking garage owned by William Cornish.
Cornish and Redd said the relationship between the two businesses has improved as the garages work together to service visitors. There were times during the course of a weekend this summer that Water Street garage turned over multiple times in a day. The Water Street garage currently has 995 spaces, with about 30 more in the surface lot outside.
Redd, who recently replaced ProPark with LAZ Parking as the parking management for the city, said there was an immediate jump in revenues when he started in 2016 because of an audit completed on the garage. The audit turned up fewer permit holders, which allowed the garage to open more space to the general public.
LAZ Parking will be paid about $378,000 for management of the Water Street garage, downtown parking areas and to provide parking ambassadors in the city, according to Redd’s budget.
Redd said the ambassadors don’t just issue citations. He said when he heard about onstreet parking complaints near Ocean Beach Park this summer, ambassadors were dispatched and provided “goodwill” by directing people out of certain areas without having to resort to tickets for every car illegally parked.
The extra money also is allowing the Parking Authority to catch up on some deferred maintenance. There is some work that was identified in a 2011 report that hasn’t yet been completed.
The updates at the garage are an important part of planning for the future Coast Guard Museum in 2021, which is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year to the downtown.
In anticipation of the museum, the city is working with Cross Sound to apply for federal funding for a $13 million to $15 million garage expansion project that would increase the number of parking spaces at the garage by 400.
Mayor Michael Passero created the position of director of parking and appointed Redd in 2016. Redd is the president of the New England Parking Council, former associate director of the Hartford Parking Authority and credited not only with increasing revenue but creating a comprehensive onstreet parking strategy for the city in 2006.
“It’s the miracle of professional management — someone who knows what he’s doing,” Passero said of the revenue increases and drop in parking complaints. “This is his career. He’s more than delivering what was promised when we hired him.”
“His goal is not simply to generate revenue for the city but help in the economic development goals in the city,” Passero said. “You have to manage the parking ahead of the development. I think he came into New London like an artist looking at a blank canvas.”