5. HRSR 05-02-2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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King Avenue Parking Lot Task Force Minutes Apri15, 2005 Page 2 2. Update on City Council Meeting held Agri14 2005 Ms. Mehelich, the City Economic Development Director, reported to the group that the City Council had discussed two items of interest to the Task Force on the previous evening. The first was that the City has received quotes to remove the former Municipal Utilities building on the King Avenue Parking Lot site, and the costs for asbestos removal and the removal of the building are both under estimate. She said that the Council has approved the plans and specs of the parking lot's design, but that they had brought up a question about the location of employee parking. Ms. Mehelich mentioned that she reported to the City Council that the Task Force had determined that employee parking would be restricted to the northwest quadrant of the site and may be signed with employee permits distributed to businesses in the area for hanging on the rear view mirror as'was discussed at the last meeting. Ms. Mehelich noted that the City Engineer, Terry 1\faurer, would be going door-to-door to businesses located adjacent to the King Avenue lot «rith information on the reconstruction. Ms. Mehelich also mentioned that the HRA liked the idea of adding signage to the parking lot during the reconstruction process directing people to other parking locations in the downtown area during reconstruction. She thanked the group for putting time into making recommendations on the parking lot design and enforcement. Mr. Holme asked if the access'to King Avenue at F-Iighway 10 would be closed. Ms. Mehelich responded that yes, the City Engineer had been informed by MnDOT officials that the access should be closed at this time for good, and would be closed anyway in the future. Ms. Raduenz added that this-issue had been addressed previously in the Task Force's early meetings by Mr. Maurer. 3. City of Elk River Parking Policies/Enforcement Chief Beahen addressed the group about the policies and restrictions for public parking still on the books with the City. According to Chief Beahen, the current parking provisions have been around for 50 years, although at the outcry of downtown businesses the police department has not strictly enforced parking provisions since 1998. Rather, the police department now responds to calls, checks on signs and abandoned vehicles that are observed or reported to the department and looks at vehicles which have been parking over extended time limits. Chief Beahen said that there has been a "hands-ofp' policy about long term (8-9 hours) parking enforcement since he joined the department in the 1990s, and that he "raised hairs" last year when officers ~~=ere instructed to chalk the tires of vehicles parking in downtown public spaces to see when vehicles were moved. After this exercise the police have realized that there are "lots of vehicles that don't move all day" in the downtown Elk River area. Mr. Holme asked if there was a four hour limit to parking in the downtown areas and whether the length of time could be changed? He also asked if business owners could receive a tag or designation indicating that an employee was using a particular spot. Chief Beahen responded that the department was considering issuing plastic mirror tags designed to hang from the rear view mirror and that the department would logistically need to determine how many to distribute to each business for their individual needs and also how to collect them after an employee left. Mr. Holme responded that business owners "needed to also take responsibility for this" and felt that afour-hour parking spot was "too long". Chief Beahen responded that there should be a shorter amount of time specified in the new King Avenue lot (i.e., two hours or less) and that extended periods of parking