I got a call from a reader angry about the parking situation downtown, and she specifically wasn’t happy about the city leasing parking to the owners of the Flatiron Building for parking along Bay Street.

It’s not fair that the general public can’t use the 15 parking spaces, which are public property, she said.

The city decades ago first signed a contract with the building owners to guarantee parking along the short section of Bay Street between Prospect and Champion streets (the spaces are across from the American Museum of Radio and Electricity). It was a piece of candy in the late 80s to keep the company from joining the ranks of many others and fleeing downtown.

The contract is a long-term lease of those parking spots, and the company pays full parking rates. They lease the spots from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays for their employees. The Flatiron Building is the triangle-shaped one that now housing the engineering company CH2M Hill.

The city extended the lease to last through August 2010. When the company leaves the space, which they plan to do soon to move to the waterfront, the lease expires.

Click here to see the latest update of the contract.

Opal Mahoney, parking services manager at Bellingham Public Works, gave me a heads up on this the other day but I completely forgot to put it on Traffic Talk until today.

Parking Services is moving from the Pacific Street Public Works facility into City Hall. They’ll be closed starting tomorrow through Friday to do the move. They’re moving into the permit center, which is on the ground floor (to get there, go in the main entrance, go down the hall to the left and take a right into the permit center).

They’ll open next Monday at that location.

Click here to see a postcard notifying people of the move.

The Parking Commission discussed installing the LUKE automated pay stations in the Civic Center area (city hall, courthouse, library, etc …).

I’m at the meeting right now, and the commission seems pretty set on installing the pay stations. But they also aren’t going to make a decision until at least after next month’s meeting, when they hope to get more feedback from the public, including businesses in the area and Whatcom County.

The draft 2010 budget for the parking fund has about $120,000 in it to buy the pay stations.

Library Director Pam Kiesner was here this morning to discuss library employees’ thoughts on the project. She said employees are wondering if Public Works could install shelves on them, so that people carrying handfulls of books can set them there while paying.

“People just arrive with armloads full of stuff,” she said.

Also, she wanted to ensure that they’re facing the sidewalk, so parents with lots of kids don’t have to stand out in the street (that’s the way Public Works already orients them, so no problem there).

She was also worried library patrons would lose their disabled parking spots and free short term book dropoff spots. Clark Williams, superintendent of transportation and communications, said they’d get to keep those spots.

Also, Public Works installed shelters over the pay stations at the small parking lot next to LaFiamma, and they had a shelf for people’s coffee. He thought it would be a good idea to place shelters over the pay stations in Civic Center.

If approved, Public Works would buy the pay stations early next year and then install them early in the spring, when the weather starts to warm up a little, Williams said.

As part of the project to install the automated stations, the commission was considering installing abotu 169 low-cost, long-term parking meters in what are now free spots outside of the Civic Center. They would allow eight hours of parking for 25 cents per hour, for a total possible cost of $2 a day to park.

That could prove very unpopular with some government employees because those spots are free now.

“I’m suspecting that it’s not going to be as popular in these areas because it’s going from free to cost,” commission member Susan Horst said.

But she also noted it could also encourage some of them to take the bus or alternative transportation modes. Also, if any government employees need to drive but can’t find a place to park, the meters could help turnover parking spots so they can find a spot.

That being said, the commission wasn’t ready to make a decision on the parking meters today. It sounds like there’s interest in waiting until after the automated stations are installed to see what drivers do.

The city’s project to retrofit and repair the elevator in the Parkade is done, to the tune of about $400,000, said Clark Williams, superintendent of transportation and communications at Bellingham Public Works.

The project, which used parking fund money (parking meter, permits money etc …), required completely gutting out the concrete shaft and installing a new elevator. It also involve building a roof structure over the top of it to keep water out of the elevator and its electronics, he said.

Parts for the project had to be brought in from all over the world.

The project was started in 2008.

Talk about an expensive elevator. Maybe the city could install a LUKE in the elevator, making it so you have to pay by the floor, or even to get out of the elevator.

Just kidding. =)

The Bellingham Parking Commission will talk about a plan by Public Works Parking Services staff to install 169 parking meters in various areas around downtown. The meters would allow eight hours of parking at a rate of 25 cents per hour, which is one-quarter the cost to park at other meters.

The commission has been talking about wanting to do this to provide an incentive to get employees of downtown businesses to park for a full shift in outlying areas and walk to work, rather than park right in front of the business and take up parking for customers.

According to an analysis put together by Opal Mahoney, parking services manager, the additional meters could yield the city an additional $31,500 to $38,500 a year.

The commission is also talking about installing the automated LUKE pay stations in the Civic Center area (around the library, courthouse, city hall, etc …).

I got a copy of the map, but it’s in a Word format with images and I can’t get it to show up right with a couple of different applications. I’m trying to get a copy of the map maybe in a PDF or a JPEG format.

In the meantime, here are the locations where they’re talking about putting the long-term meters:

The commission is scheduled to talk about this at the meeting on Thursday, Sept. 24. The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. at the Bellingham Public Library’s downstairs lecture room.

They have a total of 50 minutes scheduled for both topics.

UPDATE AT 4 P.M. SEPT. 22: Success! I had to get creative, but I got a copy of the map. I had to go into print preview and then take a screen shot of the image, and then I cut it out in the Paint program). Click here to see the map.

Here is a small version of it:

Here are some more photos of the Bellingham participation in the international (Park)ing Day event today:

Bellingham resident Matt Rowell (left) and Eric Simonsen, who recently moved from Bellingham to Anacortes, play pingpong. Today was Rowell’s 24th birthday.

David Kaltenbach first saw the demonstration on his way to Pel’Meni to get Russian dumplings for lunch. After lunch, he came back and painted a picture before he started playing the guitar and singing. “Honestly, I think this is a much better use of public space,” he said.

Here’s the picture that Kaltenbach painted.

Organizers for the local events connected to (Park)ing Day are currently setting up their demonstration along Cornwall Avenue near Holly Street.

Today is international (Park)ing Day, where people convert parking spots in downtowns around the world into mini-parks. It’s a demonstration of how much space society devotes to storing cars, and it provides other possible uses for the space.

Here, organizers have seven parallel spots along Cornwall they’re putting sod down on. They’ll be barbecueing hotdogs and playing badminton, among other activities. They’ll also show how many bicycles you can store in one spot.

I’m planning to go back after they get all set up to interview for an article tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some photos I snapped of them setting up:

A passerby talks with organizer Scott Pelton about his experiences traveling. Compared to other places, the man said, Bellingham doesn’t have a very progressive use of public space.

A woman driving by watches in curiosity as organizers put sod down on a city street.

Whew. I’m going to be a busy guy today and tomorrow. The County Council agenda and Bellingham City Council agendas for next week have been posted, and it looks like I’m going to have several articles to chase.

There’s also some transportation stuff they’re dealing with. I’ll be posting a bunch up here on those items.

Here’s the first post:

Bellingham parking enforcement officers are getting raises.

Starting in April, they got more responsibilities, including responding to traffic crashes and interviewing witnesses, responding to abandoned vehicles, completing reports and ordering the removal of vehicles on their own authority.

But they didn’t get a pay raise. So they petitioned the city’s human resources department, which looked into it with the police chief and union and decided they needed to go up a few salary grades. City staff is asking the City Council to approve spending an additional $12,440 this year for the additional pay and benefits for four parking-enforcement officers.

The money will be paid from the parking fund, which comes from parking revenues from meters and tickets downtown.

Click here to see more.

Hi all:

I just finished and turned in an article to run in tomorrow’s paper about organizers preparing for the (Park)ing Day - Bellingham project next Friday (Sept. 18). Locals are planning to take part in the international event in which people rent on-street parking spots and turn them into parks.

It’s a demonstration to show just how much public space we devote to cars. For example, in downtown Bellingham, 35 percent of land (40 acres) is devote to parking, and that’s not counting on-street parking.

Click here if you want to see more about this project.

There are some costs involved. An organizer estimated that it would cost about $80 for sod for an entire space, although you don’t have to do the entire space. Also, a meter hood will cost $15 for the day. Also, a Temporary Right of Way Use Permit, which is required, costs $25, but the applications says it’s free for nonprofit organizations and events. I wasn’t able to get a hold of a Public Works official who works in the city’s Permit Center to find out if participants in this event would have to pay.

Click here to see my last post on this topic.

A local woman did this project last year, but it was a lot smaller scale. Following is the article I wrote in June 2008 about her project along Magnolia Street:

(more…)

When CH2M Hill leaves the Flatiron Building at Bay and Prospect streets in Bellingham next summer, the 15 on-street parking spots they lease along Bay Street will become public again.

The engineering company currently occupies the signature triangle building near the new plaza at Bay and Holly streets. But next summer it plans to leave that building to move its nearly 300 employees down to a new site under construction near the Bellwether Hotel on the waterfront.

For about two decades, the city has had a lease with the company (actually, the company used to be Veco Engineering but was purchased) giving the company use of the parking spots adjacent to the building on the short segment of Bay Street. The company pays yearly at a full market rate for those spots, said Opal Mahoney, parking services manager at Bellingham Public Works.

“At the time the lease was granted it didn’t really impact anyone because downtown was a ghost town,” she said. That was 1989.

But the language of the lease is such that when the company leaves, the parking will revert to public use, which could help some of the business near there, especially Bayou on Bay and businesses in the Mount Baker Apartments building.