Kruzan says Sabbagh has not taken action since joining council

IU students living at Smallwood Plaza, 455 N. College Ave., might have a harder time finding parking when they return to Bloomington in August.\nThe first topic on the agenda of last week's city council meeting was whether to establish a new zone-10 residential permit-parking zone. The City Council is expected to vote on this measure at the July 11 council meeting.\nSusie Johnson, director of Public Works, brought forward a collective complaint from residents on the near west side living from Sixth to Ninth streets between Rogers and Maple streets. Johnson said the number of cars parking in these neighborhoods has become a nuisance to those living in the area.\nThe problem began shortly after Smallwood Plaza was built, and because many of the vehicles that are being “stored long-term,” as Johnson said, have out-of-state license plates, the neighborhood attributes much of the problem to IU students living in the apartment complex. City and county workers are also believed to be using these neighborhoods for parking.\n“A lot of out-of-state vehicles are parked in these neighborhoods for a long period (of) time,” Johnson said in her \naddress to the council. “Homeowners are unable to find parking spaces near their homes.”\nJohnson suggested an ordinance that would create the city's 10th residential parking zone – and the first one that is not in direct proximity to IU. The new ordinance would allow neighborhood residents to buy permits that give them unlimited parking privileges. Other vehicles would have a two-hour limit, which was created due to the schools and businesses in the neighborhood.\nCity Councilman Stephen Volan said the neighborhood zones have been incredibly successful. The majority of people parking in these neighborhoods do not want to pay for parking, but that is part of the expense of living in Bloomington, he said.\n“Some of the students may not want to pay for the parking provided by Smallwood,” Volan said. “But that is the cost of modern life – life in a city.” \nVolan said a lot of the people parking in these neighborhoods, especially Smallwood residents, have a choice to drive. This new zone may cause them to choose not to drive or not to bring their cars to school, he said. The issue is those who do not have a choice, such the residents of the near west side, Volan said. \nAnother solution to the overall parking problem in the city is better management of the municipal parking garages, Volan said.\n“Several different studies have shown even at ‘max capacity’ that city parking garages only hold 53 percent of their capacity,” Volan said.\nMayor Mark Kruzan has proposed bringing in Indianapolis-based company REI Property Management to manage the city's three parking garages. The hope is to bring some of the vehicles that park long-term off the streets and into the garages, leaving the streets open for residents and downtown shoppers.\n“REI demonstrated we could recover a lot of our spaces through management,” Volan said. “If you buy a permit in one of the garages, you are guaranteed a space, unlike IU permits, which allow you to park when available.” A big problem on the streets around the center of downtown is that many parking spaces have two-hour limits. This forces workers to move their cars every two hours, which creates parking problems for diners and shoppers.\nRepublican mayoral candidate and Bloomington City Councilman David Sabbagh is not confident that REI is the solution to Bloomington's parking problems.\n“What we need is a comprehensive, city-wide parking plan, which is two-and-a-half years too late,” Sabbagh said. “REI is not a plan.” \nSabbagh said it is possible a professional company is needed to better manage the garages, but REI will not fix the overall parking problem in the city. He said the city is losing good businesses and jobs because the lack of parking downtown.\nKruzan criticized Sabbagh and said he has had a lack of plans since he took a seat on the council.\n“David has been on the City Council for three terms and in all that time I have not seen a plan from him for parking – or any other topic for that matter,” Kruzan said. “His idea to spend millions of dollars to build a new garage does not make sense when there are high vacancy rates in the existing facilities.”\nKruzan said his plan is to begin with better management of the three city garages, then turn to on-street parking. The mayor said he has already met with the Chamber of Commerce to help him analyze the implementation of meters, specifically which kinds of meter technology should be used and where the meters should be installed.\n“The goal is to encourage long-term parkers to use garages so that there is more turnover on the public streets,” Kruzan said in an e-mail. “That strategy will allow for more people to find parking when they come downtown to shop or have a meal.”