What do you think of the proposal for a parking permit program on Slate Canyon Drive?

Proposal

Over 200 residents of the Provost and Provost South neighborhoods have contributed in a proposed residential parking permit program that they hope will reduce need for zoning enforcement, reduce parking demand, and bring peace in the area.

Permit Program Area

The proposed parking permit program would span Slate Canyon Drive from the roundabout at 1350 East to the intersection of Slate Canyon Drive and State Street as well as 900 S from Slate Canyon Drive to 1540 East, 1080 South from Slate Canyon Drive to where it turns to a private road, and Nevada Avenue from Slate Canyon Drive to 100 yards NW from the intersection. They also propose eliminating on-street parking from Slate Canyon Park Road.

Hours

Parking in the permit area would be open to unrestricted public parking from 6:00 am to 1:00 am and open only to permit holders from 1:00 am to 6:00 am.

Cost

The cost of the program would be $15 and include ten one-day visitor passes and one seven-day visitor pass.

Eligibility

All properties that front Slate Canyon Drive would qualify for the number of spaces available in front of their house; one permit per 18 feet of continuous frontage. However, the permit would be valid anywhere in the permit area, not just in front of someone’s house (as is done in the other permit areas in Provo). For rental properties, permits would only be granted if the property owner has a current Rental Dwelling License and complies with its rules.

Transferability

Permits would be transferable—a resident who does not want to purchase permits they are may transfer the right to purchase the number of permits they are eligible for to a neighbor who also lives in the permit area.

Safety and Visibility

Residents have noted concerns about safety due to decreased visibility with cars parked near driveways. They also witness people driving above the posted speed limit.

Goals

The residents’ proposal has five stated goals:
1. “Gather as much resident opinion as possible and craft a parking program accordingly. Respect the desires of all residents.
2. Reduce parking congestion
3. Reduce need for zoning enforcement
4. Promote peace in neighborhood
5. Preserve Slate Canyon Drive and the canyon area for the entire community”

The entire Parking Permit Area Study can be downloaded here.

Staff Analysis of Residents’ Proposal

Permit Program Area

Based on staff counts and observation over several days, we see no need to restrict parking north of Slate Canyon Park Road or south of 1400 South because we did not observe any cars parking along the street beyond those boundaries. If parking regulation is to be implemented north of Slate Canyon Park Road and/or on Slate Canyon Park Road, we recommend that it be kept open to the public as overflow parking for Slate Canyon and the planned bike park adjacent to Slate Canyon Drive.

Hours

The proposed hours would work well for a residential permit area as it allows for easy visitor access during the day and restricts the number of cars that can park on the street at night when parking demand is the highest. At present time, there is one parking enforcement officer that works the overnight shift—but only Friday through Sunday. To effectively enforce an overnight permit area, parking enforcement would need to either hire an additional enforcement officer or extend the hours of existing officers to get another 25 hours per week of staff time. This would cost $19,240 per year, excluding payroll taxes and benefits.

Cost

Although $15 is the price of a parking permit in all current residential parking permit areas in the city, this price does not cover the estimated cost of enforcement. Based off our calculation using 2017-2018 average data, the cost to enforce a residential parking permit area is $297 per household.
If the city sold all 179 eligible parking spaces at $15 each and spent $297 for each of the 109 housing units enforcing it, it would incur a loss of $29,688 per year. Current permit programs have made up that cost with parking citation revenue. However, an effective permit area should have very few parking violations over time and create minimal citation revenue. In that regard, paying for the cost of enforcement with permit sales is more financially sustainable.

Eligibility

Selling only the number of permits as there are available on-street parking spaces is a great way to control the number of cars parking on the street. Doing this would decrease the likelihood that people would park in front of driveways,

no parking zones, or fire hydrants because there should be a space for them to park their car within a few hundred feet of their house.
Requiring that rental housing property managers have an active Rental Dwelling License (RDL) to purchase a parking permit is a good way to reinforce RDL compliance since tenants will more than likely want to park on the street and ask their landlord for a permit.

Transferability

Transferability of parking permits allows for more utilization of the parking supply as those who have no interest in purchasing a permit could give that right to their neighbors. The idea does require further discussion and planning as no other permit program allows for that yet. It must be decided how the rights will be transferred or if the city will allow permit holders to sell their permits to neighbors after purchase.

Safety and Visibility

The proposed permit could increase visibility in and out of driveways if it reduces the number of cars parked on the street during the day—during peak driving hours. However, daytime parking will be unrestricted and nighttime permit parking would still allow for up to 100% parking space utilization which means it may have little to no effect on increasing visibility.

Cost to City

The total estimated cost to implement and run the proposed parking permit program for year one would be approximately $33,373. Twenty-five new parking enforcement staff hours would cost approximately $20,000, 76 signs would cost about $3,000. The total annual cost estimate to enforce the area would be $32,373; this total includes vehicle, equipment, and software costs, and full-time administrative staff time and benefits. If the city sold all 179 permits for $15 each, it would earn $2,685. Parking ticket revenue could potentially make up the cost.

Does the Proposed Program Address the Stated Goals?

1. “Gather as much resident opinion as possible and craft a parking program accordingly. Respect the desires of all residents.”
   1. The organizers of the permit proposal held 11 discussion meetings that brought over 200 residents total.
2. “Reduce parking congestion”
   1. Based off staff counts, there is no need to reduce parking congestion because between 2% and 51% of parking stalls remain empty during peak usage, depending on the section of the street. See Appendix 1 for staff parking counts.
   2. Because staff always found parking vacancies on Slate Canyon Drive from Slate Canyon Park Road to 1400 South it is unlikely that a permit program that allows up to 100% parking capacity to be used would reduce parking utilization. However, it could if residents choose to park in their driveways or garages instead of purchase a permit and park on the street.
   3. Staff did notice three boats and trailers that were parked in the street at every count. These vehicles and others that sit for extended periods of time would be cleared off the street in a permit program. This would open more spaces for permit holders to park in.
3. “Reduce need for zoning enforcement”
   1. There have been 266 code enforcement cases for properties on Slate Canyon Drive between 1997 and 2019. Of those cases, 95 were for occupancy, 41 were for nonpermitted uses, 39 were for landscaping, 37 were for weeds, 20 were for lack of Rental Dwelling License, 18 were for junk and/or inoperable vehicles. There are currently four open code enforcement cases for occupancy and Provo Zoning Enforcement is researching and opening new cases from a list provided by Hannah Petersen, applicant for the parking permit program proposal.
   2. Restricting off-street parking to only homeowners and tenants who live in properties with current Rental Dwelling Licenses could reduce illegal over occupancy and need for zoning enforcement because renting in that area will be less attractive to potential tenants who have a car but no place to park. This would reduce need for zoning enforcement.
   3. People may park on front yards more frequently if they are not eligible for a parking permit or do not want to pay for one. This would increase need for zoning enforcement.
   4. People may clean out their garages and park all their cars in the garage and on driveways to avoid getting a parking permit and rental dwelling license. This would have no net effect on zoning enforcement.
4. “Promote peace in neighborhood”
   1. It is difficult to predict how residents would react to a parking permit program. Residents of the University Garden and Foothills permit areas tend to appreciate that their programs keep spillover from neighboring areas out but tend to not enjoy renewing permits, getting visitor permits.
5. “Preserve Slate Canyon Drive and the canyon area for the entire community”
   1. The proposed permit would eliminate on-street parking on Slate Canyon Park Road and restrict 1am-6am access adjacent to the planned bike and tennis park to permit holders only. It could make it more difficult to access Slate Canyon area parks on an extremely busy day if the parking lots are full.

Staff-recommended Alternative

Two-hour Time Restriction

Instead of a parking permit area, staff recommends a two-hour time restriction because it would cost less to the city and more easily accomplish the residents’ goals for their parking permit program.

Parking Regulation Area

Staff recommends that on-street parking be regulated along Slate Canyon Drive from Slate Canyon Park Road to 1400 South because that is the current developed area with parking usage. The area could be expanded to various side streets, such as Nevada Avenue, as needed.

Hours

Staff recommends that two-hour public parking be put in place from 9 am to 6 pm with unrestricted public parking from 6 pm to 9 am; Monday through Saturday.

Cost to City

Implementing a two-hour public parking restriction would cost the city less than a parking permit area because it could be done with existing parking enforcement staff that work during the day. These enforcement officers would shift priorities from another area to this one. Implementing a two-hour parking regulation along the 5717 feet of parkable space on Slate Canyon Drive between Slate Canyon Park Road and 1400 South would require installation of 76 signs at an average of $30 each. This would cost a total of $3,000 in signs and posts.

Safety and Visibility

The 9 am-6 pm two-hour time limit will increase visibility in the daytime as forces people move their cars from the on-street parking are. This means increased visibility in and out of driveways during daytime peak driving hours. Unrestricted parking at night means the existing utilization of on-street parking may still occur but it would be at night when people drive less.
In summer of 2019, Provo City Engineering studied Slate Canyon Drive and installed no parking signs near intersections where visibility could be a problem. The engineers used their standard formulas to calculate how far back parking should be removed for safe visibility.

Does the Proposed Program Address the Stated Goals?

1. “Gather as much resident opinion as possible and craft a parking program accordingly. Respect the desires of all residents.”
   1. Since this is a new idea, staff is unsure what residents would think about this alternative idea for parking regulation on Slate Canyon Drive.
2. “Reduce parking congestion”
   1. This two-hour time limit will quickly get unused cars, boats, and trailers off the street as they will be cited and ticketed.
3. “Reduce need for zoning enforcement”
   1. The two-hour parking regulation would make it difficult for people to rely on on-street parking during the day. This could naturally reduce illegal over occupancy if tenants with cars do not have an off-street space to park it in. This would reduce need for zoning enforcement.
   2. People may also choose to park in front yards to avoid parking tickets. This would increase need for zoning enforcement.
4. “Promote peace in neighborhood”
   1. Although parking regulation can be a contentious issue, staff feels that a two-hour limit (less restrictive than a permit program) may be easier for residents to accept.
5. “Preserve Slate Canyon Drive and the canyon area for the entire community”
   1. The two-hour limit would maintain public access to on-street parking on Slate Canyon Drive as well as Slate Canyon Park Road. This provides overflow parking for Slate Canyon parks in the unusual case that their parking lots are filled.

Conclusions

After analysis of the current situation and residents’ proposal, staff recommends implementing a less restrictive two-hour limit from 9am to 6pm Monday through Saturday and open, unregulated nighttime parking. Doing so would be far less expensive to the city and accomplish the desired goals of the residents.
However, if City Council decides to implement a residential parking permit area, we ask that you help us fund the cost of enforcing it and re-evaluate existing enforcement areas to normalize enforcement holidays and visitor passes to be more consistent throughout the city.