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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/7/2023 Item 6a, Stackhouse Steph Stackhouse < To:E-mail Council Website Subject:11/7/2023 Council meeting: 6.a PARKING PROGRAM UPDATE This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond. Council Members and City Staff, I’m disappointed to report that we have experienced a negative impact from the recent parking rate increases. As my emails below sent in June 2022 and Feb 2023 warned about, we have lost members to our studio due to the rate increases and a measurable impact to class attendance. For example, we used to have a variety of Cal Poly students, locals and people who worked or live near downtown in attendance for midday classes. Now it's mostly people who live or work near downtown. We’ve also postponed necessary rate increases because of the steep parking rate increases which make it more challenging for us to cover increasing operating and labor costs. I would urge you to make immediate changes to address the impacts to downtown businesses and locals wanting to visit downtown. In the immediate term, bringing back first hour free to our garages would help. and considering additional changes to the sharp increases for street parking. For businesses like ours which are generally shorter visits to downtown (under 2 hours), street parking is the most convenient option and therefore I would also urge near-term consideration for tiered pricing. A lower rate for the first 2 hours on the street and a higher rate after that. This would minimize impact to revenue and encourage people to park in the garages for longer visits downtown. In addition, the RFP that is being considered to study rates was something that should have been part of the parking & access management plan that was just updated last year. This caused unnecessary delays in developing options for rapidly mitigating any negative impacts that could have occurred. Unfortunately, what we are experiencing right now. The rate study should include detailed implementation plans and timelines for any recommendations so that there is rapid action to address this issue before the impact to downtown business is too great. Thank you for your consideration. Steph Stackhouse Owner, The Center Studio & Boutique 805.903.2729 Begin forwarded message: From: Steph Stackhouse < Subject: Fwd: Feedback on 6/7 Council Meeting Agenda item: 6a. Supplemental Budget 2022-23 Date: February 18, 2023 at 3:56:15 PM PST To: emailcouncil@slocity.org Council Members and City Staff, In response to the Parking and Access Management Plan, I would like to once again share my concerns about the potential impact to patrons to our business. I own the Center Studio and Boutique located at 672 Higuera St. We have owned and operated our business downtown for the past 8 1/2 years. We offer over 65 yoga and fitness classes per week and have over 1,000 visits to our studio downtown per week. I have included the email shared with Council last June, 2022 on this same topic. There was a robust discussion during last year’s meeting and I was very thankful that the City was able to use some ARPA funding to keep the first hour free parking in the garages for another year. Although the increased parking rates were approved in order to secure debt financing, I was hopeful with the direction from Council to look at ways to avoid the businesses and visitors to downtown bearing the brunt of financial shortfalls for the structure. I’m disappointed that the Parking and Access Management Plan as drafted, does not address pricing strategy or feasibility for other ways to finance the Cultural Arts District garage. The plan emphasizes promoting mode shifts and emissions reductions as the primary goal and while I don’t disagree with the importance of this goal, the reality is that SLO County lacks the infrastructure to support significant mode shifts. There are simply not enough viable alternatives to driving downtown particularly for those that live outside of SLO, as is the case for many of our customers. The cities that were chosen for comparison like Sacramento, Portland, Rotterdam, Strasbourg all have several alternative transportation options like trains, trams, subways, etc. We do not have this infrastructure in SLO County and so perhaps this was intended as aspirational but doesn’t reflect our reality now or five years from now. The local incentive program referenced in the plan is appreciated but I would encourage the city to also look for options for metered parking spaces. This could include things like demand pricing that is done in other cities, providing locals with a lower rate than tourists based on license plate registration, or providing options for businesses to offer parking validation (at the businesses' expense). My primary concern is on the steep increases at metered parking spaces as those are the parking options closest to our business. As I mentioned in my email below from June, 2022, if a customer is coming for a 60-minute class, they currently pay $3-$4 at a metered spot. With the approved rate increase to $4 per hour, July 2023, they will pay about $6-$8 per class. That is a steep increase that could deter customers and therefore severely impact our business. Within the past six months, we’ve already had customers cancel their membership due to the parking costs. In addition, this rate increase would make metered parking in SLO amongst the highest of any city in CA. I’ve detailed below the metered parking rates across several cities in CA, for an accurate comparison. With an increase to $4 on July 1 and another increase to $5 per hour in 2025, we would be one of the most expensive places to park in CA. Parking Meter Rates in CA, with links to data source (city website): City Parking Meter Rate per Hour Sacramento $1.75 Oakland $2.00 San Francisco $0.50-$6.00 Demand-based parking San Jose $2.00 Santa Rosa $1.50 Monterey $1.75-$2.00 Pismo Beach $2.00-$5.00 Demand-based pricing (10am- 6pm) Ventura $1.00 Beverly Hills $0.75-$2.00 Los Angeles $0.50-$6.00 Demand-based pricing Santa Monica $1.25-$2.50 Long Beach $1.00-$2.00 Our business mission is to make a positive contribution to our community through movement and mindfulness. We do this by offering free community classes each week, scholarships for training programs, and donating a portion of our sales each month to local charities. We are considering how operating downtown with these increased costs for our customers and staff aligns with that 2 mission. If you don’t live in SLO or even in some neighborhoods within the city, it’s a challenge to find a viable alternative to driving. We have a significant amount of workforce that live outside of SLO for which there is not a viable alternative to get downtown. Not to mention working families who have to drop kids at school or childcare. In addition to the economic vibrancy of our Downtown, this is about keeping our downtown accessible and being realistic about people’s need to park downtown. This plan falls short of expectations that were discussed last year when the increased parking rates were approved. Please consider ways to keep our downtown accessible for those that need to drive. Thank you, Steph Stackhouse Owner, The Center Studio + Boutique www.thecenterslo.com 805.903.2729 stephstackhouse@gmail.com Begin forwarded message: From: Steph Stackhouse < Subject: Feedback on 6/7 Council Meeting Agenda item: 6a. Supplemental Budget 2022-23 Date: June 3, 2022 at 5:14:42 PM PDT To: emailcouncil@slocity.org Council Members and City Staff, In response to the June 2nd press release about the proposed parking rate increases, I would like to share my concerns about the potential impact to patrons of our business. I own The Center Studio and Boutique located at 672 Higuera St. We have owned and operated our business downtown for the past 8 years. We offer 65 yoga and fitness classes per week and get over 900 visits to our studio per week. Our customers live throughout SLO County and come from as far as Paso Robles and Santa Maria to take classes at our studio. Our classes range from 45 min to 75 min and most are 60 min. So, if a customer parks at a metered spot, they pay a minimum of $3 for 90 minutes. With the proposed rate increase to $4 per hour, July 2023, they will pay about $6 per class. That is a steep increase that has the potential to deter customers, which could result in a severe impact our business. With the most recent set of parking increases last year (parking rate increases plus extending parking hours to 9p) and the loss of several parking spaces to parklets, we communicated to our customers that we take into account the extra expense of parking when pricing our services. It makes it more challenging for us to charge market value for our services with our location downtown. While we enjoy the benefit of tourists as a downtown business and charge market value for drop-in classes, the foundation of our business is based on locals who have monthly auto- pay memberships. Many of our members take class 2-3 times per week. If I put myself in the shoes of our members who live “driving distance” from downtown, I would have to consider alternatives with the proposed increases to parking. It is an impactful jump over the last couple of years particularly at a time when everything is more expensive. This also creates challenges for our employees, most of whom are instructors who come in to teach one class per day and so park at metered spaces or benefit from the first hour free in the downtown garages. This is a complex situation but given the potential impact to downtown businesses, I request that: 1) More time be spent doing a thorough analysis of parking rates throughout CA and how SLO would rank in terms of costs. I did a Google search of rates for several cities in the Bay Area, the Central Coast (Monterey to Ventura) and So Cal and most offer some amount of free parking in lots or garages and meters are $0.75 to $2.00 per hour. I could not find other cities that are as high as what’s being proposed. 3 2) The city consider allocating pandemic relief and economic recovery funds to fund the parking structure construction and investigate other potential funding sources and methods (grants, business sponsorships, private donors for creation of a new arts and cultural district). The Cultural District garage is an important addition to the infrastructure of our downtown but all efforts should be made to avoid harming downtown small businesses still in the process of recovering in many different ways from a challenging time. The core of our business is to provide services that help support physical and mental wellness, where people feel comfortable and safe gathering and spending time in our downtown. This is a material change for our customers and the sustainability of our business so thank you for your consideration. Steph Stackhouse Owner, The Center Studio + Boutique www.thecenterslo.com 805.903.2729 stephstackhouse@gmail.com Steph Stackhouse Owner, The Center Studio + Boutique www.thecenterslo.com 805.903.2729 stephstackhouse@gmail.com 4