By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
The City of Covington will launch its new Parking Authority this year.
The authority will be responsible for overseeing the city’s parking assets, evaluating parking needs, and analyzing potential investments throughout the city. The change comes amidst a period with $150 million in development in the Central Business District and in Mainstrasse Village that has created much greater demand for parking.
Covington City Manager David Johnston explains how the city’s new parking authority will function at the July Covington Business Council luncheon (Photo by Mark Hansel).
Covington City Manager David Johnston spoke about how the Parking Authority will work and its impact at the July Covington Business Council Luncheon.
Johnston, who will serve as Executive Director of the Authority, outlined how the Authority will impact the current outsourced parking management group ABM, He also discussed the financial impact to Covington’s revenues as the City works to create a more positive experience for residents, workers and shoppers.
Johnston said Covington now has to deal with a problem common to many older urban areas, which is a focused, directed effort to deal with parking.
“Our city, that we’ve all been a part of and really enjoy has seen a resurgence in the last number of years,” Johnston said. “City Hall has been getting a lot more complaints, a lot more ideas about how parking needs to be addressed. So, we’re a victim of our own success that we have to deal with these modern urban issues.”
In January, the City Commission created the Covington Motor Vehicle Parking Authority and appointed five citizen business men and women to serve on it. Members include former interim City Manager Loren Wolff and Ron Washington, who were appointed to four-year terms, Kelly Charlton (three-year term), Ray Hardebeck (two-year term), and Paul Weckman (one year term).
Johnston said people have come to think of parking as a right, but in today’s world, it is really a commodity
“We needed to continue to support the strong economic revitalization happening in Covington because what we were hearing is that parking could be a limiting factor for this momentum and therefore we had deal with issues,” Johnston said. “We also had to realize that the city’s success, and that involved all of the many people in this room and more, caused a shift, where parking demand equals parking supply. This is a reality and we have to deal with it, parking demand is exceeding parking supply.
Members of the Covington Business Council and guests listen to Covington City Manager David Johnston explain the challenges to parking in the urban core and how the City plans to address them (Photo by Mark Hansel).
On the north end of the city, where much of the revitalization is occurring, city-owned assets include 14 surface lots, equaling 564 spaces, three parking garages with about 1,600 spaces and 420 parking meters.
“The demand on the north end is being caused because we have great attractions, great things are happening,” Johnston said. “We have great restaurants we have good parks, the riverfront, we have amenities offered by our suburb to the north, Cincinnati.”
The City has also has an increased focus on tourism and there is a surge in multi-family and mixed-use development, which creates an even greater demand for parking.
“As we become denser, we’re seeing single-family homes turn into five or six apartments in neighborhoods,” Johnston said. “We’re seeing our mixed-use development, where it will be retail redone on the first floor in old buildings, but might have three or four apartments upstairs. Well, people that live there, more often than not have a care, so the existing parking supply that had single-family folks living above stores or in larger homes, there is now competition for that space.
There is also a demand for commercial development, so to ensure parking is not a limiting factor to growth, the City Commission used its authority under Kentucky statutes to create a municipal parking authority.
“Louisville and Lexington have a parking authority in our state, but more often than not, you have to run it like your water and sewer districts are run and that’s as an enterprise,” Johnston explained. “That’s where the revenue stream generated by the paid parking pays for the expense for parking, hopefully there is a profit, too, but you have to view it that way.”
The management and financial responsibilities will be shifted the city’s general fund, to the parking authority, including debt. The three bonds for the parking garages are now going to be funded through the revenue structure, not through the city’s general fund.
Johnston said that was done for a few reasons.
“The parking authority is going to be getting into interesting debates in the future about market rate, price point – how much is charged for parking,” he said. “Cincinnati raised the (parking) rates to balance the budget because it’s in the city’s general fund. This way, we depoliticize parking by taking that out of the general fund by saying the price points will be dealt with to cover the cost of public parking in the city, only.
It will not be available to pay for city services, such as fire and police, or streets; it’s solely for parking.
The concept of using basic, fundamental business principles, in a local government, to match a public need and public demand is new to a lot of people and Johnston finds it fascinating, but potentially beneficial to the City and its residents.
For example, one city garage needs about $200,000 worth of repair, but because it was in the general fund, it had to compete for funding.
“Lots of time once you build it, you don’t have to worry about it until something bad happens,” Johnston said. “We really didn’t have a focused asset management program on how to keep up property. All of you business owners know you have to invest in your facilities.”
The parking authority now has the responsibility, so one of its roles will be to establish long-term and mid-term capital asset funds so if something happens, there is money is available.
“It’s a different way of things and this group of folks are going to be having interesting discussion points on all of these things and more,” Johnston said. “We have said we have to work to support commercial development in our city and we are.”
Parking a priority in development projects
Covington City Manager David Johnston said the Duveneck Square Phase II development will include a 700-stall parking facility. At least 100 of the spots will be dedicated for public use, with the potential for more spaces to be available in the evening and on weekends (provided image).
The new River Haus Development, also known as 501 MainStrasse, will have parking underground with retail and market rate apartments above it.
“This development is a partnership between the City and this developer because it needed a public parking lot to build on,” Johnston said. In the negotiations, the City said, you need to replace the public parking spaces in your facility, so there is the same number of public parking asset that was (there), when it was a surface lot. The only difference is that the surface lot was free, so this is about 108 public parking spaces, 24/7.”
With this project, there is not a net gain, but Johnston said there is a beneficial tradeoff for the City. There will be more people in the city to visit businesses, and a few places for new retail and commercial opportunities on the first floor. The public that goes to MainStrasse and the surrounding area also still has access to parking.
The City is also working with the developer of the John R. Greene project in MainStrasse, which is envisioned as commercial space with market-rate housing as well, that will provide a net increase of parking in the area.
“The agreement there is, we are providing them with revenue on the front end to guarantee in perpetuity anywhere between 90 and 105 public parking spaces in the heart of MainStrasse,” Johnston said. “Hopefully that development will start sometime this fall. The City has agreed to contribute $2.5 million to that long-term public parking and the Parking Authority is going to be issuing approximately $22 million in revenue bonds to pay the developer to build the parking garage.”
The revenue generated by the Parking Authority facilities have to be at a spot where it can pay off, over 30 years, $22 million in bonds. The concept is similar to businesses taking on long term debt for projects and incorporating repayment into its price points.
Probably the most visually impressive project in the area is the Duveneck Square Phase II development. The parking garage will be located to the left of the main structure.
“It’s a 700-stall parking facility and we know there are going to be at least 100 or so public parking spaces guaranteed every day,” Johnston said. “Businesses that will be leasing spaces in that parking garage aren’t 24/7 operations, so at night we may see public parking that will support both the MainStrasse area and the new Madison Avenue commercial hotpots that don’t exist today. It’s going to be a wonderful asset when we get that built.”
There is concern among some that because the development is taking place in an area that also includes a residential component. Johnston said the City recognizes the challenges that presents and plans will include ways to provide adequate residential parking as well.
“There’s going to be talk of how do we create neighborhood parking program to help the folks who enjoy living near the attraction but they don’t get totally inconvenienced by the tourism activities that occur in our city,” Johnston said.
The monthly Covington Business Council Luncheon provides opportunities for members to interact with each other, as well elected officials and community leaders. Luncheons generally include a presentation on a topic of local interest to the community and take place at the Madison Event Center in Covington.
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com
