Parking Utility Revenue – 01/01/15 – 11/30/15
January 5,2015
Boyd A. Loving
Ridgewood NJ, This data was obtained via a formal Open Public Records Act request.
As you can see, discounting the insurance company settlement received in connection with the theft of funds by Thomas Rica, the largest source of line item revenue for the Parking Utility during the noted time period is cash from on street parking meters.
Other significant revenue sources include: Fees for annual parking permits, rental fees for dedicated parking at the Route 17 Park & Ride, CBD employee parking at the former Ken Smith Motors facility, metered parking at lots on Cottage Place, North Walnut Street, Prospect Street, Station Plaza, Hudson Street, and the Route 17 Park & Ride, and revenue generated from the Park Mobile smart phone application.
This data should enable you to understand why a proposed increase in metered parking rates, coupled with a extension of the time metered parking is in effect, could significantly boost overall Parking Utility revenues.
So everything is significant. If you have deep pockets and your stock portfolio is doing well you will gladly pay more for metered parking. If an out-ot-towner is short on cash they will dine somewhere else.
Ridgewood residents are rich, so if they are main source of revenue for parking there is no problem. If Paramus folks are etc. , it’s another story.
Rolling that revenue into garage funding is misleading. I know that it is all part of the Parking Authority but the new revenue does not do the job. They are increasing fees and the hours to feed them. If the village needed funds they could have easily done this without the garage.
How does the new garage stand on its own? Factor into this the lost parking spots in the Hudson Street area.
Being distressed by increased fees and hours of meter operation has very little to do with one’s annual income! Let’s not discount the annoyance factor, increased risk of getting a ticket and accompanying stress, and nonwelcoming atmosphere.
Meter parking in Ridgewood is a bargain compared with other towns that have CBD’s. Besides Ridgewood residents shop at Target, Kohls ……and Walmart so what difference does it make if the meter rates are raised.
name some of those towns?
6:58 p.m. what about Glen Rock and Westwood for starters.
I don’t know about Glen Rock, but Westwood has Ridgewood beat on both the stores and the meters.
Bill H. Glen rock does not have meters and Westwood is cheap! .25 for an hour.
@6:58 suggested that Ridgewood is a bargain…not feeling it
6:58 –
Ridgewood definitely not a bargain! From my favorite study (https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/manager/2015walkerFinal.pdf), page 31:
Ridgewood = $0.50/hr
Summit = $0.50/hr
Montclair = $0.75/hr
Morristown = $0.50/hr
Englewood = $0.50/hr
Etc.
No comparable towns, other than perhaps Princeton and some of the garages in Morristown, charge the $1.00/hr that may eventually be implemented in Ridgewood.
Thus, many of us have recommended raising the rates right away to see if the financial projections are accurate and the supposed minimum impact to downtown businesses is correct.