Several changes in store for downtown Bend parking

(Update: Adding downtown workers’ reaction)

Starting Jan. 1, several changes are in store for parking in downtown Bend after the city council’s 4-3 vote this week to expand the area covered by the downtown parking enforcement program.

On-street parking enforcement times will be extended to 7 p.m., an hour later then the current time of 6 p.m. Parking permits will change from paper to virtual. The hope is that will make it easier for downtown employees to manage their parking permits. However, employees of downtown who make less then $17 an hour will be able to get a 50 percent discount off the parking permit fee. This is to help encourage employees to not park in front of stores.

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The ParkMoblie app will be the only way to pay for parking at the Greenwood and Wall lot and on Irving Avenue. It will also be available for parking at the Mirror Pond lots and the Centennial parking garage. This is a new app for Bend downtown parking. It is available now for download, but will not go into effect until Jan. 1.

Councilors Nathan Boddie, Bill Moseley and Barb Campbell voted against modifying the boundary of the downtown Bend parking district to include parts of Riverside Boulevard, Franklin Avenue, Broadway Street and Louisiana Avenue.

City staff said this year’s successful test of a four-hour parking limit on Riverside Boulevard, including more customer turnover of spaces, allowed more people to park and visit Drake Park and prompted the move to include that area permanently. The Bend Park and Rec District has agreed to help fund summertime enforcement.

Staff said adding the other streets to the parking district will allow for enforcement and administration of on-street parking, boosting turnover (for spots to park) and reducing the impact on adjacent homes and businesses. It also expands the area where riding bikes, skateboards and the like on sidewalks are prohibited.

As of Jan. 1, a new four-hour time limit will go into effect for the Mirror Pond lots. Currently, free parking is available for two hours, with a paid maximum of eight. After the change, it will have a four-hour maximum — two free hours and two paid.

Along with some higher or lower fees (the parking garage fee, for example, will drop from $50 to $40 a month), councilors directed removing the $50 monthly downtown core and residential parking fee, as well as the $15 a month qualified employees paid to park in the Newport Avenue lot, where fees will drop overall from $45 to $20 a month.

Reduced fees take effect Jan. 1 but the fee hikes aren’t in full effect until July 1, with existing permit holders phased onto the new rates over that time.

Councilor Sally Russell said Wednesday night the long-standing issue has been how to keep parking available for customers and keep employees from taking up residential neighborhood parking spots.

Economic Development Director Carolyn Eagan said they will keep working with employers to get employees parked in the right spots, and a possible residential parking permit program could be considered by the new council in their goal-setting session.

Some downtown employees weighed in Friday with their thoughts on the changes. Chris Dejon has worked on Wall Street downtown for five years.

“We only have 8 people that work in this office and we only have one spot, said Dejon. “So, we have a text message chain that just says ‘parking’ and whenever someone needs to us the spot we just message each other and say ‘hey we’re going to be there more than two hours so don’t have to move cars around all day.”

Dejon said in general, he’s not happy about the changes, especially the on-street two hour parking limit enforcement that’s being extended to 7 p.m.

Liz O’Dell spends a lot of time downtown and said she’s onboard with some of the coming changes.

“The 50 percent off for the parking for the parking pass I think is great, because that is a problem that I know a lot of people down here run into that work,” O’Dell said.

Although O’Dell said she is on board with most of the changes, she said she is worried the requirement to use the app to pay for parking might be hard for some people.

Follow the link below to see the city of Bend’s downtown parking page, with current information, on its website:

https://www.bendoregon.gov/government/departments/economic-development/parking .