By Greg Paeth
NKyTribune contributor
A parking plan designed to raise more money for Covington and create some parking space churn in the MainStrasse business district received a mixed public reaction Tuesday.
Meeting in a caucus to discuss a handful of topics, the commission gave no indication whether it intends to move ahead with the plan. It includes proposals that would create two-hour parking limits in much of the neighborhood, introduce rates at two city-owned lots, and impose a $25 permit fee for residents who park on the street.
The plan was presented as a potential revenue stream as the city searches for about $800,000 to pay for additional police officers and firefighters and a modest increase for other city employees.
While the commission did not tip its hand on the parking plan, Mayor Sherry Carran and Commissioner Chuck Eilerman voiced their support for a minimal increase in property taxes that would be due in October.
If the commission approves the tax increase, the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 would pay a tax bill of about $312, an increase of about $8 over what homeowners paid last year.
“I totally support taking the compensating rate plus four percent,” Carran said. “We haven’t done this since 2008.”
She was referring to a state statute that allows cities to raise their property tax revenues by four percent a year without allowing voters to challenge that increase at the polls.
City Manager Larry Klein said the city would have another $2.5 million in property tax revenues if previous city commissions had approved the four percent increase for the last 10 years.
“We have not kept up with the cost of doing business,” Klein said. “If we were selling bread, we’d be out of business.”
City Commissioner Steve Frank said he wants to know precisely how the money will be spent before he would decide on increasing property taxes. Commissioner Bill Wells didn’t indicate his position on the tax increase and Commissioner Jordan Huizenga did not attend the meeting.
Klein pointed out that the commission doesn’t have much time to ponder the tax increase. He said the proposal would have to be submitted for the required first reading next Tuesday with final passage and a public hearing on Aug. 25.
The property tax increase would raise about $200,000. The parking proposal could produce another $60,000 per year after the city spends some $75,000 on parking pay stations for Main Street and the parking lot on Fifth Street, west of Main.
About a dozen residents and business people who live in a neighborhood that radiates out from Sixth and Main streets weighed in on the parking proposal.
Mike Yeager, community services manager and city engineer, said he held several meetings with MainStrasse residents and the MainStrasse Village Association before drafting a parking proposal that has been discussed by city staffers for many years.
Yeager said one persistent problem is that people who work in Cincinnati or are attending Reds or Bengals games park their cars in MainStrasse and the take a bus across the river. They avoid higher parking rates in Cincinnati while they tie up a parking spot for hours.
When residents had a chance to comment on the plan, it became clear quickly that easy access to parking is a vital issue to some people who live near the shops, restaurants and bars in the city’s largest nightlife district.
“We actually tailor our lives around parking,” said Steven Wilson, who lives on Sixth Street and voiced concerns about any plan that might make parking more of a challenge than it is now.
“I walked here tonight because I had secured a parking space,” said a woman who lives on Seventh Street and probably walked six blocks to the meeting. “Sometimes I feel like I’m a prisoner in my own house.”
Attorney Alma Puissegur, who practices law in the Sixth Street building where she lives, said new parking fees could prove burdensome for some of her middle class neighbors who might struggle to find a parking space once they conclude a day’s work on the second or third shift. She also said that if she had to pay 70 cents an hour for eight hours a day with a parking meter, it would be equivalent to a tax increase of about $1,500 a year.
Attorney Thomas Korbee of the Lawrence Firm at Sixth and Philadelphia said two- hour time limits would be a huge problem for the firm, which has 17 full-time employees.
“That’s not going to work. If you have a two-hour limit, there’s no way we can work,” said Korbee, who pointed out that easy access to parking was one of the reasons why the firm moved to Covington from Cincinnati 11 years ago.
Former Covington Commissioner Shawn Masters, who said he owns two businesses and three buildings in MainStrasse, was one of the people who spoke in favor of the plan.
“It’s not perfect, but it’s a good start,” said Masters.
Masters added that he’s concerned because eight new restaurants will be opening in the near future. “Where are these people going to park?” he asked.