By David Rotenstein
NKyTribune reporter
Kyle Snyder wears many hats as Covington’s parking guru. “I’m the executive director of Covington’s Motor Vehicle Parking Authority for about six, seven more months,” Snyder said one day after the city announced his retirement Jan. 20.
Snyder’s retirement caps a 29-year public service career, the final four years with the City of Covington. “I started in this role half in economic development and infrastructure. It kind of evolved into 90% of my time was parking, which a lot of that parking is infrastructure,” Snyder explained over coffee in one of Covington’s popular third places.
The City of Covington has four parking garages and about 13 surface parking lots the city owns or leases. The city also regulates parking through on-street meters, designated curbside zones and a residential parking district in the Licking-Riverside neighborhood.
Snyder quickly rattles off parking garage and lot locations and statistics. There’s one statistic he didn’t have: How many parking spaces are there in Covington?
“That’s a tougher question than you would think,” he answered.
It’s not easy to answer because of the city’s ancient street grid that includes alleys and narrow residential streets. “It’s easy to measure the block face, but it’s, um, then there’s fire hydrants, there’s alleys, there’s a lot of things that kind of take those away,” Snyder said.
And, he gives high marks to Covington residents’ parking skills: “Most of our residents also are really good at parallel parking.”
Snyder’s background is in geography. He spent lots of years working for local governments as a Geographic Information System (also known as GIS) specialist. GIS systems are used in local planning, zoning, real estate records management, the environment, and law enforcement.
Snyder worked for several Ohio local governments before working for 18 years in Kenton County’s Planning and Development Services department. He cites his GIS experience as a good foundation for dealing with Covington’s parking issues.
“That’s kind of why I was a good fit for that role to start with,” Snyder said. “I knew next to nothing about parking going in, except that as a GIS person, we use aerial photography every day.”
Aerial photos and data helped to turn Snyder into what he calls a “landscape ecologist.” Using all of these resources, he approached solving Covington’s parking problems by trying to understand how all of the moving parts fit together, including shopping habits and employee commuting patterns in local restaurants and bars.
Snyder analyzes data, talks to business owners and residents, and then formulates solutions.
One of Snyder’s initiatives has been trying to get metered parking in MainStrasse Village. “We have it in the rest of the city for the most part in commercial districts, Roebling Point, Madison Corridor,” he said. None of those areas are experiencing the parking pressures like bustling MainStrasse.
Snyder’s MainStrasse solution is to reintroduce parking meters and implement an affordable option for bar and restaurant employees away from storefronts. Convenient metered parking would be available to patrons and employees could park at reduced rates in nearby garages and lots.
“If we can get your staff off the street, it opens up the street, which will be metered for your patrons to park and pick up more conveniently,” Snyder said. “And for your Doordash drivers, to be able to pop in and pop out and pick up your takeaway customers.”
Snyder believes that getting metered parking in high-traffic shopping and entertainment districts is essential to the city’s economic health. It helps with turning over spaces for new customers during the day and it can bring in revenues to the city.
There’s one big sticking point, though. “Nobody wants to pay for something they’ve been getting for free for a long time,” he said.
Some of Snyder’s accomplishments include the 2024 installation of Clive, the 3D alien sculpture mounted on the Midtown Parking Garage. Snyder administered the city’s Quality of Place grant program, which introduced a lot of public art throughout the city, including Clive.
An artist approached the city with a proposal to install a massive fiberglass sculpture on a building. “I don’t know what building,” the artist told Snyder.
Snyder replied, “I’ve got a building for you that would work out really well because there’s already hole in it.”
Snyder also takes credit for introducing spaces for bicycle, scooter and motorcycle parking in city garages and along several streets, including West Pike Street near city hall.
“If you’re trying to manage the ecosystem of parking, you really very quickly start thinking about transportation in general, bike [and] ped components,” he said. “We’ve recently added two-wheeler parking in some kind of wasted spaces.”
Though he’s proud of the innovations, Snyder also described some of the more mundane tasks he’s tackled since 2022. “We got a lot of nuts and bolts things done, too,” he said.
There was a lot of deferred maintenance in the city’s garages. Projects Snyder managed included repairing the elevators and concrete in the River Center Garage.
Another big project was replacing the city’s antiquated parking meters: “We replaced all the 80s-era parking meters with new modern meters that take credit cards, that we can program to do extra special things,” Snyder explained. “We’re going to start using them for smart meters, smart loading zones and a handful of other things.”
Snyder witnessed major changes to the city in his time here. “Things are going to change significantly. The landscape has changed a fair amount in the four years that I’ve been here,” he admitted.
It’s been a good job and he’s enjoyed working with residents and business owners. But, it’s time to step back and relax.
“It’s just a good personal move for me. I am enjoying this job and then I think I’m doing a lot of good, good things for the city,” he said. “But it just kind of made sense timing wise for me.”