City looks to boost parking revenues

As part of the continuing effort to make up expected budget deficits, the city of Las Vegas is looking into what could be the least-favorite part of any local government: parking fees and enforcement.

Treacherous ground, surely, as far as public opinion goes. But the city already makes millions of dollars a year from meters, leased parking and fines and is now looking for private companies who might want to help generate even more revenue.

The proposals should address "how they can more efficiently operate, how they can more efficiently generate revenue," said Scott Adams, Las Vegas' chief urban redevelopment officer. "And is there a way to increase revenue, and possibly even monetize it?"

The options could range from raising rates and fines to turning over the management of city parking spaces to a private company, or even selling parking assets outright.

"We're not saying that's going to happen here," Adams said.

"We're interested in what people have to say."

The bid package is available at the city's Web site, www.lasvegasnevada.gov, and proposals are due by 1:30 p.m. Feb. 19.

The city leases or owns more than 6,500 parking spaces, including 1,255 street-level meters, 1,492 spaces in surface lots and 3,812 spaces in eight garages.

The city netted $2.8 million from those spaces in 2009, with $2.1 million of that coming from permit parking or meters in the garages.

In addition, "ordinance enforcement," or parking tickets, brought in $4.2 million.

Parking revenues are used to pay for the 20-member parking enforcement staff as well as debt service on the garages the city owns. The parking fund runs a surplus, though, and officials want to know if it can be bigger.

The idea came from a review of city operations undertaken because of dire municipal finances.

To meet shortfalls caused by the economic downturn, positions have been cut, vacancies left unfilled, capital expenditures and projects have been delayed, and some employees have been laid off.

The city also has looked at ways to increase revenue from the fees and licenses under its control, and this request for proposals is part of that effort.

"As the private sector does, they figure out how to be more rate-sensitive and revenue-sensitive with the customer," Adams said. "They find out where that point is where you can raise revenues and not lose customers."

As he acknowledged, though, one issue for the city is having customers in the first place.

The city-owned parking garage on Stewart Avenue across from City Hall, for example, is used by city employees who pay for a space during the day. But meters in the public section run all day and all night, and the garage is usually mostly empty.

It generated $273,500 in the last budget year, against a debt still owed on its construction of $2.6 million.

The most stark example is Neonopolis, the retail center at the east end of the Fremont Street Experience. Las Vegas owns the parking lot underneath it and still owes $19.7 million for the land acquisition and garage construction, against annual revenues last year of $195,955.

Those spaces face competition from free casino parking as well as a garage operated by the Fremont Street Experience which customers can use for free with validation from certain casinos. Businesses in Neonopolis will validate parking for that center's garage.

Some business owners in the Fremont East Entertainment District have complained about city parking meters there discouraging people from frequenting the trendy downtown cocktail scene.

What's more, the fact that the economy is down might mute interest in the city's parking assets, Adams said.

The city raised some parking fines in 2006, but the most familiar one -- $20 for parking at an expired meter -- stayed the same.

Other cities have gone down that road. Chicago leased its parking meters to Chicago Parking Meters LLC for 75 years in exchange for a $1.2 billion upfront payment. The company raised rates and took over managing and maintaining the meters, and keeps all revenue from them, except for fines.

The changeover occurred in early 2009 and did not go smoothly, with mislabeled meters charging incorrect rates, a surge in broken meters and increased ticketing, according to news reports.

Atlanta took a less drastic approach. In November, parking matters were outsourced to a company called PARKatlanta, which became responsible for meter collections and maintenance, parking ticket issuance and collections, and booting tires and towing.

Under the seven-year contract, Atlanta is guaranteed $5.5 million annually, more than twice as much as it collected previously.

The company didn't raise parking rates but nearly tripled the number of metered parking spaces and expects to go after a backlog of more than 150,000 delinquent parking tickets.

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.