The Oxford Downtown Parking Commission is making progress with its proposal for a parking garage behind the Oxford-University Club on the Square.
The commission and the Board of Aldermen have considered building a garage since 2013, but the conversation stopped for a while after parking meters were installed on the Square in September 2014. The meters helped with the parking issue, but the commission believes there’s still a need for more parking.
Since their installation, the parking meters have generated $881,729.50 in revenue after expenses, according to the parking division’s year reports. If the commission gets the OK to build the garage, that money is expected to help fund it.
Parking meters are seen on North Lamar Boulevard on Monday. (File photo)
Matt Davis, the city’s director of parking, said the budget for the garage would not exceed $9 million.
The commission last met Thursday, Nov. 17, at city hall for a special work session. Commissioners and Mark Huelse, a member of the city’s planning commission, discussed the details surrounding the garage, including the idea of charging for parking in at least some portion of the garage to generate additional funding for its yearly bond payment.
The commission discussed how people would pay to use the parking garage, assuming some portion of it would be paid parking.
“The easiest way to do it is to just put meters in each spot,” commissioner Mike Harris said. “Then you don’t have to put a person there and all that.”
Harris, who is also the director of parking at the university, said there are three other options for how people would pay to park. He explained how drivers could pay for their space at a pay station, through a ticket system or by their license plate.
The commission remains undecided on how people would pay to park and how much of the garage, if any, would be paid parking.
At the Board of Aldermen meeting Nov. 15, several Oxford residents discussed their thoughts about the proposed parking garage and the details surrounding it.
Oxford chef John Currence said he thinks the parking garage would be a welcome addition to the Square after seeing the effect of the installation of the parking meters.
“From a business standpoint, paid parking on the Square is probably the best thing that the city could have ever done,” Currence said. “It removed businesses employees who were not conscious of the fact that we needed to reserve the spaces for our guests and customers.”
Currence said he thinks the neighboring residential streets and the free parking lots on the Square have become flooded with people who don’t want to pay to park.
“The peak hours of the day, though, we have very significant parking issues around the Square to the point where our employees are having to completely at times rethink how they’re coming and going from work,” Currence said.
Oxford resident and university professor Vanessa Gregory said she is concerned about the city’s priorities.
“I know we’re not going to use tax dollars, which sounds terrific, but we’re using city revenue,” Gregory said. “We’re not using city revenue to pay for other things, where we’re going to have to use tax dollars.”
The Board of Aldermen is expected to vote on the parking garage Dec. 6 at its monthly meeting. If the proposal is approved by the Board of Aldermen, and later the Planning Commission, the Downtown Parking Commission plans for the garage to be finished by fall 2018.
