FOCUS: CITY PARKING WOES
Consultant says Buffalo needs to overhaul parking system, hire 'czar'
Space for vehicles thin, revenue lost, consultants say
Buffalo’s parking system is a mess. Quarters plunked into meters are collected with no guarantees of reaching city coffers. Residential lots are largely unmonitored. And downtown drivers could be left circling the block soon in search of spaces.
In short, Buffalo’s parking system downtown and elsewhere just isn’t working, according to a new report — the most comprehensive study of its kind in decades.
How to solve the problems?
Hire a parking czar at a salary of up to $140,000 a year, then transfer duties currently performed by several offices to one consolidated department.
The report also urges the city to scour the nation for a parking expert who will help engineer a top-to-bottom overhaul.
“The fragmentation of oversight, reliance on the private sector and abrogation of traditional responsibilities has created an overly competitive, shortsighted and dysfunctional parking system,” said Desman Associates, a nationally recognized consulting firm that was hired by the city to perform the study.
Harsh words by any yardstick.
“The truth hurts,” replied Ellicott Common Council Member Brian C. Davis, who represents much of downtown and is a frequent critic of Buffalo’s parking policies.
“The study speaks volumes about the problems we’ve been talking about for at least six years,” Davis continued. “We definitely need to overhaul our parking system.”
Buffalo Place Executive Director Michael Schmand said he was pleased to read the report’s recommendation for constructing additional ramps.
“When businesses look at downtown office space, one of the first things they ask is, ‘Where do we park?’ and, ‘How much is it going to cost?’ ” Schmand said.
He said projected parking shortages for office and government workers over the next decade require immediate planning.
“Downtown can’t begin to compete with suburban office parks without convenient and affordable parking,” said Schmand, whose nonprofit agency represents the interests of downtown stakeholders and residents.
Mayor Byron W. Brown said he needs to read the 104-page report before taking stands on recommendations. But he said he would be surprised if the study doesn’t spur some significant changes.
Brown concurs with one finding in the report that red-flags a future shortage of downtown parking spaces in light of numerous projects that are on the drawing board. The study urges the city to consider building several new downtown ramps, warning there will be a shortage of 1,650 spaces in a government-office district bounded by Delaware Avenue, South Elmwood Avenue, Chippewa Street and Church Street.
The dominant theme in the report is that too many entities are involved in city parking, creating “shortsighted” and disjointed management.
“Parking has pretty much been a stepchild to the city. It’s time to bring it into the fold,” said Brian Bartholomew, Desman’s director of parking planning services.
The study targets four downtown sites currently used as surface parking lots as potential locations for new parking garages, creating space for some 2,600 more vehicles. That list includes sites at or near the intersections of West Mohawk Street and South Elmwood; Delaware and West Chippewa; West Huron and Franklin streets; and Ellicott and Oak streets.
The surface lot at West Mohawk and South Elmwood, directly behind the new federal courthouse, is at the top of the study’s list. Once owned by British developer Bashar Issa, who proposed to construct the city’s tallest building on it, it is now controlled by Buffalo businessman Mark Croce.
“I’m not going to be closed-minded. There might be some possibilities to explore,” Croce said. “But that’s a prime development site, and its highest, best use isn’t as a parking ramp.”
The West Huron Street surface lot site has multiple owners, and the Ellicott/ Oak parcel is owned by the city.
Developer Carl P. Paladino, a member of the Buffalo Civic Auto Ramps board — the nonprofit entity that runs the city’s seven downtown parking ramps and two surface lots — branded many of the study’s conclusions “outrageous.”
“We have one of the model parking operations in the U. S. People come here from other cities to see how we manage parking so they can copy what we do,” Paladino said.
Paladino, whose Ellicott Development Co. controls several downtown office buildings and residential projects, also criticized the recommendation for creating a city parking commissioner position.
“This is insanity. Anybody who thinks we need a $140,000-a-year commissioner to oversee parking needs their head examined,” Paladino said.
He confirmed that Desman representatives met with him last fall to discuss the state of parking in Buffalo but said he wasn’t queried on many key aspects of the analysis.
“I’m the biggest big mouth in town about parking, and they didn’t bother to ask me much of anything. I think they got their marching orders from City Hall, and that was that,” Paladino said.
Buffalo’s Parking Board commissioned the $94,000 study, urging consultants not to pull any punches. The result is a road map that would turn the Parking Board into an advisory-only panel, create a new city parking czar who could end up being paid more than the mayor or police commissioner and begin planning for the construction of new ramps.
The recommendations include imposing charges at all city-owned residential lots and creating a new program where residents could buy permits to use the neighborhood lots for $120 a year.
While the study makes no allegations that parking meter money is being stolen, it notes that Buffalo lacks some safeguards used in other cities to ensure that all revenue is received. Once the city phases out meters and converts to pay-and-display machines, concerns will be eased.
Parking Board Chairwoman Susan M. Gonzalez said the study, while harsh, confirms the views of many city officials that changes must be made to a system that has relied on many of the same practices for a half-century.
"The mayor and his administration recognized that a year ago when he named a new chair and several new members [to the Parking Board]," she said. "He charged us to come up with new ideas and to move things forward."
Allpro President Richard A. Serra said he’s “astounded” by the study’s characterization of his company’s hospital ramp operations.
“The city has never come to us with any issues about dirty ramps or poor daily maintenance,” Serra said. “This is very astounding to me.”
bmeyer@buffnews.com and slinstedt@buffnews.com
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