City business owners voiced their concerns at Monday’s City Council meeting after the city of Annapolis announced it was moving its holiday parking program to a mobile phone app last week.
On Tuesday, the city announced free parking will be available at metered spots in downtown Annapolis from Nov. 29 through Dec. 31. The free parking — up to three hours — will be available by downloading a smartphone app called ParkMobile and entering the code “ParkDTA.”
Joanna Young, the owner of Evergreen Antiques on Maryland Avenue and chair of the Maryland Avenue and State Circle Merchants Association, said she and the association she chairs are “very uncomfortable across the board” about the parking program moving to an app.
The switch to a phone app will be difficult for some drivers, Young said, because many of the meters on Maryland Avenue are already broken. Shoppers are confused, she said, because there are no signs indicating how to pay for parking.
Signs will be posted to explain how to download the app and provide a phone number to call for shoppers who do not want to download it, Mayor Gavin Buckley said.
Alderman Fred Paone, R-Ward 2, said he has heard from constituents who do not have smartphones and may not even have cell phones who would have to end up paying for parking.
Annapolis Transportation Director Rick Gordon said data the city has collected estimated that 80 percent of visitors have cell phones and 60 percent of those people have smartphones.
Twenty percent is still a substantial number, Paone said.
Another Maryland Avenue storeowner, Ann Widener, who owns Peake House, voice her frustration with the “mixed messages” the city has sent to shoppers, pointing to recent increases in both parking fines and the hourly parking rates.
“We are very dependent on the Christmas season to make it through the winter,” Widener said. “It doesn’t send a welcoming message.
“We are not asking for anything dramatic. Just a welcoming atmosphere.”
This winter, downtown parking meters will not be bagged during the holiday parking program as they have in past years. Several solar-powered meters were destroyed last winter after the meters’ covering interfered with the satellite connection used to update the solar-powered meters. It would cost an estimated $15,000 to fix the malfunctioned meters, said City Manager Teresa Sutherland.
Many of the meters are old, Gordon said, and the city is in the process of replacing the single-space meters with multi-space meters.
Alderman DaJuan Gay, D-Ward 8, recommended that the city not spend money on fixing the broken meters and wait for the city to finish replacing the old meters.
When asked if the city was close to finishing that project, Gordon said, “No.”
The city has offered up to three hours of free parking through the program since 2015. The city does not enforce parking on Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Day. The city originally announced two hours of free holiday parking this year before changing it back to three hours.
The spaces that are eligible to use the ParkMobile app include Main Street, Francis Street, West Street, Maryland Avenue, Prince George Street, City Dock, Calvert Street and Market Space.
If drivers do not have a smartphone, they can call 877-727-5758 to unlock the free parking.
The much-discussed short-term rental properties legislation was also on the agenda at Monday’s City Council meeting, but Alderman Ross Arnett, D-Ward 8, asked that the bill be delay until the Oct. 28 City Council meeting to allow two major amendments to be worked out. The council unanimously approved the motion.
Two amendments to O-26-19, which aims to tax and regulate short-term rentals like Airbnb, VRBO and Home Away, still need to be finalized over the next two weeks with assistance from the city’s Office of Law, Arnett said.
One amendment would remove the 120-day limit for a rental property owner to be absent and still rent their property in the same year. Another would allow property owners to operate short-term rental properties on the condition there is a property manager registered with the city, Arnett said.
If they pass, the amendments would significantly change the bill and likely require a second public hearing, Arnett said. After the Oct. 28 meeting, the City Council only meets two more times before January, once on Nov. 18 and again on Dec. 9.
Ideally, the public hearing for the amended bill would take place at the November meeting with the final vote taking place in December, Arnett said.
The council voted to delay two bills related to the short-term rental legislation that would amend the city’s fines and fees schedules once the legislation is passed.
Several parties have voiced their support or displeasure at the proposed legislation since it was introduced in June. Investors say the bill is too restrictive. Some residents support the bill because they’re concerned their neighborhoods are being disrupted by short-term rentals. Hotel and bed and breakfast operators see short-term rental operators as competition that should be taxed and regulated much like they are.
The council voted to delay O-18-19 and CA-6-19, a bill and a charter amendment that would establish a Department of the Environment that reports directly to the city manager. The legislation’s sponsor, Alderman Rob Savidge, D-Ward 7, asked for the delay to consider the findings of a recently published staff report and potentially submit amendments to the legislation.
Alderwoman Elly Tierney, D-Ward 1, was the only council member to vote against the delay.
The bill has become controversial, Tierney said, and asked for a “time out” to consider the unintended consequences of establishing a new environmental department.
