Paid parking could encompass all public parking in downtown Lake Orion

By Megan Kelley
Review Writer
 LAKE ORION — One of the most common and major complaints the Village of Lake Orion receives is parking. Over the years, efforts have been made by both the Downtown Development Authority and the village council to ameliorate those problems, like increasing enforcement and adding additional parking.
In recent months, the DDA has also entered into a purchase agreement to buy and build more parking on the Lumberyard property just south of the downtown and for years now, the idea of parking meters has been brought up more and more often.
While there have been several presentations and requests for quotes over the years, no official decision was ever made to install parking meters on village streets.
In a recent parking study, it was found that the amount of parking in the downtown area was not currently a problem, but that the main problem was turnover, more specifically with on-street parking.
Most on-street parking in downtown has a two hour limit, with the exception of a few 15-minute spots, though those limits are posted and in place, the enforcement of that time limit leaves something to be desired.
In April, Councilmember Michael Lamb brought up the idea of parking meters, requesting that the village administration collect quotes on what it would cost to put meters on the main streets (Flint Street and Broadway Street) in the downtown.
During its meeting on Monday, the village council reviewed a quote they had received from Passport Parking, the company that currently oversees enforcement in the village.
According to DPW Director Wes Sanchez, three companies were contacted for a price quote, but only Passport Parking responded with one.
“Our neighboring town of Clarkston uses Passport Parking. So, I talked to their city manager and he said it’s going very well for them,” Sanchez said. “We can’t compare apples to apples with them because they use that in their parking lot and we’re looking to use it on our downtown streets, mostly Flint and Broadway.”
The proposed quote rounded out to a $12,000 annual fee and a 35 cent transaction fee from the vendor.
Sanchez also noted that, according to Passport Parking, it was possible for the system to generate up to $77,760 per year out of the 100 on-street parking spaces in Lake Orion.
“This looks very profitable to me. It looks like a big moneymaker for the village and it might actually help turn over some of those dinnertime parking spots. The problem in the village is a lot of turnover on the parking spots so, I’m thinking this is a good idea,” said Lamb.
While in the past, some councilmembers spoke against paid parking in the village, most councilmembers were interested in pursuing the idea of paid parking.
Councilmember Ken Van Portfliet expressed his support for moving forward with paid parking, suggesting they work with the DDA to assess the level of community support.
“I think that we should look to ask the DDA to cost-share on the actual cost of the initial annual fee and we need their buy in. We need the DDA to get behind this in support with the businesses,” Van Portfliet said. “I’ve been a long-time advocate of this as a revenue source. I do believe strongly that the $77,000 in revenue could double easily. I believe that is the low end and it would just be a very good thing.”
While the logistics for how the paid parking would work are still unclear, it is likely that there would be an app involved where visitors would pay the parking fee.
Councilmembers were also in favor of adding kiosks for those who were less familiar with phone applications.
After further discussion, the question arose as to whether putting meters only on the main on-street parking would be worth it without also including paid parking in the public lots as well.
While no official decision was made for specifics like where the paid parking would be, if it would include the lots or what the rates would be, the council was in agreement that they wanted to move forward with the idea and voted 6-0 to authorize village Manager Darwin McClary to come up with a comprehensive plan to meter the entire village public parking and provide for employee parking, disability parking and special event parking.
The village council meets regularly at 7:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays of the month at Village Hall, 21 E. Church St.
Agendas and council packets are available on the village website, www.lakeorion.org.