A number of downtown businesses report hearing about a proposal that would increase downtown parking meter operation hours. Currently the city of Columbia enforces the meters from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; if implemented, the new policy would change the hours to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

 In July, the City Council passed an ordinance that doubled parking meter rates from 30 to 60 cents per hour. According to Council members, approval of previous bills that increased parking prices was largely because of the city’s need to raise money for the construction of a new parking garage on Short Street.
Kurt Mirtsching, marketing director for Shakespeare’s Pizza on South Ninth Street, has conflicted feelings about the idea of increasing parking meter enforcement hours and the recent pattern of raising parking prices in the downtown area.
“As a citizen, I advocate higher parking fees [because] there’s inadequate parking and it just makes sense to encourage people to find alternative ways to come downtown,” Mirtsching said. “But as a business owner, I advocate lower parking fees because it makes it easier to come to my business.”
City Council member Gary Kespohl said he is not aware of a proposal to the council regarding an increase in downtown parking meter enforcement hours, although he has “heard some talk about it.”
Senior Ashleigh Johnson has worked at Addison’s restaurant downtown since late July and finds paying for parking difficult enough with the current policy.
“The meter eats my quarters, dimes and nickels like candy,” Johnson said. “Now I park illegally because I don’t have the time or money to pay.”
Kespohl, however, believes previous parking fee increases were the necessary solution to two of the city’s major problems.
“Part of the reason [we increased parking rates] was that they hadn’t had an increase in several years, and it was time for an increase,” Kespohl said. “The other part of the reason was, with the possible edition of the Short Street garage, the parking utility has to make itself profitable.”
One of the major reasons the city needs help paying for the construction of the new Short Street garage is the lack of revenue a recently built parking garage on Fifth Street has generated. During the summer, KOMU reported the Fifth Street garage was only 27 percent occupied.
Senior Maria Ramirez works downtown at Shakespeare’s Pizza and believes the Fifth Street garage was a waste of money. She feels there was adequate parking available without the garage.
“There are already five or six parking garages in the downtown area alone,” Ramirez said. “The people’s money is being wasted.”
However, the Fifth Street garage experienced a remarkable turnaround in early October. City Council member Helen Anthony said a recent temporary decrease in parking costs has caused the garage to “fill up rapidly.”
In a later interview, Kespohl said the garage is now 70 percent occupied.
But a question remains as to whether this good news will supply the city with enough revenue to put an end to the recent pattern of increasing meter prices downtown. If proposed, Kespohl said there is still a possibility he would vote for the increase in hourly enforcement.
“I think it has advantages and disadvantages,” Kespohl said. “When I’m on the fence like that, I wait to hear the testimony.”