Thursday, December 14, 2023–12:49 p.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

The Rome Downtown Development Authority is looking at having a third party come in and handle parking services in the downtown area.

According to DDA Director Aundi Lesley, it is no secret that the current parking program is confusing to the general public. In addition, with changing technology, every single piece of parking services equipment is obsolete and needs to be upgraded. That includes kiosks, the license plate reader equipment, and even the LPR vehicle itself.

“You guys know that there is this misconception that the parking program is just raking in the dough,” Lesley told the DDA on Thursday. “The reality is, that’s just not the case.”

According to Lesley, the gates on the parking decks coming down, the costs of upgrading to the LPR technology, the Forum closing, and COVID-19, combined with other variables such as the Fifth Avenue Deck closing to the public, all created a “perfect storm.” The result is that the city is not in a great place right now when it comes to parking.

“We want to be good stewards of the parking program, so we have talked at length with the parking committee, discussing every single possibility you could imagine,” Lesley said.

One of those options would be third-party management.

“What that would mean is we would contract out with a parking company that would come in and manage our parking,” Lesley explained. “Depending on how we would want to do it, it would be just like our parking program now, but instead of the parking manager and our parking advisor being city employees, they would be employees of this third-party management company.”

A meeting is scheduled for Friday to discuss issuing requests for proposals.

The third-party company would manage parking based on instructions from the DDA. According to Lesley, parking is ordinance-based, so the third-party company would not be able to make changes without going through the DDA. She also added that parking will never be lucrative unless there is paid on-street parking, and that’s not likely to happen.

“I just don’t think that we are in a political climate where we are going to do that,” she said.

For the current program, the DDA pays $50,000 annually just for the software. Upgrading the LPR equipment and purchasing a new vehicle would be additional costs.

Another possibility for the future would be free parking decks. On-street parking would still be patrolled, but they would be using less money and the deficit would be less if free parking in the decks were offered.