Residents came to the City Council meeting Tuesday to tell the council exactly what was wrong with Campustown parking. What they heard was confusion: confusion over signage, pricing and the lack of use in the Intermodal.

“The parking situation has worsened in the last few years since the university increased enrollment,” Barbara Pleasants, who has lived on Linn Avenue for more than 32 years, spoke on behalf of the South Campus Area Neighborhood. “The parking situation is that our streets, particularly the ones closest to campus – we have become parking lots for students.”

The meeting was to address parking in four different areas – the Campustown area, the surrounding neighborhoods, the Downtown area and its surrounding neighborhoods. The current parking regulations follow a layered pattern, with high-use areas at shorter time limits and higher cost per hour.

The meeting was guided by the Campustown/Downtown Business District, Intermodal Facility, and Surrounding Neighborhood Parking Review.

The review reports 24,025 parking violations were distributed in Campustown in 2016, not including football game day violations. It also outlines usage estimates and policy philosophies to guide the council, such as a budget that breaks even.

Violations and sign confusion

Staff members said half the city violations are expired meters. Another common group is failure-to-move violations, particularly in areas with no overnight parking for residents. Parking violators had told staff that signs and regulations were hard to comply with or even understand, specifically alternate-side parking.

“I often have to get out of the car to go to the sign to read it,” Council member Peter Orazem said.

Council member Gloria Betcher mentioned she had noticed just that day that there were different parking regulations and signs in Campustown between Little St., Welch Ave. and Hayward Ave., a block and half apart.

Council member Tim Gartin mentioned business owners in the downtown area who work past midnight are punished under current parking regulations. Council member Bronwyn Beatty-Hansen added that the 2 a.m. move-time for on-street parking encourages business and bar customers to drive after leaving the bars because they have to move their car.

Receiving fines is sometimes joked about by Iowa State students because of its frequency. The council discussed several possible policy solutions, including a potential permit system, particularly for staff on and near Main Street.

Madison, Wisconsin, uses a permit system in their student residential areas. They usually set a designated area, continue to enforce regular parking regulations such as four-hour limits, but allow permit owners to remain outside the regulation.

Intermodal parking ramp is underused

The Intermodal facility near Campustown is a parking garage that offers permits and metered spots. It is shared between Iowa State and Ames, and was included in the review presented to the council. Mark Miller represented the Intermodal facility. Miller said the intermodal is used more on the weekends than during the week.

“I think a lot of the people who are using it, they park there all weekend long,” Miller said.

The Intermodal currently has 40 metered spaces. The rest are offered for permits.

The council hypothesized that the street parking in Campustown, because it is less expensive, is used more than the Intermodal during the week. Orazem suggested looking into differential rates for weekends and weekdays based on use.

“If people are parking in the neighborhoods instead of the lot, that’s a problem,” Orazem said.

Miller also informed the council of the app Iowa State uses to allow credit card charges and automatic renewal on a meter.

Ames was ranked as the fourth-best college town to own a car by ValuePenguin. Betcher quoted the statistic and said she wants Ames to move farther down in the ranking and discourage students from bring cars by encouraging multimodal transportation. Beatty-Hansen also wanted multimodal transport to be included in future policies.

When it came to Campustown, community members in the residential neighborhoods spoke on the lack of street parking and the amount of illegal street parking.

Martha Atkins had been a resident of Pearson St. for 30 years.

“I bought [my house] because it was convenient to the university and I could walk to work,” Atkins said. “Well, a lot of people thought it was convenient to the university and want to walk to campus.” 

Atkins told the council there needed to be no over-night parking in the neighborhoods and more consistent signage. 

Atkins lives near the Greek community. Greek houses now have requirements for number of parking spaces per number of beds. Atkins mentioned a Greek house mom who encourages students to not bring their cars. 

“We need more of that,” Atkins said. “The regulations for the fraternities and sororities have changed, and they don’t have enough parking.”

Atkins also brought up the addition of Geoffrey Hall. “They built an 800 bed dorm there … there’s no place for those people to park,” Atkins said. In constructing the building, parking spaces were actually removed from the existing Buchanan lot, not added, council members pointed out.

Several proposed ideas were with the purpose of decreasing parking demand by decreasing the number of cars. Robert Bingham, the liaison for Iowa State, spoke on behalf of students who chose to have cars.

“We like our ability to have independence, go to Des Moines or visit family,” Bingham said.

Gartin also mentioned that students who work in the rest of Ames may need a car to get to work.

A representative from the Campustown Action Association said the variability of cost and timing on meters is a frequent irritant. He added that if people have the option to use a car and it is readily available, they will use it, even if it is to drive only two blocks.

Remote lots in Iowa City allowed the ability for people to access their cars via bus and have them for travel, but not having the car immediately accessible cut down on car use within the city.

The council set a rough timeframe for continued discussion and policy development for parking issues in Ames. They handed city staff a list of tasks to move forward on to provide the council with more information.