Kent City Council Approves New Changes for Parking Ordinance

The Kent City Council unanimously approved new changes to the City’s parking ordinance Wednesday night.

Dave Ruller, city manager, introduced the bill explaining its necessity for change as downtown Kent has been changing and growing recently.

“One of the most important items is trying now to catch up the ordinance and the legal side on our books to accompany the new infrastructure that’s in process of being installed.” Ruller said.

Three parts of the logistics of the parking ordinances, Ruller said, which were planned to be specified Wednesday night were the hours of operation, the cost per hour and days of operation of the city’s parking regulations.

The reason for this change, Ruller said, was not just for the city’s infrastructure, but also for the small businesses of Kent as well to help turn over parking in front of their stores to maximize profit.

“This is to support the businesses that rely on that frequent turn over,” Ruller said. “We have a really vibrant downtown now and parking actually is in much greater demand than it’s ever been before.”

This new change in parking ordinances is that this is not a revenue making bill, which parking rarely does help in producing revenue. It helps more in commerce according to Ruller.
The bill in most of its specifics, Ruller said, were already discussed in an earlier meeting with the committee, promising that the bill to change the ordinances have not been overlooked at all.
Bridget Susel, community development coordinator, lead the discussion with the Community Development Committee Council, for approval of the changes.

Susel presented research from the parking action committee had gathered from other cities in the Ohio area, including their individual rates, hours of operation and unique implementations of their parking meters to decide on how Kent should conduct their own.

For the new changes, Susel proposed the recommended operations hours of 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday and the rates of $1 per hour. This would also include different rates of change for time with a 2-hour limit with the new smart meters that can use a smart phone app that can be to pay by the minutes for the meter. It would also give out data such as when the meter is up for the police and the user to make a more efficient turn overs.

“So somebody can drop a dime and they’ll get the minutes they’ll get for a dime,” Susel said. “They can drop a quarter and get fifteen minutes. So they can adjust the time based on the area they’re running. If they’re running into Jimmy Johns, a dime will probably get them what they need. If they go to Jimmy Johns and then also pick something else up, they might also drop 50 cents and get half an hour. It allows that flexibility, so it will meet the needs of those divergent businesses downtown.”

After the presentation, the bill was open to the council for questions. Melissa Long, city council member, said he was concerned about the area in which the meters would be placed.

The parking meters would be street parking only, Susel said, with 223 spots that will be metered, representing 19% of all parking downtown.
The Council voted unanimously for its approval and will be deliberated upon in the next regular meeting of the City of Kent Council.

Approved ordinances:
• 8 am-5pm Mon. thru Fri
• Rates: $1 per hour
• Authorization for the creation of a new chapter in the Kent Codified Ordinances dealing with installation/implementation for parking meters
• Authorize no meters to work on traditional holidays and days of the mayor’s designate holidays.