Community Corner

Ferndale DDA Recommends Rollback of Parking Rates, Hours

DDA board members say a full consensus is needed on the goal of increasing parking spaces before the public should be burdened with increased prices.

The Ferndale Downtown Development Authority announced Thursday that it will urge Ferndale City Council next week to roll back increased parking rates and expanded hours of enforcement.

The DDA will present its recommendation at council’s Monday, March 11 meeting.

Ferndale implemented new pay stations and parking rates in late January, and since then some residents have expressed frustrations about using the new system.

Find out what's happening in Ferndalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

On Feb. 28, council members voted to order 12 more pay stations and extend a free parking holiday through March 11 while the city works to address problems with the system.

“We continue to stand by our Parking System Priority Resolution, which only supports a rate increase in tandem with the stated goal to increase capacity of the parking system,” Michael Hennes, chairman of the Ferndale DDA Board of Directors, said in a press release.

Find out what's happening in Ferndalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The new parking system was intended in part to help increase parking capacity, city officials have said—whether that's with a parking deck or adding spaces in other areas.

Ferndale City Manager April Lynch said in February that a parking deck would cost about $8 million and the city would likely need to go out for a bond to cover the cost. "We need to find out what the system can generate cash-wise to see what kind of monthly payments we can afford," Lynch said last month.

“Adequate parking is crucial for maintaining the businesses we have and for growing the city for the future,” said Hennes. “Downtown Ferndale has a parking deficit; confirmed by users who have looked for and not found a place to park and by professional audits. However, our support for a rate increase was entirely dependent on a plan to use the additional revenue to increase the number of quality, usable parking spaces.”

Until all parties adopt that goal, "we don’t feel it appropriate to burden the users of public parking with additional fees until we reach a full consensus,” Hennes said.

The DDA says it has used the free parking holiday to revisit all the changes to the parking system and meet with members of council, business owners, city staff and parking experts.

The DDA still supports the pay stations and says it stands by its original Parking System Priority Resolution, "only supporting a rate increase in conjunction with a city resolve to increase capacity of the system," the DDA press release states. "Until such a plan is in place, the rates should be rolled back to previous levels."


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