People don't have any place to abuse," Ken Phillips Sr., president of U-Park Systems, explained about parking in Fremont.
Most Seattle neighborhoods have "accessory" lots - bank, grocery store or mini-mall parking - that drivers borrow while shopping the neighborhood. Outside of Downtown Seattle and SODO, only Fremont and the University District have any significant numbers of commercial parking lots.
"Nobody likes to pay to park," Shawn Potts, general manager at U-Park, admitted, "but it is a convenience."
A convenience we may pay more for soon. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has proposed a 10-percent parking tax on pay lots to generate revenue for backlogged road repairs and improvements. While we must maintain our roads, Ken calls a tax on only the few companies operating commercial, fee-charging lots "ill-conceived."
On Monday, July 17, the Seattle City Council will vote on the mayor's proposed tax package, which also includes an increase of property taxes and an employee head tax (a fee per employee.) Taxes to pay for road work must relate to road usage, but do all those who drive our roads pay parking fees?
Shawn and Ken suggest examining other options, like pay stations (once called parking meters) installed more liberally throughout the city. They also suggest the mayor take another look at taxing all commercial parking spaces, including those provided by malls. Buses, trucks and taxis wouldn't share in this tax, but it would spread the cost more equitably among vehicles that park.
There is "no elasticity in the tax," Shawn pointed out. "We have to pay it no matter what the economy does."
In prosperous times, 10 percent doesn't hurt as much as in another recession when U-Park can drop prices, but not the amount needed to cover the tax.
Since U-Park already pays property, sales and business-and-operations (B&O) taxes (plus a management fee reimbursement of 1.5 percent), a city garage-license fee per stall and a per-space fee (on Downtown Seattle lots), this will definitely affect their prices.
"Whenever we raise prices on lots," Shawn explained, "we can lose 15 to 20 percent of our customers."
Eventually, customers may come back, but they also may leave the neighborhood - especially when they can shop malls or find jobs that provide parking.
Ken started U-Park with his brother. "I can remember when there were two of us running 30 parking lots," he recalled.
He joked that was "longer ago than we want to admit," but he estimated it's been 30 years.
In 1988, he and his brother divided the business, and now his three grown children, plus son-in-law Shawn, help him manage 120 parking lots, most of them in Downtown Seattle.
Within Fremont, they operate 13 lots that provide a service vital to keep our community operational.
"All parking is subsidized by someone," Ken explained; if it isn't the grocery store, bank or mini-mall, or city street parking, it is a landowner who converts property into pay public parking for the benefit of tenants and their community. Parking does not pay for itself, especially when property taxes are collected based on what could be built.
"It doesn't make economic sense to build stand-alone, structured parking," according to Ken, since parking doesn't pay even on a large scale; apartments and retail space do.
The Fremont parking lots subsidize much more. Besides providing employee, client and Flexcar parking, U-Park rents out their lots for Fremont Fair, Oktoberfest, Outdoor Movies and Fremont Sunday Market activities. Of the 13 U-Park lots scattered across Fremont, which one goes?
"This [tax] could have a dramatic effect," Ken said. "If you lose enough customers, you may end up on the minus side."
"I can envision losing some parking lots," Shawn admitted. Fewer parking spaces mean fewer shoppers - and fewer employees (especially as employers avoid the head tax). If the city collects less sales tax, B&O tax and parking taxes, where will they go next for money?
This isn't a levy, and the mayor hasn't proposed an expiration date.
"I'll guarantee it'll never go away, and it will never go down," Shawn vowed. "And it is going to cause a ripple effect."
So far, the City Council has no idea what those ripples could look like. Do they do it anyway and hope for the best?
"A parking tax is a bad idea!" Ken stated, vehemently.
A bad idea for Seattle and for Fremont - doesn't that cover just about everyone?
(To learn more, check out www.no parkingtax.com.)
Kirby Lindsay parks her car in Fremont, where she lives, works and plays. She invites your comments at fremont @oz.net.
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