\u2014Comun\u00edquese con Hutton Marshall al <\/em>hutton@sdcnn.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0Letters<\/h3>\n
Por Hutton Marshall<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, City Auditor Eduardo Luna, an independent analyst with the city of San Diego, audited the city\u2019s Community Parking District (CPD) program, a little known but very impactful part of San Diego\u2019s denser urban communities.<\/p>\n
Parking districts, in a general sense, are parking-impacted areas identified by the city. The CPD program, initiated by the city in 1997, allows communities to form small nonprofit boards to spend a portion of meter revenue on projects to improve parking locally.<\/p>\n
The audit detailed three main findings. While focusing on separate aspects of the program, each finding recommended increased accountability, transparency and reporting by the CPDs and the city staff administering the program. While government transparency and accountability are near-universal positives, new city legislation could stymie the innovative efforts of progressive parking districts like ours in Uptown.Before explain why, I want to briefly cover the basic structure of the programs.<\/p>\n
Technically, there are six different parking districts, but there are really only three in play (the ones with parking meters): Uptown, Downtown and Mid-City. The latter is split between two managing organizations, the University Heights Community Development Corporation and the El Cajon Business Improvement Association.<\/p>\n
Downtown\u2019s parking district is overseen by Civic SD, a nonprofit working on myriad civic development projects in Downtown, City Heights and Encanto.<\/p>\n
The Uptown Community Parking District (UCPD) is unique in that it operates solely to manage parking in its communities, which include Hillcrest, Bankers Hill, Mission Hills, and International Restaurant Row\/Five Points.<\/p>\n
The UCPD\u2019s board is made up of seats designated to each of the four communities it covers, with the number of seats per community proportional to the amount of meter revenue its corresponding area brings in. Because of this, Hillcrest gets seven of the board\u2019s 14 seats. The organization is led by Elizabeth Hannon, a former San Diego LGBT Pride executive, who became UCPD\u2019s chief executive officer in late 2013.<\/p>\n
I spoke at length with Hannon about the audit, and while there were a few areas of concern and ambiguity she wants to inquire into, she\u2019s optimistic overall about the changes that might come from it, including several areas of improvement cited that encompass goals UCPD already had on their radar.<\/p>\n
Like I said, it\u2019s hard to backbite an audit recommending accountability, transparency and basic financial reporting, but if extended too far, these controls could siphon the vibrancy from these programs.<\/p>\n
Hannon said the possibility of too much bureaucratic oversight is \u201cdefinitely an area of concern\u201d for UCPD after reading the audit.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also worth mentioning the U-T San Diego report that publicized the $178 million in parking revenue held by the community parking districts. While Civic SD staff told the U-T that much of their reserves were conserved resources to be used for a third parking garage Downtown, Hannon stated that much of the UCPD\u2019s bulky savings account is already allocated to projects that are waiting for approval by city staff. If Uptown\u2019s parking district is already struggling to allocate the millions on hand to find badly needed parking solutions in Hillcrest, adding more hoops to jump through certainly won\u2019t help.<\/p>\n
A few of the more unique projects in 2014 \u2014 ones that might have been more difficult to bring to fruition with more stringent oversight \u2014 have been the Park Hillcrest App (which will become a lot more useful once it\u2019s synced with the incoming smart meters), various transit and bike infrastructure projects, and partnering with the California DMV to secure 178 additional spots on nights and weekends.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying none of this would have happened had a more drawn-out approval process been in place, but I suspect several projects \u2014 like those not previously tested on San Diego streets \u2014 would have taken considerably longer to approve. That, in turn, would have disincentivised parking districts from going out on a limb with more ambitious parking strategies.<\/p>\n
The audit also revealed some meter revenue accounting previously unknown to the parking districts.<\/p>\n
In each district, meter revenue is split between the city and the parking districts 55\/45, respectively. But before dividing this sum, the city takes out the costs of administering the district and monitoring the parking meters.<\/p>\n
The audit revealed that the city drew in $33 million over the last four years. Of that, $11 million went to administrative costs. Prior to this audit, Hannon couldn\u2019t speculate what this administrative sum might be. The fact that the CPD responsible for managing a large sum of meter revenue wasn\u2019t privy to how one-third of the city\u2019s meter revenue was spent goes to show the need for increased transparency.<\/p>\n
While what Hillcrest really needs is a large parking garage \u2014 maybe one that can cover its own operating expenses like North Park\u2019s \u2014 and a greater commitment to active transportation, the many projects and studies implemented by the UCPD since its reforming have proven worthy and wise.<\/p>\n
Minor modifications like fixing curb cuts and other safe, minor measures won\u2019t solve the problem. Parking in Hillcrest needs an overhaul, and the city shouldn\u2019t inhibit the UCPD\u2019s ability to do so.<\/p>\n
So when would these proposed changes happen? The audit report went before the City Council Audit Committee, which forwarded it along to the Smart Growth & Land Use Committee. It\u2019s expected to go before Smart Growth in early February. Updates to come then. You can find the full auditor\u2019s report at sandiego.gov\/auditor<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014Comun\u00edquese con Hutton Marshall al <\/em>hutton@sdcnn.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0Letters<\/h3>\n
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