City advisory board recommends holding the line on parking fees

DELRAY BEACH — The cost of new parking spaces for downtown businesses won’t be increasing — if the city’s parking management advisory board has its way.

The board Tuesday decided to hold the line on so-called in-lieu parking fees and parking space fees, citing the weak economy. The decision is only advisory and will be reviewed by other city boards, including planning and zoning. The city commission will have the ultimate say on the matter.

Businesses that are expanding or buildings that are changing in use — from a store to a restaurant, for example — and are required by law to provide additional parking, can “buy” in-lieu spaces from the city. Delray charges a one-time fee of $4,000 to $16,000 per space, depending on the location of the business.

The city also charges $16,000 to $18,000 for off-site parking for newly constructed buildings.

Parking management specialist Scott Aronson recommended the city hike the fees by 30 percent to more accurately reflect the cost of building parking spaces. It also would help the city make up some of the revenue that it is losing under the state-mandated property tax reforms.

But board member Bill Branning said hiking the fees now only would discourage businesses in the downtown. He also called the method for determining the cost of the fees — based on property values and the city’s cost to build two parking garages — “pretty arbitrary.”

The board did agree to take up the matter again in six months.

The city last hiked the fees in 2006.

The board recommended the city hike the monthly fees it charges restaurants for street parking spaces used as drop-off areas for valet parking.  Under the recommendation, the fee for most spaces would increase to $100 a month from $75.

The fee for seven spaces used by Luna Rosa on A1A would increase to $175 a month from $140. The fee for those spaces is higher because they have parking meters, meaning the city is losing revenue that those spaces otherwise would provide.

Aronson recommended a smaller increase.