Winston-Salem City Council approves parking app contract plus enforcement, on-street rates to increase – Triad City Beat

Featured Image: Proposed parking signs in downtown Winston-Salem. (Photo by Gail Melcher)

Time’s up: Winston-Salem struck a deal with PayByPhone, a move that would mandate parking throughout downtown, during Monday night’s City Council meeting.

Currently, some places on the street are free; most spots are 25 cents an hour. With this change, street parking will cost $1.50 per hour. Off-street parking will remain the same at $1 per hour. Parking will be enforced by Gtechna, and parking fines will jump from the current rate of $15 to $30.

The City will promote a marketing campaign as the parking changes come to on-street spaces in Spring 2025 and to decks and off-street parking in Summer/Fall 2025.

The company offers a “modern solution,” the city’s director of transportation. said Jeff Fansler. Increasing turnover in the center is a big priority for the city.

“One of the things we want to do is evaluate curb space,” Fansler said.

People will be able to download the PayByPhone app and enter their information to pay for their parking spaces at the centre. They can also call a number to pay.

But for older adults who don’t typically have smartphones, this change can seem daunting. According to a 2022 Pew Research study, 61 percent of adults 65 and older own smartphones, compared to 96 percent of 18-29 year olds.

But according to Fansler, the city isn’t making much money from its parking program. In fact, they are left with a whopping subsidy of $700,000 a year.

The city held citizen engagement sessions about the upcoming changes in September, where city staff explained that charging higher rates for on-street parking is a strategy meant to attract more people to the city’s decks. They are “underutilized,” said transportation operations manager Reed Hutchins. Between forced street parking and use of the decks, the city loses about $700,000 a year, Northwest Ward Councilman Jeff McIntosh and other city officials said at one of the meetings.

“The $700,000 a year deficit that we have, we’ve been running it now not just for the last year, but we’ve been running it for quite some time,” McIntosh said Monday. “We have been subsidizing downtown parking for quite some time.

“That $700,000 represents what we spend on the BEAR program,” he added. BEAR is a mental health team that offers an alternative to the police. This year it is partially funded by a $700,000 grant from the federal government. Many local activist groups and council candidates have noted that they want the team to have a permanent place in the city’s budget.

“The federal funding we’re getting for the BEAR program this year will be gone next year. So next year we’re looking at the equivalent of, “Do we want to subsidize the parking lot for $700,000 or do we want to help pay for the BEAR program?” That’s kind of putting it in pretty stark terms. McIntosh, however, noted that he regretted that rates would jump so high so quickly.

East Ward Council member Annette Scipio added that maybe it would encourage people to take the bus downtown.

However, council member Barbara Hannes Burke argued that since this is an election year, with three of the council’s eight seats certain to be filled by new members – including McIntosh – they should be the ones to take this “huge , a massive decision for the city’ as they will be the ones who will have to deal with the results during their four-year term, not the outgoing councillors. Burke suggested the decision be tabled by January. However, the move failed to garner enough votes, receiving a yes from Council members John Larson, James Taylor, Jr. and Burke and a no from Council members McIntosh, Kevin Mundy, DD Adams, Scipio and Robert C. Clark. The change eventually passed with all council members voting in favor except for Burke, while an audience member shook his head as they muttered, “That’s not right,” as they left the room.