Athens City Council discusses parking fees and their effects on service workers in the downtown area

The Athens City Council discussed an ordinance to increase parking meter fees this Monday. This prompted protests among city council members who believed the fees would harm service workers parked on the street or in the parking garage. 

If passed, parking fees in the Athens City Parking garage would rise from 75 cents to one dollar, and fees for meters on Court Street and adjacent streets such as State Street and Union Street would go from one dollar to one dollar and 24 cents.

“Realistically, I find an unmetered spot almost all the time,” Councilmember Ben Ziff said when asked about his experience in finding parking. “But that’s because I leave way ahead of when I need to be there.”

Ziff is a manager at Donkey Coffee, and he explained how some of his coworkers have to go out every few hours to feed the meter. For him, this isn’t a problem, as he has no issue walking 15 to 20 minutes to his car. However, Ziff also expressed that doing this isn’t feasible for everyone, especially as it gets darker.

“I’m a big guy. So I have no problem walking down a dark street at midnight to get to my car,” Ziff said. “But that is super unappealing to someone who isn’t. If you’re 5-foot-2 and weigh 110 pounds, that’s a much more frightening experience.”

Councilmember Solvieg Spjeldnes also expressed her concerns about the effect this could have monetarily on service workers.

“Parking is expensive enough,” Spjeldnes said. “For service workers to have to absorb that is a concern to me. If there’s some way we could protect them financially, I think it would be very beneficial.” 

Ziff echoed these statements, adding that increased parking prices would take a chunk out of paychecks in the long run. 

On the administrative side, Mayor Steve Patterson weighed in, explaining that the reason for the raising of fees was to cover a new kiosk parking system that the city hopes to implement, as well as to cover costs for renovating the Athens City Parking Garage.

“These things have a cost,” Patterson said. “We’re currently carrying debt on the parking garage. If we want renovations and the kiosk system, then we need to cover it.” 

In addition to the conversation about parking fees, there was an update to the work on the fire safety ordinance that had been tabled by the council on Oct. 2. The ordinance concerns overcrowding issues in many bars and would impose fines and possible jail time for repeated offenses. 

After a discussion with bar owners who had attended the meeting to make their case to the council, the body agreed to table the ordinance for two weeks for additional conversation. However, after the two-week deadline was up, the ordinance did not reappear on the agenda. 

The sole dissenter in the motion to table was Councilmember Sarah Grace. 

“There was a committee meeting for the business owners to work directly with the city to come to a compromise,” Grace said. “I wasn’t there during the meeting, so I cannot speak as to what actually happened, but I’m guessing they did not reach a compromise.”

Grace did hear that more business owners attended the committee meeting than those who attended the council meeting two weeks ago and is hoping this will lead to a positive outcome. However, she is still somewhat apprehensive. 

“If they don’t want to face fines and jail time in response to having really overcrowded bars, then they should not allow their bars to become overcrowded,” Grace said. 

In other news:

• There was a public hearing for the construction of a unit development called Homestead Court and Broadmoor at University Estates, where the council heard from the public on the development. One attendee expressed that this was a good development and would help with the housing issues in Athens. 

• Patterson announced that the fee for a vendor’s permit to sell art in the city of Athens had gone down from $100 to $25.