Many Cities Copy Ex-mayor Brown's Parking Plan

More than 20 years ago, a first term mayor hit upon an untried plan for financing parking facilities which he was not even sure was legal. The mayor, William E. Brown Jr., went on to serve five more terms, the method of financing was approved by a court and the system for adding parking spaces has been copied by cities across the country. This month is the 20th anniversary of the dedication of the W. Washington St. carport, the first parking facility in the country built by revenue bonding- and also Ann Arbor's first structure. The Ímpetus that gave former Mayor Brown his idea for the system came with the passage of an act by the Michigan Legislature in 1947 allowing cities more leeway in using revenue bonding to build public Utilities. Brown, now retired, says he thought of the bonding method as an alternative to creating special assessment districts or asking voters for more tax money. He says ' e opposed special districts because it was hard to assure just assessment and he knew the second method would always depend on the whim of the voters. What he got instead was a system where the revenue from operating lots and structures could be used to issue bonds which would be sold to build more facilities. In effect, each $1 of nue from existing facilities created $10 in bonding power for future facilities. With only a year to 14 months needed to finance bonds for additional lots and structures, the city's parking facilities began to grow in Brown's administration. In 1950, the city's off-street parking facilities could handle 585 cars, but by the end of Brown's administration in 1957 the city had constructed the W. Washington and Maynard St. carports and had acquired and developed land for eight offstreet parking lots, providing 1,442 parking spaces. And with the increased facilities, the revenue from parking boomed from $116,000 in 1950 to $330,000 in 1960. That original burst of building, however, was followed by a period of several years during which construction slowed down while the amount of traffic was increasing as the city grew. Then, less than three years ago, as the parking, or lack of it, was beginning to reach critical proportions, three carports were quickly added. In October, 1966, the Forest St. carport was finished, and in 1967 the William and Fourth and the Washington and Fourth carports were completed, adding more than 1,000 additional parking spaces. The city's parking facilities currently consist of carports at Maynard, Forest, Washington and First, William and Fourth and Washington and Fourth, providing 1,883 parking spaces, 12 parking lots with 838 parking spaces and 1,150 street metered spaces. Expansión of the Maynard St. carport across the street and above the Jacobson's store is expected to be completed next month, adding spaces for about 270 cars. Except for the S. Forest and William and Fourth carports, the main agency now for constructing parking facilities is the Ann Arbor Building Authority. As a public agency, the authority builds the facilities and leases them to the city. The S. Forest and William and Fourth carports were built by Towne Realty, Inc., and turned over to the city on long-term leases as public utilities. During his stay in office, Brown spent a good deal of time traveling to various parts of the country explaining the system to other city officials. He says the system originated here was copied whole or in part by such cities as New York, Detroit, Miami, Cleveland, Portland, plus most of the cities in Michigan. The University, meanwhile, was not to be outdone. By obtaining bank loans according to its ability to pay them off from operating facilities, the U-M built parking structures on Catherine, Thayer, Thompson, Fletcher, and Church Sts. and one at the U-M Hospital providing more than 4,200 parking spaces for faculty, students and guests. The U-M is currently making plans for its seventh structure at Hill and Haven Sts. John Robbins, director of Parking and Traffic Engineering for the city, says Ann Arbor currently has "a monetary excess" of parking spaces. He quickly adds, however, that these could rapidly disappear by the time land for a new structure could be acquired and developed. Robbins says the rate and nature of the city's future parking growth may well depend on a tudy it will initiate if funds are available from the federal government. If the study is funded it will be the first of its type ever taken. The study may determine the workability of a possible "satellite" or "periphery" system of building future parking lots and structures. The study will take into account (1) mass transportation, (2) the area highway system and (3) the current parking facilities. Robbins said when the study is completed the city may be granted help from the government in building the periphery system, which calis for future lots and carports to be built on the outskirts of the city with a bussing system being employed to bring shoppers to the downtown area. Such a system could be useful to the city to help solve two problems. First, there is an increasing scarcity of land available in the city's central district that can be used for parking. Secondly, even if more structures were built the city streets might not be able to handle the increase in traffic. One serious "if" in the feasibility of this system, however, is the requirement for an effective bussing system. And, as former Mayor Brown mused, "Any time you talk about bussing in Ann Arbor you're talking about disaster to start with." John S. Walters, manager of parking operations and auditorium scheduling at the U-M, says they have tried such a system for several years and with only limited success. He says the main problem is that people will always prefer individual transportation to any form of mass transit. He added that right now "convenience" may be the biggest problem in planning parking facilities. This is also partially the result of the lack of available space for placing parking facihties where they are needed, he said. One of the most recent solutions to help solve the space problem is the use of "air rights" such as the city is implementing with the expansión of the Maynard St. carport across the street to the Jacobson's store. Robbins predicted this type of expansión would be used much more in the future. Perhaps the crux of the entire parking problem was summed up by Walters when asked what the biggest parking problem in the future would be. He replied simply, "The automobile."