Kansas City charging up to $40 for ‘event’ parking in downtown, Crossroads, River Market
Drivers could face up to a $40 charge to park on Kansas City’s streets in the downtown, Crossroads and River Market areas under a new “event parking” policy — even if they are not going to an event.
Earlier this summer, the City Council approved the new policy which makes it more expensive to park at one of the city’s metered spaces if an event is taking place nearby.
The measure passed 12-0 at the June 27th meeting without discussion by council members. Councilmember Andrea Bough was listed as out.
Kansas City’s communications staff did not respond to The Star’s voicemail requests for an interview or answer questions submitted by email from The Star about how the new policy is being implemented, and how the city is educating the public about the changes in parking fees.
Also unanswered are questions about the boundaries of the areas designated as “event parking” zones, how people can find out if their event will trigger the higher fees and what, if any, accommodations are being provided for businesses and residents impacted by the special pricing but who are not attending the events.
The ordinance allows the director of the public works department to establish event parking zones and to charge a higher rate during large-scale events.
The event parking policy was discussed during the city’s Transportation, Infrastructure and Operations Committee in late June.
During that meeting, Councilmember Johnathan Duncan asked how he would know how much event parking would cost and when it was taking place.
Matthew Muckenthaler, the city’s parking program manager, said people will use the meter, which will have rates and times associated with the event parking. People can also use the Park KC app, pay by text or at the nearest kiosk.
Muckenthaler said they were looking at different ways to easily, quickly and cheaply provide additional notices in the area that an event is in progress, but what cities typically do is allow the infrastructure, like the meters, to do the work for them.
The city has placed additional signs on posts that display parking information that say, “This zone is subject to event based pricing.”
“So I won’t know until I get to the meter, meaning that I’m going to park, get out of my car and then see that it’s $40,” Duncan responded. “Is there any other way that we can notify people prior to getting out of their car?”
Muckenthaler replied that “there could be ways,” including using signs on the sidewalk or other unspecified items that could be positioned physically. It is unclear if the city followed through with that idea.
Muckenthaler also said what they’ve seen with their parking program at large is that education plays a role.
“So when it comes to an enforcement of this, we would take the same approach that we did when we decriminalized the parking system and we’d issue a lot of warnings to educate the public that, you know, there is event parking on the streets now as well,” he said.
Councilmember Eric Bunch suggested to have the Park KC app do push notifications that event pricing is taking place, as well as using variable signs along the road alerting the public of the increased prices.
Muckenthaler indicated he would look into those options, but it’s unclear if that has happened.
Although Muckenthaler said there would be an education period, he did not mention when that would end and when enforcement would begin.
