Downtown parking updates coming

ROSEBURG – Janitorial and security services will be hired for the Downtown Parking Garage following approval from the Roseburg City Council.

At its meeting Monday, Aug. 24, the City Council OK’d using American Rescue Plan Act funds to pay for a year of janitorial and security services for the downtown garage at 551 SE Rose St.

The Council also agreed to modify rules for parking at the free parking lot at S.E. Cass Avenue and S.E. Rose Street behind Downtown Fitness & Aerobics, and on the first floor of the Downtown Parking Garage. Some permit-only spaces will be added to the free lot. The rest of the spaces in the free lot and all first-floor parking spaces will have four-hour time limits. Those changes are expected to take effect and new signage put up by the end of September.

The changes come eight months into the City’s three-year parking services contract with ACE Parking, which began Jan. 1, after revenue collected from parking permits and tickets has fallen short of covering monthly contracted expenses. The adjustments are being made to help cover the cost of the contract. However, additional funding will be needed to help cover parking lot and garage maintenance, utilities, insurance and future upgrades, Roseburg Community Development Department Director Stuart Cowie told the Council.

“We want people to come and visit our downtown. We recognize that they will need a place to park. We’re hoping to help solve that problem and contribute to the success of downtown businesses,” Cowie said this week.

The City Council will hold a work-study session to determine long-term funding solutions that could include a new parking meter system, replacing some parking meters with permitted or time-limited parking, a possible taxing or special funding district and possible City Code changes.

Parking enforcement resumed April 1, along with other changes that included free but time-limited parking on streets in the downtown core. While the same number of free, on-street customer parking spots were kept, most spaces in the downtown core are now limited to two or three hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Metered parking has remained on outlying downtown streets.

The changes were called for in the Downtown Parking Assessment and Plan developed by the City, a consultant and the Roseburg Parking Stakeholder Advisory Committee in 2020 and 2021. To develop that plan, a public outreach campaign including public hearings and a survey gathered input and priorities from residents and other stakeholders. The survey was filled out by more than 300 residents, including 55 downtown business owners or workers.

City officials expected the changes to benefit residents and businesses by freeing up more on-street parking spaces for short-term customer parking downtown.

People want to visit downtown for its unique character as the vibrant cultural center of Roseburg – and that’s one of the benefits to having a business downtown, where the City has invested millions of dollars in improvements. While the City maintains five parking lots and a garage downtown, the absence of even more parking lots is another facet of downtown’s charm and contributes to business density and variety.

“We understand the unique character of the area and its significance to the community. Downtown is the heart of Roseburg,” Cowie said. “We want downtown to be vibrant. For that to occur, downtown property owners and businesses need to invest in the area. And one way to do that is by supporting adequate parking.”

Monthly parking permits remain at the same rates that were in place before the City temporarily performed parking enforcement between contracts. Garage rates are $17 for level 3 and $22 for level 2. Parking lot rates range from $22 for the Court Street lot to $35 for the Armory lot.

Drivers can pay fines and contest tickets on the ACE Parking Roseburg webpage at www.aceparking.com/roseburg.

To get a parking permit or for more information, contact ACE Program Administrator Michelle Anderson at 541-900-1102 or roseburgenforcement@aceparking.com, or Enforcement Manager James English at (O) 541-900-1106 or jenglish@aceparking.com.