Historic 25th Street business owners critical of Ogden paid parking plan

OGDEN — City leaders said paid parking downtown is the key to helping the area grow and develop, but several business owners said a parking fee will kill businesses.

Ogden City community and economic development deputy director David Sawyer led a parking plan review meeting at Union Station Wednesday night. It was contentious at times, with business owners questioning the transparency of the plan.

“I’ve had customers on 25th Street tell me, ‘David, paid parking will actually help my business,'” Sawyer said before he was interrupted by several people in attendance asking who these individuals were.

Sawyer said many individuals sent them input privately. He said multiple meetings and hearings on the parking plan have been held.

He said the goal of paid parking is to increase vehicle turnover, reduce traffic congestion, and make downtown more pedestrian-friendly, boosting local businesses.

Sawyer said the city conducted a parking study with national consultant Kimley-Horn & Associates, which found that parking downtown on some blocks meets or exceeds parking capacity at peak times.

As a result of the study, a paid parking plan was recommended, which includes two new parking structures.

“Less big asphalt parking lots and more vertical and more parking underneath,” Sawyer said. “Making it easier for pedestrians to walk and be closer to everything.”

Thomas Hardy Salon’s owner said he supports Ogden City leaders, but believes they’re wrong on this plan. He’s concerned it will impact his clientele.

“We want them to have a good experience here, and tacking on a parking fee now is going to be a little bit tough for them, and many of them have said that could be a deal breaker,” Tom Hardy said.

He’s also worried his employees could leave if they have to pay for permits. Hardy thinks paid parking would turn visitors away.

“We look at our older clients that might not be able to walk from a long distance for free parking,” Hardy said. “If they got to pay more money to be here, they’re not going to walk the streets and visit the other merchants.”

He said Ogden shouldn’t be treated like a big city when it comes to planning at this level.

“We’re not in that kind of market, our people maybe don’t have that kind of income to worry about,” Hardy said. “It might stifle people from coming down.”

At the meeting, Sawyer said Ogden is a destination city for tourism. He said he looked at the impacts of paid parking on cities comparable to Ogden. None of the cities listed were in Utah, but noted community members there were apprehensive of paid parking plans, but found them to have positive impacts following implementation.

“We don’t want to be like Salt Lake City,” Sawyer said. “We tried to look at communities that were very similar to our community.”

Great Harvest Bread Company owner Chris Zenger said he wished the city had asked for his and others’ input.

“We didn’t hear about this, but finally, just one of the business owners who maybe attended one of those silly city planning meetings found out about it,” he said.

Zenger said he thinks there are other ways to increase parking.

“Am I going to lose employees because they can’t afford the parking passes, or don’t want to walk a block or two to the parking garage and up and down flights of stairs,?” Zenger said. “We start at 4 a.m.”

A few other business owners voiced concerns about employees walking further to their parking spot during the dark.

“I hope they rethink what they’re doing, because we already have my next-door neighboring business, they’re already leaving. They’ve given their notice,” he said.

City leaders said it will take time to implement this plan, and parking will still be free for the first few months.