Milwaukee County residents blast parking fees at parks and parkways

More than a dozen Milwaukee County residents spoke out Tuesday against proposed parking fees at most county parks, parkways and along Lincoln Memorial Drive.

By collecting parking fees for the first time, the county is expected to generate $1.6 million in 2018. But several citizens said Tuesday they would prefer to pay an annual parks admission fee, or higher sales and property taxes, rather than hourly parking fees.

Jim Farmer, chairman of the Friends of Brown Deer Park, said he is concerned that the public would attempt to avoid the fees and park on nearby residential streets. Farmer and other citizens spoke at a meeting of the County Board's parks committee.

"Ask me for a dollar. I'll give you a dollar every month for the parks," Roz Tornatore said. But the county resident said she is opposed to parking fees.

A proposal to begin collecting fees and to hire a private company to operate the new fee system will be discussed at a Feb. 6 public meeting. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the annex adjacent to the Domes at Mitchell Park.

Hourly parking charges have not been set at this time but administration officials have studied rates between $1 per hour and $2.50 per hour, county senior budget analyst Jeremy Lucas said Tuesday.

The County Board will be asked to approve fees for each location at its regular March meeting, according to Teig Whaley-Smith, county administrative services director.

Rejecting parking fees at this time would result in a $1.6 million deficit in the parks department budget for this year, Whaley-Smith said. That deficit could be erased only with new revenue, such as an increase in the county's $30 wheel tax, or budget cuts, he said.

The $1.15 billion county budget for 2018 adopted by the board on Nov. 6 included the revenue from a pay-to-park program in parks.

County Executive Chris Abele proposed the program in his recommended 2018 budget. Supervisors approved the plan along with Abele's request to create a special work group to study how parking fees would be implemented.

A board-approved budget amendment also requires the work group to evaluate possible increases in parking fees paid by businesses operating in county parks. No parking fee in a county park or parkway could be collected without board approval, under the amendment.

RELATED:Milwaukee County Board rejects $30 increase in wheel tax in adopting 2018 budget

Supervisor Jason Haas, chairman of the parks committee, said the board did not remove the parking fee proposal from the budget because that would have required supervisors to replace the projected $1.6 million from another source, such as property taxes.

"We have a revenue problem," Supervisor Steve Taylor said. "If we're not raising money here, we'll have to raise it elsewhere."

The work group has proposed hiring a private company to operate the parks' parking program. A request for proposals would require the company to install equipment needed to collect parking fees, such as kiosks and gates.

Milwaukee County operates several other parking locations in partnership with private companies, parks operations director Guy Smith said in a report to the board. Those locations include General Mitchell International Airport and a lot at N. 6th St. and W. State St.