AUSTIN -- Some proposed changes by Austin’s Transportation Department regarding the city’s valet parking ordinances has some local businesses up in arms.
On Tuesday, representatives with the Transportation Department updated the Urban Transportation Commission on recommendations that their department wants to make to city leaders.
The biggest proposal local businesses have a problem with is changing the current cost of a valet parking space from $250 a year to $1 an hour per space.
Don Gurney, owner of Capitol Transpark says for some businesses that would mean a near 1,000 percent increase.
“If this actually passes, at this rate, we will be the first city in the state of Texas to impose such an expensive fee for simply utilizing a lane,” said Gurney.
The Transportation Department is also recommending that valets wear photo I.D. badges. They also want to limit the time a valet can let a car sit in a lane of traffic to five minutes.
“If it turned into five minutes and you were still saying goodbye to your friends, then I would have to approach you and say, 'Sir, you need to move your car, you're going to get a ticket again,'" Gurney said. "[It's] a little unrealistic."
Gordon Derr with Austin’s Transportation Department says Austin City Council asked his department to look at any needed changes to the city’s valet ordinance. It was last revamped in 1999.
Derr says the talk of extending parking meter hours at night in downtown Austin forced the city’s valet services into the spotlight. Derr also made it clear that the recommendations regarding valet services are not chiseled in stone.
“I certainly don't think that the current form is probably the final form that these will take but we need to put some ideas out so that we can get responses and have a discussion before we can take to council our final recommendation,” said Derr.
The Transportation Department will meet within the next few weeks to refine the proposed valet changes before presenting recommendations to City Council on Nov. 10.
