City Weighing Tempting Option of Smart Parking

Should the City of Lafayette agree to parking technology company Streetline's generous proposal of no cost services for a period of 10 years with no obligation?

Due to the very late hour, nearly midnight, city council members cut to the chase in discussing if the city manager should go ahead and begin negotiations with the Foster City based company's intriguing offer.

Streetline proposes installing 800 on-street sensors, similar in appearance to hockey pucks embedded into pavement, that relay information about the availability of parking spaces in real time to would-be parkers via their smart phones.

Mayor Don Tatzin pointed out a couple of benefits. "It allows us to make more intelligent use of our resources," and this technology could address a common complaint among drivers who receive parking tickets - a grace period can be set up prior to ticketing.

Originally Streetline had offered a fee-based proposal that included some start-up costs, but in April it came back with a second, no-cost alternative that calls for advertising and sponsorship options that "allow a company to pay for the cost of the installation and service fees, resulting in zero cost to the City for basic technology and management tools," noted the staff report prepared by assistant planner Sarah Allen. The city would have discretion over what type of advertising it would allow. The Parking Ordinance Committee unanimously agreed this proposal was worth pursuing.

City Manager Steven Falk was given direction to meet with Streetline and bring back a negotiated proposal for city council review. Several concerns were raised; presumably they will be specifically addressed in deal points, at which point the city can either take it, or leave it.



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