Title
Amend Phoenix City Code Related to Commercial Ground Transportation Trip Fees, Parking Rate Cap, and Unattended Vehicle Civil Penalties (Ordinance G-6631)
Description
Request to amend Phoenix City Code to increase commercial ground transportation trip fees, establish a process for adjusting trip fees, remove parking-rate caps, and increase civil penalties for unattended vehicles left along the curb of any terminal and to make conforming, clarifying, and renumbering changes as necessary.
Report
Summary
Commercial ground transportation trip fees and annual increases
City Code requires that, by Jan. 1, 2020, staff must conduct a study of peer airports' commercial ground transportation (GT) trip fees and that GT stakeholders may participate in selecting the consultant in this review. Beginning fall of 2018, staff and GT stakeholders started the process of scoping and studying peer airport trip fees. Through summer 2019, staff conducted monthly meetings with GT stakeholders, totaling over 15 large and small group GT stakeholder meetings held. The completed study reviewed peer airport GT revenue collection compared to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) revenue. PHX consistently collects less GT revenue compared to its peers. The proposal seeks to increase trip fees for permitted GT providers, establish drop-off trip fees for providers, and provide for predictable, administrative annual trip-fee rate increases.
Parking-rate caps, short-term rate clarification, and future amendment process
City Code sets rate caps that establish the maximum charges for public, employee, and special-event parking. These caps have not been modified in over 10 years. The original proposal approved by the Phoenix Aviation Advisory Board was to increase parking-rate caps in accordance with CPI growth since the last rate-cap increase in 2008. To prevent this problem from recurring in the future, the original proposal also included an automatic annual rate-cap increase of 3 percent or the annual CPI change, whichever is less. At the Transportation, Infrastructure, and Innovation Subcommittee on Oct. 2, 2019, Chairwoman Williams proposed to eliminate the parking-rate caps entirely. The rationale is that the Airport must compete in the marketplace with several private companies that offer similar or comparable alternative products and services, and this competition will effectively "cap" what the Airport can charge for parking. Consequently, the Aviation Director should possess discretion to assess market conditions and set competitive parking rates. For these reasons, the Subcommittee voted to eliminate parking-rate caps.
Unattended vehicle civil penalties
City Code regulates vehicle parking at an airport and imposes a civil penalty for parking violations. The proposal is to amend City Code to regulate leaving a vehicle unattended in violation of posted signs along terminal curbsides. The civil penalty will be the maximum allowed by State law. In addition, the City Code provides that an unattended vehicle in violation of posted signs adjacent to or near a terminal is a threat to public health, safety, and welfare and constitutes a public nuisance. The City Code will also now provide a civil penalty for this public nuisance.
Attachments
- Attachment A - Summary Sheet
- Attachment B - Draft Ordinance
Financial Impact
The City Code changes will have a positive financial impact.
Concurrence/Previous Council Action
The Transportation, Infrastructure and Innovation Subcommittee recommended approval of this item on Oct. 2, 2019 by a 4-0 vote.
Public Outreach
Extensive stakeholder outreach was conducted during the peer-review of commercial ground transportation fees as well as stakeholder review of the proposed City Code amendment.
Location
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, 3400 E. Sky Harbor Blvd.
Council District: 8
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Deanna Jonovich and the Aviation Department.