Authorizing the City Council Legislative Oversight Committee to hold hearings on the effects that parking rates, charged by privately and publicly owned parking facilities located in the City of Philadelphia, have on businesses, employees, residents, and visitors; and how such parking rates can be made more consumer-friendly, either by direct regulation by the City, or by the creation of competition by the City, through lower rates at its own publicly owned parking facilities; and how the City can regulate the amount that parking facilities charge customers during special events.

WHEREAS, Rates charged at various parking facilities are often viewed as major obstacles for people to visit the City of Philadelphia, and from coming to the City to shop at its retail stores, eat at its restaurants, visit its tourist attractions, and from enjoying all that the City has to offer; and

WHEREAS, Frequently, at special events, when demand for parking is high, parking facilities raise their rates exorbitantly, thus, dissuading people from attending these events, which are held at such facilities as the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, and the Stadium Complex; and

WHEREAS, Several cities, including San Francisco, California, and Portland, Oregon, have successfully instituted parking regulations that have benefited businesses, employees, residents, and visitors, and the owners of parking facilities in those cities; and

WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia may also encourage the owners of parking facilities to institute more fair and consumer-friendly rates, through the use of free-market forces, by providing a competitively priced market for parking, specifically, by lowering the parking rates that publicly-owned lots charge; now therefore

RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Hereby authorizes the City Council Legislative Oversight Committee to hold hearings on the effects that parking rates, charged by privately and publicly owned parking facilities located in the City of Philadelphia, have on businesses, employees, residents, and visitors; and how such parking rates can be made more consumer-friendly, either by direct regulation by the City, or by the creation of competition by the City, through lower rates at its own publicly parking facilities; and how the City can regulate the amount that parking facilities charge customers during special events.

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