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The Topeka City Council voted to wait on making a decision to charge for parking in downtown Topeka. This comes due to an ongoing parking study the city is undertaking.
City leaders had determined in a session of the infrastructure and public works meeting on the morning of May 17 to delay the vote. The vote has been delayed in the past, as the city of Topeka has flip-flopped on charging for parking in downtown.
“When we encountered this resolution the last time, the intent was to do an RFP for the garages, revisit the parking plan and do a lot of things in three months,” Councilman Neil Dobler said. “That proved to not be enough time.”
Dobler then brought forward a motion that would push the vote on this item to a meeting on Aug. 16.
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This will give the city and council members more time to view and gather the data they need in order to make an informed decision and move forward.
The question of parking in downtown normally would be a simple one, but since the city is entertaining selling some or all of its parking garages, council members wanted to wait for more data to come in before voting.
Because of this Mayor Mike Padilla called a special session of the governing body, to be held from 9 to 11 a.m. June 4 at the Holiday building. The focus will be solely on the question of parking.
City donates two properties to KDOT as part of Polk-Quincy Viaduct Project
The city council also voted to unanimously donate two properties to the Kansas Department of Transportation. These two properties are located at 100 S.W. Van Buren St. and 129 S.W. Van Buren St.
The donations did not prompt any discussion, as the council had gone over these items in last week’s meeting. The properties are being donated as a result of an agreement in place between the previous director of public works and KDOT.
The two properties lie in the path of the new Polk-Quincy Viaduct project, so one way or another KDOT would have come into possession of them.
City formally begins searching for new city manager
While many discussion in recent meetings have been on the subject of hiring a city manager, the city had not moved forward with recruiting until now.
On May 17, the city posted a short video to its YouTube channel in which Mayor Padilla and Councilwomen Hannah Naeger and Karen Hiller described what they want to see for the city they represent.
“We also want to make sure this is somebody who is going to really celebrate the diversity we have within our municipal government and within our city,” Naeger said in the video.
The full video can be viewed at https://bit.ly/3sITAcO and the application can be found on the City of Topeka’s website.
Alex Edwards is the local politics reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached via email at [email protected], or via twitter @AMEdwards21
https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/local/2022/05/18/topeka-city-council-postpones-vote-charging-parking-downtown/9797889002/
