The first quarterly public meeting of the Broad Ripple Village Association (BRVA) was held at the Indianapolis Art Center on Tuesday, January 18, 2011. The newly elected BRVA president, Mark Wolf, called the meeting to order. Two prominent issues, parking meters and a parking garage, were discussed by past president and current board member Elizabeth Marshall.

"In the next 60 to 90 days you're likely to start seeing new [parking] meters on the streets of Broad Ripple, they will accept credit cards. As soon as those meters are in place the rates will be going up," explained Elizabeth. The rates will go from the current 75 cents per hour to $1.50 per hour over the next couple of years. The rates may be $1 this year, $1.25 next year and then the final rate of $1.50 the next year. Instead of a meter at every parking spot, there should be only one pole meter for every 4 to 5 spots. Another change is that the meters will be in effect into the evening hours, possibly until 9 or 10 pm, similar to the hours that will be in effect on Mass Ave downtown. The meters will also be in effect on Saturdays.

Elizabeth explained that the City of Indianapolis negotiated an up-front payment in the 50-year contract with Xerox Co.'s Affiliated Computer Services (AFC) to manage the city's 3,600 parking meters. Part of this money is coming to Broad Ripple Village in the form of a subsidy for the development of a privately designed, constructed, and operated parking structure. This would be a mixed-use structure, possible including retail, hotel, and residential units along with excess parking capacity to alleviate the street parking shortage in the Village. Once this public parking structure is open, a residential parking permit system will go into effect, allowing for public parking only at parking meters, in parking lots, or in the parking structure. To park on a city street in front of a residence, a car would need to have a residential parking permit displayed.

None of the details of the new parking structure or the permit system have been determined. The City of Indianapolis has a committee in place for that purpose and has allowed two representatives from the BRVA to join that committee to address neighborhood concerns. Those representatives are Elizabeth Marshall and Tom Healy, both elected board members of the BRVA.

One task for the committee is to determine how far people are willing to walk from their parked car to their destination in the Village. That distance will set the boundaries of the residential permit system. The intent is to virtually eliminate visitors from parking in front of residences on the public streets.

"I call [the residential permit program] a public safety issue because we don't have adequate lighting on our streets and that is a huge concern as people walk back to their cars at night," said Elizabeth. "Not only will [the permit system] protect the residents from some of the negative things that happen by having everyone parking on their street, we also are protecting those patrons of our Village from dangers that they may not be totally aware."

The Gazette readers probably know what those issues are - trash in the front yards of homes, loud, intoxicated people returning to their cars at the wee hours of the morning, and those same intoxicated people sometimes mugged on the way back to their cars.

The City plans to release the Request For Qualification (RFQ) for the project by the end of January and have the list of respondents in mid-March. That list would be narrowed down to 3 to 4 qualified vendors by April. A final design and vendor would be selected by mid-summer, with a possible ground-breaking in the fall.

A question from the audience asked about a rumor of surveyors in the Village saying that 200-300 new meters will be installed on streets that don't have any meters today. Elizabeth said that is not true, and that she has read the parking contract and it specifically states where all of the meters will be. There will be about 30 new meters on Westfield, where they should have already been according to code. The BRVA will continue to work with the City and AFS on the parking meter details. For example, the merchants in the Village want longer time limits on the meters to allow customers to shop leisurely and enjoy lunch without the looming fear of a parking ticket.

The rest of the quarterly meeting agenda dealt with 2011 events and reports from the BRVA committees. Of note, the celebration of Broad Ripple's 175th anniversary in 2012 was announced. A BRVA committee is forming to plan those activities during the Super Bowl year. Those interested in helping to plan the 175th events can contact the BRVA at 251-BRVA to find out about joining the committee.

The next public BRVA meeting will be Tuesday, April 19, 2011, at 7pm at the Indianapolis Art Center. The monthly board meetings are also open to the public and are held on the first Tuesday of every month at 6pm at the Art Center.