Sitka will be the next Southeast airport to make the switch from free to paid parking. Petersburg made the move in December, when a private operator leased state airport property that had been used for free parking and converted it to a paid long-term lot.
The Alaska Department of Transportation said parking management at the Sitka airport “has become an increasing challenge” for its crew. The department plans this month to advertise “to find a professional parking management company” to manage the lot in front of the terminal.
The effort “will be the first of several planned to solve similar parking issues throughout the state airport system,” according to the department’s announcement last month.
“The Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport parking request for proposals is a pilot program for the department’s smaller airports,” Sam Dapcevich, department spokesman, said last Thursday. “After it’s implemented there, the department will start rolling it out to additional airports.”
Dapcevich said “no changes are in the works for Wrangell’s airport at this time,” but confirmed changes to the free airport parking lot across the street from the Wrangell terminal could come in the future.
In addition to Sitka, Wrangell and Petersburg, the department manages the airports in Gustavus, Haines, Hoonah, Skagway, Yakutat and several smaller Southeast communities, in addition to airports across Alaska.
The Juneau and Ketchikan airports are managed by the borough in each community, and there is a fee for airport parking.
The request for proposals for a private operator to manage the Sitka parking lot will go out in early March. The department said it “anticipates a company will be managing the lot by early April.” The operator will set and collect the fees.
The parking rate in Petersburg went from free to $7 per day in December after the state leased the frequently used, state-owned parcel to a private operator — at the request of the company that wanted more space for its own business.
The Wrangell parking lot is on state land, with no private involvement and no fees.
In an interview with the Sitka Sentinel late last month, Dapcevich said the state decided to outsource lot management in Sitka because the department “doesn’t have the resources to manage parking.” He added, “We’ve been in discussions with the city. They’ve determined they don’t have the bandwidth to manage it either. So, we’re going to ... get a parking management company in there, and some of the issues people have come to us with should be addressed.”
One of the complaints is a lack of sufficient long-term parking, he said.
“We have 68 spots in the seven-day parking area and they’re typically pretty full,” Dapcevich told the Sitka newspaper. “By having a company in there that can manage it, they should be able to adapt and be more flexible than us. If they decide they can use more of the short-term parking area for long-term, they may be able to do that. Also, they could go longer than the seven-day limit we have in place. If people would like to pay to keep their car there longer, they would have that option.”
“The proposal is a long time coming,” said Sitka Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz. “We’ve been working with the state on a parking plan at the airport for quite some time. … We’ve been trying to push this off for a long time, so that we didn’t have to charge for parking at the airport. But at this point I believe it’s an inevitability.” He added, “I hope the rates are kept reasonable.”
Dapcevich hopes the move will reduce the number of cars left or abandoned in the Sitka lot for extended periods of time.
“An ideal situation would be that we don’t have abandoned cars, because someone is there and our maintenance and operations staff wouldn’t have to be trying to track people down, and then end up if you can’t track them down needing to involve a towing company and then following up with people so they can get their car back,” he said. “We would prefer that they’re focusing on their regular responsibilities, like keeping the runway clear and keeping Sitka’s roads clear.”
Reader Comments(0)