The City of Ithaca this week will consider increasing weekly and monthly garage parking rates and adding stop signs to an intersection between the Fall Creek neighborhood and downtown.
Frank Nagy, the director of parking, will propose new parking rates — which do not include any increase for hourly parking — at the Board of Public Works meeting on Monday evening.
If the rate hikes are approved by the Board of Public Works, monthly rates for the Seneca and Green Street garages would increase from $96 to $105 for full access, a 9.375 percent increase that would go into effect on Jan. 1.
Under Nagy’s proposal, the city would also stop offering special deals, such as a “worker’s special” Monday through Friday pass for $78 each month, an overnight deal and a part-time deal for the two garages.
At the Cayuga Street Garage, the all-access monthly price would increase 3 percent from $69 to $71, and the worker’s special pass would continue to be offered for $58, a $2 increase.
The Dryden Road garage would see the largest monthly increase, from $164 for a full access pass to $200 — an increase of 22 percent — beginning on July 1. The price for special deals at the Dryden Road location would all increase 20 percent.
Weekly rates at the Seneca and Green Street garages would increase from $30 to $32.81, and, at the Dryden Road Garage, from $51 to $61.20.
Hourly rates remain unchanged for all garages, lots and street parking in Collegetown, downtown and elsewhere. The only change to hourly parking would be that drivers could, beginning on Jan. 1, park their cars for 12 hours at the Seneca, Green Street and Cayuga Street garages instead of just seven under the current rules.
Also on Monday, the Board of Public Works will consider making the intersection of Cayuga and Cascadilla streets an all-way stop. The intersection currently just has two stop signs on Cascadilla Street and Cascadilla Avenue, which run roughly east-west across Cayuga Street.
While the corner is not among the intersections with the highest frequency of reported accidents, cars pulling out of Cascadilla Street or Cascadilla Avenue have little visibility because of the bridge over Cascadilla Creek.
Ithaca College student Rain Talosig lives on Cascadilla Avenue and is a barista at Gimme Coffee on the corner of Cascadilla and Cayuga streets. She said she would appreciate an all-way stop at the intersection.
“It’s really hard to turn out of [Cascadilla Avenue] because people are speeding by and it’s hard to see around the bridge,” she said. “I think it’s a dangerous area and I’m excited for it to be safer when I come to work.”
Another barista, Dave Torrey, said people are “laying on their horns” at the intersection on a near-daily basis because of the difficulty turning onto Cayuga Street.
The intersection vote was initially set to be determined at the previous Board of Public Works meeting in November, but there were not enough members of the board for a quorum, so the issue was not discussed.
The Board of Public Works is expected to vote on the parking rates and the all-way stop during its Monday meeting, which begins at 4:45 p.m. on the third floor of City Hall.
Mollie Cramer ’19 contributed reporting to this article.