The College Station City Council met on Thursday. One of the topics to discuss on the agenda was the current laws regarding meter fees. Yesterday, they approved a change in rules to the Northgate district, making street parking free from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m.
These changes in the city ordinance will not become effective until the new meters are installed in the Northgate District. The City council was also suppose to discuss hiring a firm to replace all of the old meters, but this topic of discussion got moved back to a later meeting.
There is one stipulation, according to Bob Cowell who is the executive director of developmental services for the city. The meters will not be free on Texas A&M home game days. Requiring money for the parking spot assures business owners that the same cars are not always sitting outside their business. This allows for as steady flow of new customers to visit their business area because their is open parking spots available.
The city council discussed renovations to a parking garage within the district. They decided to defer the subject until more information could be obtained on the matter.
Another topic that was on the city council’s agenda was the lowering of property taxes. The rate now stands at 43.8 cents per 100 dollars value. This is a one percent decrease from last year’s rate. This is the lowest rate College Station has had since 2001, which is encouraging. The reason city council members were able to do this is because property value rose by 5.2% in the College Station area. They can collect the same amount, if not more tax revenue as last year while having lower rates, which is popular with the public.