CHAMPAIGN – Sam Issa isn't one of those downtown businessmen who caters to an upscale crowd.

Issa owns and operates Sam's Cafe, 115 N. Walnut St., a small diner that sells breakfast and lunch and draws a good crowd of budget-conscious patrons. His breakfast special: Two eggs, bacon and toast for $3.40.

So Issa is worried – probably more than most business owners – about city plans to increase parking meter rates in the core of downtown Champaign from the current 25 cents per hour to 75 cents per hour, effective Jan. 1.

"If a person comes downtown and wants to spend $4 for a meal and they have to spend $1.50 for parking (for two hours), how long do you think they will come downtown?" he asks. "I don't think too many people will do it."

Issa isn't the only downtown business owner or employee who is concerned. A petition drive making the rounds in downtown Champaign has already generated more than 1,000 signatures from people who are opposed to the proposed parking increases.

But city officials say the meter increases are needed both to help pay for an estimated $12 million, 600-space parking garage set to go up at the southwest corner of Randolph and Hill Streets and to better distribute parking in the downtown area in general.

The city council will consider the rate increases and downtown parking policies at a Nov. 20 study session, with a final vote likely Dec. 18.

The city's proposed parking plan would leave parking at 25 cents an hour on the fringe of downtown, increase it to 50 cents in an outer ring and raise rates to 75 cents in the core of downtown, where demand is the greatest.

"I don't expect everybody to be happy about an increase in parking rates," said Elizabeth Hannan, the city's administrative services manager. "But parking rates have an impact on people's behavior. Hopefully, people will adjust their behavior accordingly versus everybody parking in the core of downtown."

The rate increases are expected to generate $370,000 annually to help pay off bonds for the parking garage, with hours of enforcement from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Under the city's expected proposal, the hours of enforcement will be extended to 7 p.m. starting Jan. 1, 2009, and then to 9 p.m. on Jan. 1, 2010. The extra hours of enforcement are expected to generate an additional $70,000 a year for the city.

Grass-roots opposition to the plan appears to be growing.

Claudia Lennhoff, executive director of Champaign County Health Care Consumers, which is at 44 E. Main St. on the second floor of the Lincoln Building, has spearheaded the petition drive.

"We feel this increase is discriminatory and harmful to a lot of people who come downtown to eat, socialize and volunteer," Lennhoff said. "Our volunteers tend to be older, lower-income folks and people with disabilities. Why should they be forced to pay a higher price to park?"

Health Care Consumers, the Champaign-Urbana Tenant Union, Central Illinois Dental and Education Services and Community Shares of Illinois are all based on the second floor of the Lincoln Building.

Nearby is the Stevick Senior Citizens Center, a popular spot for seniors at 48 E. Main St.

"All these parking ideas are geared to relatively young, healthy, wealthy consumers – and to hell with everybody else," Lennhoff said.

The petition also protests "the lack of transparency and community input into" the plan and demands "a community input process" that allows for more time for residents to express their opinions to the city.

Susan Olsen, owner of Bangs, a hair salon in the basement of the Church Street Square building at 206 N. Randolph St., is also leading the opposition.

"Most of downtown is composed of small businesses, and it's going to be a problem for them," Olsen said. "My clients aren't happy about it."

Liz Hawkins, owner of Skins N Tins at 29 Main St., which sells drums and related musical equipment, said a number of her customers expressed concern to her about the parking rates.

"A lot of people don't even want to shop downtown as it is," she said. "To increase the rates and extend the hours at the same time is a little much."

Both Hawkins and Issa say they resent that their customers will have to pay more money for parking to help finance a parking garage that they contend will primarily benefit the M2 on Neil building under construction.

Construction on that $41 million, nine-story building is under way. The project, being developed by One Main Development, will include retail and office space and condominiums.

Craig Rost, Champaign's deputy city manager for development, said the city envisions the parking garage's first two floors as devoted to customer parking for the general downtown area, with the other four floors devoted to residential and office parking. Construction on the city-owned garage is expected to begin in January, and it should be open by fall 2008, he said.

Champaign Planning Director Bruce Knight said there's more to the city's parking strategy than just raising income.

"In the inner core zone, we'll have a higher price to promote more turnover of parking to serve customer needs," he said. "Beyond that area, rates will be lower and more convenient for all-day parking."

Overall, relying more on parking garages is necessary if Champaign's downtown is going to continue to grow and begin offering a greater variety of retail, more employment and more residential apartments and condominiums, he said. That means gradually replacing parking lots with buildings.

"If you look at the most successful downtowns, density is the key to their success," Knight said. "We're starting to get more retail, but the key to getting more retail is more density."

If parking is underpriced, as Knight contends it is downtown, parking spots generally won't be available. He said a number of downtown employees take up choice parking spots when it would be better if they parked more on the periphery of downtown. A differential pricing system will promote better use of the parking system, he said.

Raising meter rates in Campustown from 25 cents to 75 cents per hour nearly six years ago has made parking much more available there, and it will have the same effect downtown, Hannan said.

Council generally supports parking rate hike

A survey of several city council members shows that most support, at least in concept, raising parking meter rates in the core downtown area to 75 cents an hour.

But at least two members, Karen Foster and Deborah Frank Feinen, expressed doubts about the advisability of increasing the hours of parking enforcement from the current 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Jan. 1, 2009, and then to 9 p.m. on Jan. 1, 2010.

Under the city's tentative plan, parking rates on the periphery of downtown would remain at 25 cents per hour. Rates would increase to 50 cents on a few streets on the outskirts of downtown and would jump to 75 cents in the center city.

Interviews with Mayor Jerry Schweighart and council members Vic McIntosh, Tom Bruno, Ken Pirok, Michael La Due, Foster and Feinen showed widespread support for a system of tiered parking rates, with longer-term parking allowable in the outer edges of downtown.

"The theory is the lower rates in the outlying area would compel downtown employees to park farther away," La Due said. "That's a good thing."

Said Schweighart: "I think it will solve some long-term problems. A lot of the spaces now are taken up by employees who feed the meter or move around."

More than cheap parking, what people want most, Bruno said, "is to be able to find a spot when you are desperate."

Pirok and Foster said the city must increase parking meter revenue substantially to help pay for a new $12 million, 600-space parking garage to be built next year at the southeast corner of Randolph and Hill streets.

"I think it's a foregone conclusion we're going to have to raise the rates," Pirok said. "I don't think we have any choice. If the downtown is going to grow and we're going to invite more people downtown, we're going to need more parking available."

Feinen and Foster said they aren't sold on the need to extend meter hours.

"I think we do have a higher volume in the evenings and we want to encourage that so people come for food," Feinen said. "I'm concerned that it will have a detrimental effect."

She said she would also like, if possible, to offer reduced rates or other accommodations for patrons of the Stevick Senior Citizens Center at 48 E. Main St.

"I'm not 100 percent sold on it," Feinen said about the rate increase. "But I recognize to make the deck work, the council has to figure out how to fund it, and part of that is parking."