A Vibrant Chapel Hill: Michael Carew

 

Welcome to “A Vibrant Chapel Hill, Today and Tomorrow!” a monthly interview series with Chapel Hill’s Economic Development and Parking Services office, exclusively on 97.9 The Hill WCHL & Chapelboro.com.

Every month, you will get updates from department staff and learn about initiatives the town is taking to ensure a Vibrant Chapel Hill, Today and Tomorrow.

This month’s guest: Michael Carew, the parking operations manager for the Town of Chapel Hill.

Listen to the full conversation with Aaron Keck or read the transcript below, which is lightly edited for clarity.

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Aaron Keck: Good morning.

Michael Carew: Appreciate you having me here on the show today. Thank you very much.

Keck: Tell us about yourself and, and the work that you do. This position has only been around for a couple of years, right?

Carew: Correct. I’ve been at the position for a little over two and a half years. It is a new position that oversees the parking operation for the Town of Chapel Hill with a focus on the downtown, the residential areas around the downtown, and just the overall community; helping out and assisting with parking needs.

Keck: The big thing right now is the new parking deck that’s going up on East Rosemary. What’s the status there? What should folks know?

Carew: Yes, we’re looking at a spring of 2024 opening. We’re very excited that the East Rosemary parking deck is going to have a very advanced technology-based system. When you enter the deck, you’re going to be guided to spaces with our parking guidance system.

Keck: That’s cool.

Carew: It shows a red light if the space is taken and a green light if it’s open. It shows a blue light if it’s an ADA space. There’s another color option for EV charging.

Keck: That’s really cool. Is there an option for when the space should be open, but the yutz next to you is parked over the line?

Carew: That is one of those where our parking enforcement officer comes in.

Keck: Gotcha, gotcha.

Carew: Has to give that warning.

Keck: That’s really awesome though. I didn’t realize that level of technology was going to be there. What are some of the other features that folks should know?

Carew: We’re going to be able to integrate it with our current ParkMobile app payment system. So essentially you come to a gate, you pull a ticket, and you can then scan that ticket on your phone. And you can pay through ParkMobile and scan on your way out. You don’t have to visit a pay station, but we will have pay stations there to assist if somebody wants to use those.

Keck: Focusing right now on the East Rosemary parking deck. But there’s a lot of other stuff going on with downtown parking too, right?

Carew: Yes, definitely. We have a couple promotions that we’re running for the Mallette lot and the Courtyard lot. A lot of new stuff is going in on the West End, so we’re trying to promote those areas.

Keck: What other promotions are coming up? I know typically as we get into December with free Saturday parking downtown, correct?

Carew: Yes, we have our free Saturdays in December, so that’s in line. We’re excited about that. And just a lot of new things going on and just planning in general is one of the focuses right now.

Keck: I like that. I’m seeing a note here about dynamic pricing.

Carew: Yes, dynamic pricing, we’ve already started it. We’re seeing a high demand in certain sections of the downtown and we price it accordingly. So, at the east end of Franklin Street, you’ll see a different rate. during the 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. hours.

Keck: So dynamic pricing changes the rate from hour to hour based on demand.

Carew: And we’ve done the opposite in some areas., but we’re looking to see dynamic pricing go into more and more of the lots and on street spaces.

Keck: What other parking trends are you seeing in terms of the way that people use parking spaces and parking lots? In Chapel Hill or just in general?

Carew: We’re seeing a shift to people using the ParkMobile app, and one benefit with the ParkMobile app is being able to see what spaces are available in a specific lot area.

Keck: Similar to the lights, correct?

Carew: Yes. One of the challenges is implementing a whole new app, and so you have to be somewhat strategic on how that is laid out. We’re looking at some type of integration where we’re pulling that information and having it on a current system that we might already have, like ParkMobile, and having that tied to our site, Park on the Hill, and people can access it that way.

Keck: We’ve been focusing so much on downtown, what other parking initiatives are going on either downtown or anywhere else in Chapel Hill?

Carew: We’re looking at a lot of different areas. One area is Blue Hill area. There’s a lot of development and parking that can be utilized for the whole community at certain times. It has not been a focus at the moment, but definitely something that will be in the near future.

Keck: Awesome, Michael, thank you so much for being with us today.

Carew: Appreciate you having me. Thank you again.