Boise State commuters have a new payment option next time they pull into one of the school's numerous parking spaces.
Parking meters have traditionally meant carrying a roll of quarters, but the ParkMobile system recently installed at the University allows motorists to pay with a cell phone. Android, iPhone, Windows 7 and Blackberry users can download the ParkMobile app and pay for parking without carrying a pocketful of change.
Motorists can also call toll free 1-877-727-5993 to pay for their parking, according to the University. Payment options, including the new system, can be found on Boise State meters and signs at the pay stations in the garages.
A statement from the university Monday afternoon said the new pay system is a first:
Additionally, Boise State is the first university to offer Near Field Communication (NFC) capability. Users simply wave or tap their smartphone on any of the NFC-enabled stickers on the meters and signs in the garages to instantly access the parking application, making paying for parking more convenient.
Drivers can elect to receive text message reminders 15 minutes before their parking term expires, with the option to add extra time.
Parkmobile charges users a $0.35 convenience fee per transaction, or a $0.99 per month "preferred membership" to receive discounts on transaction fees.
A proposal to transform a surface parking lot owned by the State of Idaho into a large parking garage may move forward Tuesday, Jan. 9.
That's if the City of Boise's Design Review Committee gives the nod to the plan's current design proposal, which calls for a 61-foot-tall, five-and-a-half-story garage totaling more than 140,000 square feet to occupy a portion of the site.
Currently, the parcel is used as parking for Capitol Mall employees. Stalls are scarce near the Idaho State Capitol during the legislative session, which led lawmakers to approve up to $8 million for the garage in March 2012.
Comprising 1.6 acres, the block is bordered by Franklin, Washington, Sixth and Seventh streets. Fifty-four existing parking spaces would remain, with the new garage spanning the length of Washington Street between Sixth and Seventh streets.
According to documents filed with Boise's Planning and Development Services, the parking garage would house 580 spaces, increasing the lots parking capacity 10-fold.
A small parking lot outside a utility firm in the north-central Idaho community of Colfax has the usual collection of automobiles parked alongside an airplane.
This morning's Lewiston Tribune reports that a pilot needed to land his small plane on U.S. Highway 195, just north of Colfax, on Monday after his aircraft developed engine trouble. Law enforcement said the pilot tried to land at the small Colfax airport, "but wasn't going to make it." Instead, he struck a power line and brought the plane down on U.S. 195.
The Federal Aviation Administration will need to determine if the pilot is able to use U.S. 195 again, this time as a takeoff runway, to fly his plane home.
In writing this week's news feature on Jack's Urban Meeting Place, we went for a little lap around the Simplot site, bounded by Front and Myrtle streets on the north and south and Ninth and Eleventh to the east and west.
The four-block area is somewhat trapezoidal, or, as JUMP architect Susan Desko called it, "kind of like a piano ... Driving down Myrtle, you get this really dynamic kind of curve ahead of you."
We found a few surprises on the site. First of all, there is a Borah Street. The continuation of Broad Street (which runs through BoDo) is called Borah. There is currently access to surface parking via Borah Street, but citydesk hears that the Simplots are requesting that Borah and the alley that comes onto the property from Myrtle be abandoned to accommodate their plans for the site.
Also within the future JUMP (what do ya'll think we should call this? JUMP feels silly... like BoDo...) there is a network of railroad spurs that once served the downtown warehouse district. There are photos of all this stuff in the slide show below.
The Emerald Club and Knock 'em Dead Dinner Theater are slated for demolition in this project, but Breck Seiniger, Jr., the attorney who owns the law firm on the corner of Myrtle and Ninth, refused to sell his corner to the Simplot family.
"They made us an offer that wee didn't think was reasonable and we made them an offer that they didn't think was reasonable," Seiniger said.
When JUMP is built, if indeed it excludes commercial activity, Seiniger is thinking his corner might be prime real estate for some commercial activity... a Starbucks, perhaps?
And here is a little bonus treat. It is not super clear, but for a sneak peak of the landscape plan for JUMP, check out the future Web site for the project... look closely behind the little jumping girl...
