Origin of Parking Demand
As the twentieth century progressed, the automobile industry began to grow exponentially therefore creating a need for cities and businesses to provide parking. However, since the parking industry was still new, the planning and development data that we have come to rely on today was unknown. Cities did not know how many parking spaces were needed or how to design efficient parking.
Complaints were beginning to be heard from motorists with no place to park, merchants whose customers had no place to park, and business people whose customers, clients and employees could not come downtown because of the lack of parking. A number of cities and government agencies began to look at ways they could go about providing parking.
There were a variety of approaches to solve the problem of parking. Some of the steps that were taken include the establishment of parking authorities, parking commissions, city parking agencies and revenue authorities. Assorted citizen groups and business leaders worked to find some way to solve the parking problem. The next step was getting some type of legislation passed to help them do the job. This usually included the enactment of state legislation with some method of floating bonds, legal establishment of a parking agency and providing a staff to do the work. However, for a city undertaking to solve its parking problem, it became evident that virtually no one knew how to go about it – no trained officials, parking engineers, or administrators.
Parking and the National League of Cities
The Detroit Municipal Parking Authority was established in 1948 and John D. McGillis was appointed as the first director and the entire staff. He was at a loss as to how to go about solving the worsening parking problems. The parking authority was involved in numerous lawsuits, public and private meetings, and debates over what to do with parking in Detroit.
In 1953, McGillis went to the Mayor and the City Council and received their concurrence to visit the American Municipal Association (AMA) headquarters in Chicago and ask for their help. The AMA, which later changed their name to the National League of Cities (NLC), was very interested in helping solve municipal problems. That summer, McGillis met with the organization’s Executive Director, Carl Chatters. Chatters was quite receptive and proved to be an effective ally. He offered the limited resources of his office and put together material with McGillis for the association’s president, Mayor William H. Kemp of Kansas City. The recommendation was that the AMA form a committee on parking. It consisted primarily of mayors, elected city officials, town engineers and city traffic engineers.
The committee went to work trying to develop a policy involving parking. This new policy proclaimed that parking was the responsibility of the municipality which should take every step to deal with the issue through systematic study, acquisition and construction along with operation and management. The policy report was reviewed by the complete committee which recommended that it be forwarded to the AMA’s general membership for approval. The report suggested that the parking committee conduct research, study, analyze the cost of off-street parking and make a study of municipalities. Each member of the committee agreed to compile the parking experiences of several municipalities in his section of the country.
Parking Demand Grows
A number of organizational meetings took place. By now parking had become a hot topic at the AMA Annual Congress. Speakers at these meetings included city traffic engineers and transit officials. Even with two concurrent parking sessions at the AMA annual Congress, the attendance was so large that people were standing against the walls. At the next committee meeting, it was agreed that a workshop should be held the following year and that several days would be devoted to the discussion of parking. This idea brought forth by McGillis was uniformly applauded.
From then on, things moved fast. A program was prepared and invitations sent out. It was called the First International Workshop Meeting and was held at the Veterans Memorial Building in Detroit, cosponsored by the Detroit Parking Authority, October 22-23, 1956. A number of parking authorities sent their executive directors, parking commissioners and authority members as well as elected and appointed public officials. The meeting lasted for two days and broke into a number of panel discussions, seminars and round table discussions. The subjects would be quite elementary to today’s well-informed parking professionals.
Creation of the Institutional and Municipal Parking Congress (IMPC)
By 1960, at the annual AMA Congress meeting in New York, McGillis called a separate dinner meeting of a number of active members. He and the others determined that interest in a separate organization was growing and the time had arrived to consider breaking off from the American Municipal Association. The sponsorship and good reception that had always been given by the AMA was well noted but it was felt that the time had come to establish an organization that’s sole focus was on parking.
It was then decided that an association should be created that was dedicated to providing information and research regarding the parking industry Thus, in 1962, what was then called the Institutional and Municipal Parking Congress was formed. The chairmen that were appointed to the first Congress were Vining Fisher, Director of the San Francisco Parking Authority; Robert G. Bundy, general manager of the Toronto Parking authority; and Jim Hunnicutt, Director of Parking, Nashville, TN. These pioneers defined the purpose and goals of IMPC through the creation of a constitution and bylaws.
After the conception of IMPC, there were a number of professionals in the field that took an active role in forming the Congress. These founders included: John D. McGillis, Robert J. Kelly, Louis P. Farina, Merritt A. Neale, Edward A. Jochumsen, Fenton G. Jordan, Walter King, Thomas J. Coyle, H. H. Dees and Arthur Lomax.
IMPC Evolves into the International Parking Institute (IPI)
In 1995, as the industry was changing, parking was taking on a more significant role and organizations realized the impact of parking in their operations; the association name was updated to the International Parking Institute (IPI). This name change reflected a new scope and direction of the association as well as forming a network to connect parking professionals from all around the world. The number of members has grown but the purpose of IPI remains much the same as it was when it was first founded—to provide leadership, information, education, and networking opportunities to all members of the parking industry.