If Chicago is any guide, parking rates will probably go up if Pittsburgh follows through with plans to privatize publicly owned garages and lots to shore up its pension fund, a consultant said Tuesday.

L. Dennis Burns, regional vice president of Kimley-Horn and Associates, urged Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to negotiate limits on parking rate increases under any deal to privatize city parking authority garages and lots, and possibly city street meters.

Mr. Burns, who addressed members of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership at their annual meeting, said rates at parking meters in Chicago doubled under its $1.1 billion privatization deal in 2008.

The same could happen in Pittsburgh unless the mayor and other city officials are able to work a deal that provides some control over rates, he said.

In fact, Mr. Burns, who will serve on a panel put together by the downtown partnership to make recommendations to the mayor on the parking privatization, said he would urge the city to do just that so there's "not a free hand" to raise rates as much as an operator wants.

The deal that Chicago negotiated allowed the private operator to boost neighborhood meter rates from 25 cents to 75 cents an hour in 2008, $1 an hour in 2009 and $2 an hour by 2013. Downtown rates there were allowed to go from $1 an hour in 2008 to $2 last year and $4 by 2013.

Mr. Burns, with more than 28 years of experience in parking operations and consulting, said one advantage of having publicly owned and controlled parking Downtown was that it "tends to put a downward pressure" on rates, and that could be lost if the lots are privatized.

One reason rate controls are important, he added, is that, "Downtown needs to be competitive, and people perceive that the malls have free parking. It's an issue that downtowns face all the time."

"Are [operators] going to be thinking about the public good or are they just going to be thinking about the bottom line?" he asked. "I think we need to have some mechanism for kind of keeping an eye on what is in the best interest of the public and the best interest of Downtown."

Yarone Zober, the mayor's chief of staff, said the city would look at "all different options," including whether or not to negotiate rate controls, in any privatization.

"The goal is to make sure we maximize a return for our pension fund, but we want to do so responsibly without sacrificing the future of the city and its development," he said.

He added he did not believe that rates would rise dramatically under any deal, noting the city authority controls only about 25 percent of all parking Downtown.

The city is looking at privatization in hopes of generating $200 million for its ailing pension fund. It has concerns that setting limits on rate increases could reduce the money it needs from a long-term lease.

However, Mr. Burns believes that it is possible to find common ground in terms of rates while at the same time meeting the revenue needs of the city and the operator. "I think there are some [operators] out there who understand they are part of a wider community," he said.

Mike Edwards, president and CEO of the downtown partnership, said the group was concerned about the affordability of parking in any privatization. The partnership is part of an advisory panel formed by Mr. Ravenstahl to study the issue.

He added it was the PDP's understanding that the mayor will seek to include "some municipal say" in how much rates go up in any deal. "So I don't think it will just be free market. There will be some control on that," he said.

The city and its parking authority also should seek to negotiate a shorter term rather than a longer term under any lease agreement, Mr. Burns said.

There have been estimates, he said, that Chicago lost $1.3 billion to $2.1 billion in revenue by agreeing to a 75-year deal rather than a shorter one of 25 to 30 years that would have allowed city officials to rebid earlier.

Among other issues that need to be considered is who will manage any new parking introduced once facilities are privatized and who will be responsible for maintaining parking facilities and meters, and planning for future needs.

One of the positives that emanated from the Chicago privatization is that new equipment was added, including multispot meters, that produced a 15- to 35 percent increase in revenue, Mr. Burns said.

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