Troutdale presents downtown parking management plan with steps for immediate action and long-term options

City planning staff and consultants on Tuesday outlined a Downtown Parking Management Plan intended to coordinate parking, improve wayfinding and limit spillover from employees and special events in Troutdale’s downtown.

The plan, presented to the Troutdale Town Center Advisory Board, summarizes a summer parking inventory and usage survey, finds concentrated demand at Mayor Square and the North parking lot, and recommends near-term administrative actions — including appointing a parking manager, creating a parking management district and rolling out improved signage and a parking-ambassador program — while keeping a range of mid- and long-term tools on the table such as time limits, designated employee lots, paid parking in high-demand areas and remote/shared parking tied to future Urban Renewal Area (URA) development.

Why it matters: Downtown businesses and visitors regularly compete for limited spaces and the city seeks ways to support retail turnover, retain customers and reduce double-parking that blocks visibility and creates safety hazards. The plan is intended to allow Troutdale to manage growth “without overbuilding” and to give staff a roadmap for phased implementation and monitoring.

Staff said the inventory found roughly 276 on-street stalls downtown and 395 off-street stalls. About one-third of on-street stalls have posted time limits (mostly two hours in historic Columbia River Highway blocks, up to four hours on Dora and Harlow); two-thirds currently have no posted limits. The off-street inventory includes about 51 specialty stalls (ADA, EV,…