Carefree planners prioritize interior parking, lane reductions and roundabout study for Town Center

Town planning staff presented an updated circulation and signage plan for Carefree Town Center at a public workshop and recommended prioritizing interior parking and traffic-calming measures to improve parking availability and circulation in the core.

The recommendation follows multi-year work that began in 2021 to address visitor wayfinding, sidewalk gaps and a recurring parking shortfall. Staff said the analysis shows most parking in the Town Center is privately held and that public spaces are limited: “there appears to be about an 80 to a 150 spot deficit in available parking at Town Center,” the staff member (planner) said during the meeting.

The plan being advanced would remove on-street parking from the two main arterials (Tom Darlington and Cave Creek Road) and instead seek at least three types of interior responses: negotiated shared-parking agreements with private owners, short-term acquisition or leasing of vacant lots for interim surface parking, and targeted redevelopment (including potential parking as part of a Town Hall site reuse). Staff said earlier analyses found roughly 31% of Town Center parking was publicly available and the rest privately held, a discrepancy that complicates visitor access and event capacity.

Why this matters: downtown businesses, restaurant prospects and special events depend on nearby parking. Staff noted event conditions (for example, a Thunderbird event observed in 2021) drove public lots to near capacity. The proposed shift off arterials aims to preserve curbside landscaping and a continuous multiuse path while locating customer parking closer to the interior of Town Center where feasible.

Key points from the meeting - Parking counts and…