Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Downtown Parking topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
City staff recommend permit reform, signage and wayfinding after downtown parking study
Summary
A $20,000 parking study for the downtown urban renewal district recommended reforming the parking-permit program, striping additional on-street spaces, branding public parking and improving wayfinding. Staff noted enforcement capacity increases and constraints on designating a single permit lot.
Tyler reported that the city contracted Studio Davis in October to study downtown parking at a cost of $20,000 and has completed the consultant's work.
Staff summarized four shorter-term recommendations: reform and update the existing parking-permit program, stripe additional on-street parking where feasible, adopt a naming and branding scheme for public parking areas, and introduce comprehensive wayfinding for downtown visitors. "One potential option that we believe can be done in a relatively short time frame would be to reform and update the existing parking permit program ... stripe additional on street parking ... adopt a naming and branding scheme ... and then introduce a comprehensive, way finding scheme," Tyler said.
Tyler said the city currently issues about 17 parking variances to downtown residents and business owners and is the only city found by the consultant that does not assess a fee for those variances. Staff presented an illustrative fee: charging $120 per year for variance holders would generate approximately $2,040 and could be reinvested in parking enforcement equipment or banked for future parking improvements.
Staff cautioned that charging for permits has a practical constraint: cities that charge typically also designate a lot for permit-holder parking, and the advisory committee's review found no existing city lot has sufficient capacity to serve as a dedicated permit lot. Tyler described three fully public parking lots and one "quasi-public" county lot, which the county reserves for employee parking during business hours but which county staff said is generally available to the public after 5 p.m.
The committee discussed enforcement: code services has recently refilled staffing and plans for more robust proactive parking enforcement. Committee members supported improved signage and wayfinding and expressed hesitation about meters; several members said reforming the permit program and assessing a modest fee could be staged later, after demand rises.
