Planning Commission recommends Downtown Parking Management Plan, asks staff to stress recommendations are suggestions

The Planning Commission voted to recommend that City Council adopt a Downtown Parking Management Plan and associated code revisions after a staff presentation and discussion about downtown land use, parking supply and development constraints. Staff presenter Fred told commissioners the plan frames parking as one component of a larger transportation system and proposes a mix of short-term, operational and long-term strategies.

Commissioners and staff flagged practical constraints in the existing code, such as setback requirements, a 50% lot-coverage standard for certain downtown zones and interior parking-lot landscaping rules that together can limit feasible on-site parking for infill projects. Fred said the consultant and staff propose consolidating landscaping and parking standards into clearer sections of the code (referencing proposed sections 54 for landscaping and 73 for parking) and offering more flexibility for downtown lots.

The plan lays out five strategy buckets: (1) parking management backed by annual inventory and monitoring (staff noted the study found roughly 600 private and 600 public spaces in the downtown area), (2) parking information and wayfinding, (3) targeted code reforms to reduce unnecessary barriers, (4) safety improvements such as better corner visibility and selective back-in parking, and (5) long-term transportation and demand-management measures including pilot parking-management areas where occupancy hits threshold levels.

Fred described several proposed code changes: lowering an interior-parking-lot landscaping requirement from 200 to 150 square feet per 10 spaces for flexibility on tight lots; allowing on-street parking to be counted toward a site’s required total in limited circumstances; clarifying what qualifies for a 25% parking reduction near transit or in overlay zones; and making the downtown riverfront and downtown overlay zones’ standards more consistent.

Commissioners raised neighborhood-specific concerns, noting Independence functions largely as a bedroom community where many households own two vehicles. One commissioner cautioned that a standard such as "one parking space per unit" may underestimate demand for multi-vehicle households and garage-storage limits. Staff acknowledged those concerns and said the plan is intended to provide options and tools — not mandatory changes — and recommended monitoring occupancy (with an 85% occupancy threshold cited as a trigger for management actions) and working with businesses on signage and connectivity before imposing fees or broader enforcement.

A motion to recommend council approval passed by voice vote after a commissioner asked staff to communicate to council that the plan’s recommendations are suggestions and that some measures will require additional public outreach and operational decisions. The commission did not adopt fee-based enforcement measures at this time and emphasized pilots and targeted monitoring as next steps.

Next steps: staff said a public hearing is scheduled for next week and the item is planned to advance to City Council soon so that work can continue before an associated grant expires. The Planning Commission’s recommendation and the staff report (file LAD-2024-05) will be forwarded to council along with staff notes that the package contains recommendations that may require more public process prior to implementation.