Consultants tell Clayton council midday parking peaks, recommend shared parking and turnover strategies

Consultants from a private firm presented the Town Council with a parking utilization study that mapped roughly 2,000 public and private spaces in downtown Clayton and identified recurring midday peaks and local event effects.

The lead presenter said the team verified town and private inventories and performed utilization counts every two hours across multiple days, using vehicle‑mounted video for on‑street counts and manual counts off‑street. Jim, the lead analyst, said the team captured peak hours near 850–860 vehicles on some observation days and found a consistent midday peak between roughly 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. "The midday meal period starting as early as 11:00 a.m. and running till about 1:00 in the afternoon" was described as the most common peak window, Jim said.

The consultants described their methods and quality checks: they capture video that, the data scientist explained, "pulls the license plate numbers and a variety of other information about these vehicles" and then use an in‑house review tool for human verification. The presenters emphasized that the raw videos and verification thumbnails create an auditable trail that the town can request.

Using heat maps, the team applied a traffic‑industry threshold approach: red indicates 85% or higher utilization, orange roughly 75–84%, yellow 65–74% and green 64% or less. The maps showed concentrated demand on Main Street and the area between Church, Barber and Lombard, and event days — including farmers market dates and a May 8 town‑square concert — pushed more users into off‑street lots on some nights.

The consultants identified inventory totals in their executive summary: town off‑street 249 spaces and town on‑street 634 spaces, with a little more than 2,000 total accessible public and private spaces in the study area. They praised the town's shared‑parking agreements as a low‑cost means of expanding usable inventory without land purchases.

On compliance, the team noted most lots met ADA minimums but, after a triple check, found the Horn Square lot (29 spaces) needs two ADA spaces under the consultant’s matrix; they described this as "easily correctable." The presenter also recommended a progression of options before building new structured parking: pause and assess; expand shared‑parking agreements; run a turnover analysis to evaluate duration limits (consultants said communities sometimes set a three‑hour limit); direct long‑term parkers to off‑street lots; and only then consider site analyses for new structured or surface inventory.

Council member Mr. Case asked whether a roughly 50/50 split between on‑street and off‑street parking is an appropriate target and raised safety and perception concerns for narrow streets. The consultant said a 50/50 target is reasonable and reiterated programmatic solutions that would keep quick‑turnover curb spaces available for patrons while steering all‑day parkers to off‑street locations.

Next steps: presenters left materials for council review and offered to provide the raw videos and additional detail on request. No formal action was taken during the presentation; councilors thanked the team and moved to the next agenda item.

Source: presentation and Q&A during the council meeting; lead presenters identified in the transcript as Consultant (presenter), Jim (lead analyst) and Data scientist. The council scheduled no immediate vote on parking policy during this session.