Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Streetscape Parking topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board weighs parking vs. pedestrian space on North 2nd Street; staff to return with parking counts
Summary
SCRA reviewed a rough streetscape concept for North 2nd Street showing angled parking and narrow sidewalks and discussed tradeoffs between maximizing parking and widening sidewalks; staff will prepare a parallel-on-west option and parking counts for a later decision.
At the March 5 SCRA meeting, staff presented a schematic streetscape layout for North 2nd Street that aimed to preserve two-way traffic while increasing delineated parking and providing sidewalks. The board debated whether to prioritize maximizing parking or improving pedestrian space.
Staff described a rough concept showing two-way traffic, angled parking and 5-foot sidewalks. “This concept here shows maintaining 2 way traffic with ample parking, 5 foot sidewalks on either side,” the Clerk said. The schematic was preliminary and staff said they would provide exact parking counts in the next package.
Why it matters: downtown vibrancy depends on both pedestrian amenities and available parking for visitors and businesses; changes to curb layout will affect sidewalks, tree placement and business access.
Board members discussed tradeoffs at length. Several members supported widening sidewalks and preserving pedestrian space; one member said, “There is no amount of parking spaces that would make me wanna jeopardize that sidewalk.” Others emphasized that angled parking maximizes spaces in a constrained 60-foot right-of-way and that switching to parallel parking on both sides could reduce the number of spaces and might require one-way traffic in some layouts. Staff noted the block is about 400 feet long and that the rough layout provided about 48 spaces as a starting point.
Members asked staff to prepare a comparison showing the current angled option and a parallel-on-west option so the board can see exact parking gains or losses and the sidewalk widths associated with each choice. Staff also noted coordination questions with nearby Broom Street and a pending private development; the board asked staff to confirm whether the adjacent property owner would be responsible for paving or whether the city would fund improvements.
Next steps: staff will draw the parallel-on-west option, calculate parking counts for both schemes and return with those numbers and any impacts to sidewalk width for further board guidance before the paving and streetscape work proceeds (the broader paving schedule was discussed for the coming months).
