Planning Commission Minutes 2014 04 10

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes April; 10, 2014 Page 32of 37 We then went to the public and we looked at the average of how long they parked. We see that the overall average is under two hours; however, we are seeing (and we have their license plates but we don’t know who they are) people who park all day or play the game of moving the car. We saw that in the license platedateso we know people are parking longer, but it is not as prevalent as we hear people saying it. We did not see it. The average was under two hours everywhere through Downtown, but we did see evidence of longer parking or a game going on. We presented that data to the publicand then we sought out a solution exercise. This was a dialogue of a range of solutions. We asked the residents to present recommendations based on the policy profile. We asked them to talk about supply, management, character, and livability. We have a lot of great ideas that we want to present to you. SUPPLY: What we heard from the community is “can we find more parking spaces in the revitalization district?”We are building the underpass. There are a number of new streets being built. There is a number of on-street capacity in the redevelopment district that soon will come on line when the underpass is built. Add more on-street parking on South Street west of Main Streetbecause it is a 55’ curb face. Can diagonal parkingbe placedwhere there is parallel parkingcurrently? Can more parkingbe placedon Jefferson and Memory SquarewhereJefferson is very wide?Angled parking could be placed on one side and parallel parking on the other. Can angled parking be placed on the Memory Square side?Another suggestion was the City couldconstruct a parking structure at the Lucky Pie sitewhich the City owns. That would require demolition of Lucky Pie, but that wasthe intent. Can the City purchase and construct additional parking space?At the former train station where we have the Daycare south of Pine at Lafarge, there is a vacant residential lot. Can we buy that vacant lot for parking? On Hutchinson by Roosevelt, there are six acres over there. Can that be turned into a parking lot? From a supply perspective, this is just about “where can we find more public spaces.” We presented the same to the BRAD Committee and the City Council. We are presenting this to the Planning Committee. Are there any other surface lots that we should consider?Please send comments to me at any time as we go through it. OWNERSHIP: From an ownership perspective, can we lease property?We have had property owners come to us.The Book Store across the street and Eleanor’s have come to us. At the public meeting, KoKo Plaza suggested that there may be a deal here. Instead of leasing the spaces, maybe there could be an exchange for City services. Ifthe City plowtheir parking lot through the winter and in exchange, the City couldget access to the parking spaces at night. There are deals for leased public parking spaces. We would do it through rental of the facility or lease it, or exchange of services is what was described on an owner perspective. CHOICE: From a choice perspective, we put 110 bicycle spaces in lastyear. Can we fund more and put more in? If we repaved and surfaced the alleys, telling the residents of Old Town on the alleys the cost of the surfacing or paving, could we pave parking spaces on the private residential units that don’t have spaces. It would save them money. If the City did that, we may get the most bang for the buck. For every space we put on aresidential lot, theywould get a place to park and then that would free up the on-street space that they perceive to be their only parking space. It may be the most