Planning Commission Agenda and Packet 2009 11 12

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Introduction Parking and Downtown Development Stakeholder Meeting October 14, 2009 Meeting Recap A group of Downtown business owners and property owners met in City Hall on October 14, 2009 to discuss potential policy changes related to parking requirements and the cap on the total amount of square footage that can be built downtown. The notes that follow summarize the discussion from that meeting. General Topics of Discussion We do not have a parking problem downtown. Every development downtown should create a parking problem If we had a parking problem we would be headed in the right direction in terms of having a successful downtown. More retail should be encouraged downtown. Downtown should be slightly under parked Creates an atmosphere of excitement. Staff should repeat the parking study every two years to monitor how the parking situation is progressing. Changes can be made as certain needs are identified (i.e. when we hit high levels of parking space utilization). We should look to provide more bicycle parking downtown. Cap on Development The meeting attendees were generally supportive of increasing the cap on development from 354,000 square feet to 475,000 square feet. Parking Requirement/Parking Management and Design The current parking requirement is too high. Lowering the requirement is a good idea. 1:500 seems to be the right ratio. Supportive of counting on- street parking and encouraging shared /remote parking. Generally supportive of using separate ratios for residential parking requirements. The attendees wanted to know more about the specifics of the proposal. ECO pass reduction is not a good idea because it would be very difficult to enforce. The passes are provided for individual tenants, and the tenants may change many times over a building's life, so the ECO pass is not a reliable offset for required parking. More common public parking should take place downtown. Council currently has the ability to use discretion in parking requirements if the situation requires relief. Fee in Lieu The proposed fee of $7,500 for remodels and renovations and $15,000 for redevelopment is far too high. With the current economic situation, this is not the time to discuss raising fees.