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<br />£A-~ <br /> <br />Background <br />With the upcoming opening of the "On Broadway" retaillcinema project, parking patterns in <br />Downtown Redwood City will change dramatically. The number of cars competing for parking <br />spaces will increase significantly, and the hours of activity will shift from a daytime-oriented <br />pattern to an 18 hourI? days a week pattern. Staff appeared before the Council on April 11 and <br />gave a presentation about these anticipated changes. <br /> <br />The current parking management system was not designed to handle these new patterns of use. <br />Parking meter fees are not in effect during evenings and weekends, which currently aren't busy <br />periods, but will be in the near future. Current prices are too low in the most active areas to <br />ensure adequate turnover of prime spaces (resulting in a perception of a lack of parking), and <br />use of conventional meters in these areas will be very inconvenient because they only take <br />coins for payment. <br /> <br />Staff has been researching various parking strategies and working with Downtown stakeholders <br />for more than a year, and the Parking Management Plan is the result of this effort. Staff strongly <br />believes that this plan is the best way to accomplish these goals: <br />. Keep convenient curbside spaces available for customers at all times. <br />. Create parking opportunities for as many different people as possible. <br />. Don't make customers leave early or move their cars to avoid tickets. <br />. Create reasonable parking options for employees-don't make them "shuffle" <br />every hour. <br />. Avoid traffic congestion from "cruising." <br />. Create a customer-friendly system. <br />. Rely more on incentives than penalties. <br />. Keep the parking system financially self-sufficient. <br />. Utilizes Downtown meter revenue for parking and traffic related improvements <br />pursuant to Section 20.121. <br />Adoption of the attached ordinance would implement the various components of The Plan in <br />order to achieve these goals. Attachment 1 includes a brief description of each part of the <br />ordinance and its role in carrying out the Parking Management Plan. <br /> <br />Changes to the Parking Management Plan per the Meeting of June 6 <br />Based on Council and public feedback from June 6, as well as further staff analysis, some <br />improvements have been made to the Parking Management Plan since ¡twas initially presented. <br />These improvements have already been incorporated into the ordinance currently under <br />consideration. <br /> <br />Permits: There was concern that the suggested permit program did not meet the needs of many <br />current permit holders in light of the extended hours of operation of City lots and garages. In <br />particular, there was major concern that many Marshall Garage permit holders who work late <br />and on the weekends would have to pay the $5 per hour rate after office hours and that this <br />would present a significant inconvenience. This would also represent a change from the current <br />system, in which Marshall Garage permit holders do not have to pay to park in that facility at any <br />time and no specific limitations for the validity of these permits is described in the current code <br />language which governs them. Therefore, to meet the diverse needs of Downtown workers, staff <br />now recommends a more diverse permit program than initially discussed. This program is <br /> <br />REDEVSHARED_2005 STAFF REPORTS_O7-2005_Staff Report Parking Plan #2 <br /> <br />2 <br /> <br /> <br />'__dO ,.. . ~ 1r' <br />