AgdaPkt 2006-02-27 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

SA Page 9 such as "Parking" by Weant and Levinson and "The Dimensions of Parking" by NPA Parking Consultants Council were reviewed as well. Finally, a broad range of academic research was reviewed, including several papers by Professor Donald Shoup and many other studies by academics and non-profit organizations. A summary of these materials is included in Appendix 6. Workintl with the Community In addition to analyzing the current and projected parking needs in Downtown and researching the breadth of approaches (good and bad) used in other cities, staff also held a series of three interactive public workshops with Downtown stakeholders, two of which discussed parking requirements. The purpose was to help Downtown stakeholders understand the challenges that lie ahead and our options for dealing with them, as well as for staff to learn from those "in the trenches" what are the problems and strengths of our parking supply and what they feel is needed to make it better. Workshop #1 was held on March 15th. During this meeting staff gave a presentation discussing the factors laid out in the introduction to this report-the new patterns of parking use that will likely result upon the opening of the cinema, the high cost of building new parking, the park once nature of Downtown, etc. There was then a lively discussion period where the attendees asked staff questions and voiced some of their concerns. Workshop #2 was held on March 29th. For this session, staff brought a menu of the options available to us to the group and explained the advantages and disadvantages of each. Interactive games were played in which the group plotted areas which they thought were best for employee and customer parking, and what they thought were the best approaches for future parking requirements. \ Greater attendance would have been helpful, but in all other respects the workshops were a great success. The stakeholders really seemecf to grasp the difficulty of managing parking in a lively, walkable downtown and were very supportive of taking a 'just enough" approach to Downtown parking requirements. In addition, staff learned a great amount from those with first-hand knowledge about Downtown's needs and that knowledge has benefited this plan tremendously. SUmmary of Recommended Actions In order to meet the new demands that will be placed on the Downtown parking system as Downtown grows, while still maintaining an attractive, pedestrian-friendly environment, staff recommends the following changes to Article 30 of the Zoning Ordinance: Recommendation #1: Simplify and Lower Downtown's Parking Requirements Based on many factors, including our current parking situation; the walkable, dense, mixed-use, transit.connected nature of Downtown; academic research; best practices; and city goals such as '1>~~e 2 '_no., ._.... _. ..,.-....._...._. ._----,--.-----. --..-..,-..- "'---" --~._----~_._-- ..._---~.._..