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offered participants an opportunity to see and feel the potential size and scale of a <br />future linear park in that location. <br />Downtown Parking <br />To assess the impact of reducing parking spaces in order to provide for downtown <br />parks, staff considered current parking usage and planned changes to downtown <br />parking. As noted in Attachment 1, there is sufficient parking throughout downtown to <br />accommodate the proposed park(s), though some locations are heavily parked during <br />specific times of the week and there are unique uses on the Main Street Lot that need to <br />be considered. Increasing the use of shared use parking, implementing transportation <br />demand management programs, and completing the installation of a dynamic parking <br />guidance system will help to manage parking needs and direct drivers to available <br />parking more efficiently. <br />Additionally, more public parking may be available in the future: the County of San <br />Mateo is constructing a new parking structure which could include public parking, and <br />staff also are assessing adjustments to parking policies to keep storefront parking <br />available for business patrons while shifting long term parkers into City lots and <br />garages. <br />Finally, staff anticipate proposing modifications to parking permit rates, developing an <br />employee parking program, and exploring weekday permit parking in private garages. <br />Study Findings <br />The study was conducted to identify the challenges and the prospects of transforming <br />existing City -owned land into a future park(s). While the study was not intended to <br />resolve the numerous issues from the conversion of the existing use of City -owned land <br />to parkland, it was aimed at disclosing them and offering the City Council a summary of <br />observations that can inform the decision of site selection for a park and the future <br />design of the spaces. In addition to the feedback received at the Pop Up event and <br />multiple meetings, the public surveys captured the community's preferences for <br />amenities and programming. Most indicated a preference for a large, green linear park <br />that provided a soft visual and tactile respite from the hard surfaces of the downtown <br />streets. This input can inform the design of the public spaces. <br />Attachment 2 provides the comprehensive findings of the previous tasks and provides <br />recommendations for park development in the downtown. The recommendations are <br />meant to illustrate the various options for developing a park, or a collection of parks, <br />