Thursday, March 28, 2024

Community provides feedback on parking study

Posted

Part two of two

Rick Williams Consulting presented the latest Leavenworth Parking Study on May 2 at the Leavenworth Festhalle, chronicled the May 9 edition of the Echo. After about a 40 minute presentation, Williams took comments from those gathered in the Festhalle, probably about 50 or so.
Anne Hessburg, a member of the city’s planning commission, asked why Williams choose two days in summer to do the parking study.
“We decided to do it in the summer because we felt that the community at this time was focused on that, because that is when you are getting hammered right now. The long term plan is to collect more data in the off peak so we can have a comparative analysis,” Williams said.
Williams said they chose those days because they knew it would be strong.
“We knew if it was blowing our entire supply out, it would show immediately. What we found, to confirm all those checks on the box. We found some surpluses. That’s why we chose it, but we need more data, particular off peak,” Williams said.
Hessburg asked why data wasn’t collect on the major event days.
“Usually what the parking industry would say is you don’t want to plan your parking system (around event days). They build the shopping center for the volume from Nov. 25 to Dec. 26. Then, the rest of the year, the supply sits empty,” Williams said. “We know it’s going to be rocky on an event. The parking industry would say this is the approach we’re taking. Take a good strong typical day. Then you’re next data collection, find a good typical representative day in your off peak. Then, if you have time and money, do an event.”
You should collect data on event days, but Williams cautioned about being too quick with that. Another person asked about considerations for crossing the street. Williams consultant Pete Collins said pedestrian access and safe crossings are vital.
Mayor Cheri Kelley Farivar said the city is actually hoping to install two more highway crosswalks this year.
“The city is in the process of having two more of those flashing light crosswalks installed. They are called HAWK systems. They will be timed with the street lights. Those will be installed hopefully this year. Two more crossings, one at city hall, one at Gustavs, both linked to the signal lights. We’ll take the rapid flasher from city hall and put it at the Link crossing,” Farivar said.
Patrick Walker, a former transportation planner in Wenatchee, said the concept of parking as many cars as we can park is something he absolutely 100 percent disagrees with.
“I think if you ask the people in the community what’s important to them, they might say parking, because it is such a pain, because you want to support local businesses. I only buy dog food in town because I know of a secret parking space. That’s only reason I shop at that store,” Walker said. “People don’t drive into town and say I’m going to park in front of that store and shop at that store. They come and walk the whole street. I have created over 50 parking spaces in this town.”
The solution is not more parking, Walker said.
“The solution is more options. We only have so much space, so we people come to town, they are expected to walk. Who wants to see a bunch of parked cars in front of a beautiful landscaped town?,” Walker said.
The city council is very much interested in a vision for the downtown long term, but this is step one on that vision, Farivar said.
“We had to do the inventory. We had to figure out how making places we have and how many we need,” Farivar said. “In the country, people do drive. Bikes are on the up trend and so is walking. The council is very conscience of a long term vision for our downtown.”
Craig Hess pushed for a parking pass for locals, something he said he brought forward a couple years ago.
“A parking decal for $5 or $10, proof of residency, then I can go ahead a park over here in this vacant lot which would otherwise charge me $5. It’s simple stuff. Monday through Thursday, not a drain, but would be a lot more convenient. You could also make it seasonal,” Hess said.
Williams said there could be a program in the future some kind of permit program that prioritized residents.
“Your point about the pass for downtown..there are some cities that do that, but they don’t do it until they are sure they have a sustained supply of parking available to make it work. I know it’s tough to wait, but we’re finding they do have availabilities like you’re talking about could be feasible,” Williams said.
Farivar said there could be a decal that allows you to park anywhere if you are a resident, but the big question is, who is a resident?
“The people who live inside the city limits are the ones responsible to pay the should parking not cover it. Would community residents expect to get the parking pass? It probably going to continue to be a quandary for the city council to make the determination as who get a parking pass, if indeed that occurs,” Farivar said. “There is another group of people, the people who work here. They are driving in from Peshastin, Cashmere, Wenatchee. If give parking all the residents and all the people who don’t live inside the city limits, that creates another parking dilemma for a city.”
Laurie Vandenbrink said the permit could be for Sunday to Thursday for people that live in the city and possibly in the county. If they come during the peak season or weekends, the permit would not be good.
“This would actually provide a service for people that live in this area. The priority is on visitors and customers. That’s problem when you’re trying to get a prescription filled at Village Pharmacy or go to Cascade Medical Center. Sometimes you have to park illegally to see a doctor or get a prescription,” Vandenbrink said.
The definition of a visitor, Williams said, is anybody that is not employed downtown. That includes residents who are coming downtown to do business, but turnover needs to be created so you can make that trip to the pharmacy.
Kevin Reike said one things he’s heard over the years is that if the city moved to timed or metered parking, you’ll just be driving tourists to Chelan.
“The first answer is, the basic data point we have now, you probably don’t need unregulated parking. We know we can take more control of the streets, but we have to decide what that control is,” Williams replied. “We really believe it needs a very methodically stepped program. In other words, let’s take control of the streets first before we talk about metered on street parking.
“We could put time limits in place and enforce those time limits, that would create change, if we can have a shared space program where employers say, I’m going to work really hard to make parking a condition of employment.”
Williams said if they can move 298 people who are currently parking on street all day into off street facilities, it won’t grow the parking a single bit, but it will be more efficient.
“What other cities have done, they use the 85 percent rule, which means you need to do something. Status quo is not working. Change must occur,” Williams said. “Let’s start with taking control of the system with time limits. Come back in a couple years. Let it hit and go through a season. Take data again. If we’re not at 85 percent, it might fix itself. The problem is not doing anything. We need to do something to manage it.”
Many successful cities they have been working with have transitioned from free parking to paid parking, but they all started with timed parking first.
“If we came back two or three years later, got employees parking off street, timed parking and everything was 85 percent again,” Williams said. “What would the 85 percent rule compel us to think about? That could be paid parking. You’re not in the strategy phase yet. Put the right parker in the right place. Create the right zones. Work with the residents. Get long term parkers off the street. Get some data.”
One woman said she was a part time resident. She and her husband bought a home on Benton Street, because when they retire, they want to be close to town so they can walk not drive.
“I really feel like the vision is absolutely right on because Leavenworth needs to have that vision they are a walking city. We want to walk to town. I hope that vision is part of what you are doing. Walking and biking is where it is at,” the part time resident said.
Bob Fell said they love the town and would like to support the merchants, but it should not be a problem to do that. He said they plan their daily lives around when they can get downtown.
“Local residents should not pay for parking under any circumstance. The problem here is tourists, which create the parking problem. The residents don’t. There’s enough parking spots in the core for everybody to drive. Money should be raised by the people creating the problem to generate the funds,” Fell said.
Farivar said blame it on the unregulated parking downtown.
“There are people that park there all day, employees, visitors or residents. What timed parking tends to do is shorten their stay. It moves those tourists into our long term parking facilities. That is one of the main goals that can aided by timed parking,” Farivar said.
Dan Carr, owner of a number of businesses in town, said most of his employees come to Leavenworth from out of town.
“Our employees were not allowed to park on the street. I tried to enforce that for a short period of time. They have to have a place to park,” Carr said. “If employees had a place to park, it would take the pressure off downtown. We bought a place on West Whitman because it has secondary lot that is vacated. We put employees there on weekends. There is no other place for them.”
Candy Meechum, Carr’s partner, said they have 60 employees a day.
“Even if they commute together, that is 20 cars you have to put somewhere. We’re having trouble getting people to come to work because we don’t have the space for them,” Meechum said.
Williams said they are hoping to move toward long term solutions.
“That near term solution is good, looking at the private supply and seeing if we can make partnerships. We’ve found employees will walk further if they know they have a space. What happens is, we don’t have a reliable system. We need to create some reliability,” Williams said.
Business owner Shawn Smith said he has a lot of employees that need a place to park.
“The majority come from the lower valley. One of the issues we’ve had here. We say, park off street and leave it for the customers coming through,” Smith said. “We attempted to do the same thing with employees but it’s impossible. If you put that on the employer, we will have to hire someone to follow them to and from their car. It’s not practical.”
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

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