Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Upcoming parking study will focus on public engagement

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The new parking study for the city of Leavenworth will feature much in the way of public outreach to businesses and residents. At the June 6 city council study session, City Administrator Joel Walinksi briefed the council on a May 25 meeting with Williams Consulting, the firm selected to do the parking study. 

“Our conversation on May 25 had to do with trying to look at the scope of work, and where the impetus should be put in terms of a parking study. Two things came out of this. One had to make sure there was a lot of public engagement, on the commercial side and residential side,” Walinski said. “There is extra emphasis put on how do we hear what people are saying and take in ideas that people have and take in all those comments.”

Williams Consulting did expand the public outreach to include open houses, one-on-one interviews, presentations to businesses and residential associations, presentations to city council and also the creation of material for the city website, so people can get the information as it is developed. 

The bigger piece of the conversation, Walinski said, was the budget. Initially, data would be collected two times, once during the summer and once during the spring. 

“You throw that second measurement period in, either April or May, that drives up the budget by another $15,000. That is the key. I’ve asked to put together a different budget that looks at that secondary study period as an alternative,” Walinski said. “The stakeholders group is going to have to determine if that is very important. If it is, then how do we pay for it? I think there’s some ways you can derive some information.”

There is some correlation between on-street parking and how the city parking lots are used, he said. If you look at a July date, you can extrapolate back use on a May date to see what the on-street parking would be. 

Mayor Cheri Kelley Farivar said you can also use sales tax data for those two months. She said Williams felt you can extrapolate the data and feel relatively accurate doing that. The important question for the group, Walinski said, is how important is that second data collection day?

The original budget for the study was $50,000, but with the extra data day, it rises to $75,000. Councilwoman Mia Bretz asked if Williams Consulting had done this before. 

“The original plan had a lot of one-on-one meetings, whether local businesses or local residents. That necessarily was not in there. He’s talking about five meetings with the stakeholder group now,” Walinski said. “One of the things he brings up, by the end of the period with that group of stakeholders, he wants them meeting with parking professionals, so they have a full understanding.” 

One of the things about a parking study, or any study, you need buy-in by the public, not just the consultant saying, this is what we think, he said. 

“There has to be a group from the community that says we understand this, how we got from point A to point B and we’re in concurrence with that. That’s what sells the program. One example is the substation program by the PUD,” Walinski said. “That was a fairly good project they ran. We’re trying to do that for the regionalization study too. When the final results are presented to the public, it’s not just the consultant saying what to do, but it is a group of stakeholders that say, we’ve been through the process and we understand how the data got us here.”

The stakeholders group will include three council members, members of the Port and Chamber, business owners and downtown residents. Farivar said those who are affected by parking, where parking is affecting enjoyment of the property, like on Whitman, Benton or Evans streets would be in the group. 

Farivar said she has not appointed anyone to the group, but the maximum number is 15. Walinski said the consultant does not think the extra data collection day is important to the study. 

“He was thinking of having the April study be our baseline. I believe what he said is there are ways to extrapolate data, especially when we have parking lots with performance history and sales tax data. Between those two, he felt like the percentage differential could be estimated pretty accurately,” Farivar said.  

The study needs to be updated every three to five years, because things change. Walinski said the new Link Transit station will change things with parking. If the city acquires the WSDOT lot on the west end of town, that could also affect parking. 

Getting a baseline established now, then as things change, taking those into account over time, he said. 

“When he said you need to update it every three to five years, that sounded like some job security for him. Then, he went on to say, I will leave you with the tools. If you can collect the data, you can analyze in the exact same way that I do,” Farivar said. “We might be able to do that ourselves. We don’t have to do a $50,000 study every three to five years.”

Of all the places to cut the budget, Walinski said Williams selected cutting the extra data collection day. 

“The stakeholder group and the added emphasis toward public engagement was more important. My question was, where do you recommend we cut? He said the second study time would make the most sense,” Walinski said. 

The parking study time would be during the busiest months in July and August. 

“He would also be available. If we do the data collection ourselves three to five years down the road. We could hire him to observe or overlook our results. He’s available to do consulting on a basis like that too. We wouldn’t be totally on our own,” Farivar said. 

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

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