Parking Recommendations Go Before Council

After months of meetings, town hall sessions, and public input, City Manager Eric Anderson made his recommendations to the City Council on the issue of parking at the study session today. He made it clear the problem is not just where to put cars, but rather how to move people. He asked the Council to “think of our roads as transportation corridors for all types of transportation”. A group of active citizens had an enormous impact on the recommendations Mr. Anderson provided today. We’ve listed them below for your perusing. What do you think? Would these improve our fair city?

1. Build a citywide streetcar system to connect the downtown, the neighborhoods, and the neighborhood business districts (implement Streetcar Task Force recommendations).
2. Build a citywide bicycle/pedestrian system using trails and the existing street rights of way.
3. Integrate #1 and #2 into a citywide multi-modal transportation system (buses, rail, bikes, cars, streetcars, pedestrians).
4. Create an independent parking enterprise fund.
5. Charge users for on-street parking.
6. Use market price to regulate demand (15% vacancy rate=market price).
7. Build parking supply on periphery of downtown using revenue from parking system.
8. Consider eliminating parking minimums in zoning requirements.

It sounds so easy when it’s in a numbered list. We’ve been hearing about these proposals for a while. Are we any closer now?