5.3. SR 09-18-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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accommodate one-way traffic southbound, will necessitate a number of the J ackson Avenue parking stalls to be removed, but 5 stalls can remain throughout the proposed timeline. 3) Lany T oth, HRA Commissioner, unilaterally negotiated a deal with Houlton Investment Company to lease, on a month to month basis, ten parking stalls as illustrated on the attached map. The lease rate would be $500.00 per month. Mr. Toth was of the opinion that these stalls should be provided for employees that would use the stalls for the majority of the day. The leasing of these aforementioned parking stalls needs to be analyzed as part of a larger picture, that being whether modifications can be made in the existing King Ave parking lot to satisfy both employee and customer parking needs. The status of the sufficiency of parking has been an on-going discussion between the business owners and the City for a long time (at this time in the King Avenue parking lot there are 77 employee stalls, 29 public and 5 residential for a total of 111 stalls). There is no question that many times in the late morning and early afternoon employee parking is full. Infrequently, customer parking is full but customers do have other options, e.g. street parking. It is also important to note that some of the City parking north of Highway 10 is not available since it is being used as a staging area and for construction worker parking. Any changes in the King Ave parking lot (e.g. granting more employee parking) or leasing spaces outside should be viewed as a temporary solution as the true impact on downtown parking will not be known for another one to two years when the commercial spaces are fully leased in the new proJects. The employee parking situation has evolved with a number of past decisions affecting the same. Originally, First National received 23 designated stalls as part of an agreement that allowed the City to use a portion of their property in configuring the King Ave. parking lot. Over time, they are now receiving 48 active permits. Other major users include the Bank of Elk River (36 active) and Kemper Drug (35). In addition, there are 180 other permits, for a total of 299 that have been issued with Police Chief Beahen reporting that a majority of these permits are actively used. The fact remains that a large number of employee permits exist when compared to the 77 existing stalls. With the ratio of existing parking permits to stalls, full occupancy will occur and, effectively, a permit grants the ability to park in an employee stall but does not guarantee availability. Another consideration is that the King Ave. lot is unique in the fact that this is an employee lot and not a customer lot (employee to customer stalls are almost 3 to 1) and customers who park in this area without a permit are tagged and fined. As the downtown grows and revitalizes it seems that businesses will need to look at parking that is less convenient for the employee and allow customers to grow in terms of the number of stalls. Staff views that there are a number of options that may assist (but not cure) the current King Avenue parking lot situation, options include: 1) See if First National Bank could park more employees in their lower lot, and Bank of Elk River to park more employees in their lot across Highway 10 2) Use of other outside parking areas such as the Chamber of Commerce site 3) Increasing fines for illegal parking in a municipal lot (currently $20) S:\Community Development\Scott Cbuk\2006 cc memos\09 05 06 Street Distruption.doc