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<br />Downtown Parking Recommendations <br />November 15, 2006 <br /> <br />Page 2 <br /> <br />Phase I Issues <br />Current issues center on parking enforcement policies and the strong demand for employee <br />parking permits (currently approximately 340 active permits are in place for the available 87 <br />King Ave. employee parking stalls). It is anticipated that the Bank of Elk River parking lot <br />could be complete by early 2007 which would free up some demand in the King Ave lot. <br /> <br />StatfRecommendations <br /> <br />1) Immediately stop issuing any more employee and resident parking permits for <br />the King Ave. lot until #2 below is completed. <br />2) Chief of Police Jeff Beahen lead a team (composition to be determined) to <br />review existing policies (specific to enforcement and permitting) and develop <br />advisory modifications to the same. As part of this meeting's discussion staff is <br />seeking Council's desire to review these items and to establish any broad <br />guidelines that should serve as a framework for discussion (e.g. abandoned <br />vehicles and level of enforcement). <br /> <br />Phase II Issues <br />Staff is of the opinion that before any solutions for future physical parking modifications, <br />infrastructure improvements, or related parking concerns can be developed, key assumptions <br />need to be agreed upon. Put in another way, the City council needs to agree on what <br />problems needs to be solved for. <br /> <br />The following is a list of issues and observations that the group discussed that can serve as a <br />source of reference for the Council's discussion. The central policy issue for the Council is <br />"what is the City's obligation to provide public parking, at what cost, where, what <br />percentage, etc.?" based on the changing demands. <br /> <br />1) The demand on downtown parking has shifted from a high demand for <br />customer parking to employee parking. This has been caused by a number of <br />past customer driven businesses, i.e. grocery, hardware, theatre, and variety stores <br />being "replaced" by office users such as financial centers, banks and conversions <br />of buildings to small office space. <br /> <br />2) Due to the phenomena listed in item #1 the King Avenue parking lot has <br />become primarily an employee lot with a ratio of 1.5 employee stalls for every <br />customer stalls. (In addition, there are nine residential stalls for a grand total of <br />151 stalls.) <br /> <br />3) In most downtowns, a centrally located public parking lot is usually held for <br />customer usage and employees park on the periphery of downtown. Does the <br />council agree that this should happen and be a primary focus for future parking <br />modifications? During Phase II the lots located north of Hwy 10 will be freed <br />up from contractor parking. If the Council desires to move employees to the <br />north side of Hwy 10 safety considerations and modifications will need to be <br />made (Historically, the City once sold parking permits to downtown employees <br />to park in this location). <br /> <br />S: \Community Development\Scott Clark\parking paper. doc <br />