TITLE: Title
Presentation and Acceptance of the Downtown Parking Study
PURPOSE: The purpose of this item is to accept a presentation of the Downtown Parking Study.
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DEPARTMENT: Economic Development
CONTACT INFORMATION: Jon Hartman-Brown, 919-391-7846, JHartman-Brown@CarrboroNC.gov
INFORMATION:
Background: On April 25, 2017, the Town Council adopted a Downtown Parking Plan. This plan made the following recommendations:
Near-Term
• Promote shared parking arrangements between businesses.
• Collect regular parking occupancy data during the peak period.
• Deploy more consistent parking regulatory signs.
• Encourage vehicle turnover in high-demand parking areas.
• Encourage use of low-demand parking areas.
• Encourage the use of alternative transportation modes to reduce future parking demand.
Long-Term
• Coordinate and leverage redevelopment opportunities with identified stakeholders.
• Identify potential sites for a parking deck
• Discuss Public-Private Partnership options, and potential land swap arrangements.
• Seek a compromise that will benefit parking and businesses.
• Perform a Preliminary engineering Report (PER) for structured parking.
Challenges with this plan have been difficulty in willingness of private parking lots owners to lease to the Town for public parking, disagreements between downtown businesses and the Town on the parking counts and demands on the existing lots, and encouraging vehicle turnover in more high-demand parking areas with little enforcement.
On June 11, 2019, Town Council directed staff to undertake a parking study that would examine a paid for parking system for the Downtown. The motion stated "Staff is directed to look into (with help of a consultant or by themselves) the designing of a paid-for parking program and how to time limit enforce parking in the downtown, including options for the private lot owners to participate in the program and the enforcement. Scenarios will include a deck and without a deck. Staff, and/or the consultant, will also provide assessments on how to pay for these projects."
Through an RFP process, the Town hired Walker Parking Consultants and approved a contract with Walker Parking Consultants to conduct a parking study for downtown. The scope of the project included: (1) provide a scalable and manageable system focused on the potential options for implementing paid parking in select areas with a focus on utilizing the understanding technology options to allow flexibility, include, smart meters, parking apps, and integrating time-limit enforcement; (2) consideration for the potential inclusion of private parking lot owners to participate in the overall parking management plan through paid parking; and (3) evaluate the current parking supply and demand to determine adequacy and review options for maintaining or improving the parking supply, with consideration of the costs and potential revenues of proposed programs being considered.
Due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the parking counts and stakeholder engagement was held off until downtown parking was more reflective of pre-pandemic patterns.
Findings: Jon Martens with Walker Parking Consultants will provide a presentation of the findings of the Parking Study and answer any questions the Council may have. A copy of the study is included with this packet.
FISCAL & STAFF IMPACT: The fiscal impacts will vary depending on individual choices the Council and staff will need to make in order to effectively operate a parking program - including the addition of enforcement employees. A budget based on the study’s recommendations and assumptions include:
RECOMMENDATION:r Staff recommend acceptance of the presentation and referral of the study to various advisory boards for additional consideration and recommendation.