[Vision2020] Re: Where's the parking

[Bruce and Jean Livingston]

Nils, thanks for the courteous and thoughtful response.

I agree with Bill Parks' analysis of the issue; I think your idea for one 
hour parking in parts of the downtown core is also a good starting point for 
the discussion on how to solve some of the parking issue; and I agree with 
you that longer term lots as a solution for the employees who have to play 
"move the car" games several times a day is another good idea.

Good morning, fine sir!

Bruce Livingston

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nils Peterson" <nils_peterson at wsu.edu>
To: "Bruce and Jean Livingston" <jeanlivingston at turbonet.com>; 
<vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 12:57 AM
Subject: Where's the parking


| On 6/27/06 11:33 PM, "Bruce and Jean Livingston"
| <jeanlivingston at turbonet.com> wrote:
|
| > To cross reference this to our earlier discussion, many, probably most,
| > myself included, would support the redevelopment of the grain elevators 
on
| > the edge of downtown.  Simply asking questions about "where's the 
parking"
| > is wise planning, rather than blindly re-zoning the property and 
eliminating
| > parking requirements, only to discover parking problems later.  Asking 
these
| > questions need not be divisive, and the questions ought not be thought 
to be
| > out-of-place or irrelevant.  Other experiences have demonstrated that
| > parking is an issue downtown, and it is an issue from there to the
| > University.  Ignoring real parking concerns so that we can be "pro 
growth no
| > matter the costs" by giving the developer everything he or she requests 
is
| > unwise and foolish.
|
|
| Thanks Bruce for this thoughtful reply.
|
| I agree asking about the parking is wise planning. P&Z was moving to 
propose
| Beebe develop a 'parking mitigation' plan. That seemed like a plausible 
path
| to me, a way to raise the question of parking at the rezone stage, but 
since
| the rezone did not discuss uses, allow the solution to be brought forward 
at
| the building permit stage. It looked like a way to finesse the separation 
we
| now enjoy of zoning from other hearings, eg CUP/PUD.
|
| But without agreement on the nature of the parking problem(s) it may be
| difficult to agree on the nature of an acceptable mitigation, so I was
| attempting to start these threads on parking to get an analysis of what 
the
| parking problem is, such that its solution could be better designed.
|
| We got distracted by developer bashing and then bashing one another. 
Sorry.
|
| Bill Parks thinks there are 3 parking problems, "impulse" parking (to 
shop);
| employee parking, and downtown resident parking. If so, three solutions
| might be needed. And they might not involve on-site parking. It may also 
be
| that downtown parking is used by students unwilling to pay for UI 
parking --
| I don't know Bill's thought on that -- but that could be a fourth problem.
|
| Philip Cook added an interesting item to the conversation with his pointer
| to the High Cost of Free Parking (At first I thought this might be a spoof
| on a similarly titled video about an infamous retailer, but its at the
| American Planning Association website and the first chapter is an
| interesting read -- if not the common wisdom.)
|
| The Idaho Smart Growth scorecard (
| 
http://www.idahosmartgrowth.org/projects/scorecards/SmartGrowthScorecard-Com
| mercialDevelopment.pdf) provides some help, suggesting on-street parking 
is
| important, and that off street parking be behind or screened from the
| street. From that one might conclude that employee/resident parking is one
| kind of problem, to be addressed onsite, and visitor/shopper (impulse)
| parking is to be addressed on the street.
|
| That leads me to the thought that 3-hour parking downtown might be part of
| our problem. Perhaps CBD street parking should be one hour, and some other
| lots handle longer-term parking.
|
| I understand we'll have a chance to continue this discussion in July when
| Gritman brings forward a rezone for land it owns south of Jackson. I don't
| know what they will seek, General Business or CBD.
|
|
|
|
|