[Vision2020] Downtown & Gritman Parking

[B. J. Swanson]

This morning, Dan Carscallen asked, "But, just out of curiosity, is the 
Wren lot public or Gritman only?"

It's a long story but is probably typical of the more recent parking 
problems in Downtown.

In 2002, Gritman asked the City to vacate 8th Street between Main and 
Washington to allow expansion of the main hospital facility.  A verbal 
agreement was made with the City that Gritman would provide equal public 
parking spaces for those displaced by closing 8th Street; 16 spaces to be 
exact.  Gritman owns the land north of the Wren Garden so a 30 space 
parking lot was constructed by and is maintained by Gritman.  It was 
decided that Gritman would not place any restrictions on this lot, 
no 'Gritman Only Parking' signs etc., and consider it to be open parking, 
more than compensating for the 16 spaces displaced on 8th Street.  
Sometime after the verbal agreement with the City, a written agreement was 
made, but differed considerably from the verbal agreement.  The written 
agreement actually stated that both Gritman parking lots north and south 
of Lewis Street are "Public Parking."  Gritman didn't feel that was a 
concern at the time so let it go.

Since last fall, Gritman has received numerous complaints about the lack 
of parking available for patients and visitors in any of the Gritman lots 
as well as on-street parking.  Gritman has been tracking this and found 
that many students were parking in the Gritman lots.  They seemed to come 
early, take many of the spaces, put on back-packs, and hike out for the 
day, leaving no room for Gritman clients.  To compound the problem, in 
March the City placed "Public Parking" signs on both Gritman lots.  This 
escalated the parking complaints from patients and visitors.  The addition 
of the "Public Parking" signs to the Gritman lots make them the only 
parking lots in Downtown Moscow where the public can park all day for free.

Gritman asked the City in April to revisit the "Public Parking" issue.  So 
far, there has been little response from the City and nothing has been 
done.  Gritman will keep working to resolve this problem.

B. J. Swanson


---------------------------------------------
This message was sent by First Step Internet.
           http://www.fsr.com/