Parking ;to have or have not ? (planner, houses, issues, major)

[yourbuddy]

Hi,
Perhaps you folks can offer your opinion on this . Thanks for taking the time
to respond.

I live in a small town of 1,100 people with a small business district within 3 streets.
Recently the City has reworked the streets and we lost about 28 parking spaces
in the business district .
Now they want to re do another street and we will loose 12 more spaces.

Is this a smart move on the City's part ?

[Hemlock140]

It's hard to tell without more information. Being such a small town, unless it gets tourists or travelers passing through, there may not be much need for parking. If the lack of spaces inconveniences the customers, will they deal with it or drive farther to shop elsewhere? If the parking is at paid meters, this might reduce city revenues, but if the parking is free, there is no loss, and potential gain from tickets if the reduced legal parking causes more violations.

[yourbuddy]

Tourism is the main lively hood of the town
locals go to the big box stores and malls because we have limited parking
that becomes non nonexistent on the weekends and summer season.
Tourists just drive through if they don't see parking and go to the next town

There has been tremendous growth in the residential development.
And tickets go to the shop owners and their employees.

BTW the town is on a island in the Puget Sound.

[Hemlock140]

It sounds like the city is making a lot more money on the property taxes from the new homes than from sales taxes, so for the city budget the loss of parking is not a problem. The negatives are for the local people that have to go farther to shop,
and for the merchants that are losing business. Whether it's "smart" just depends on the point of view.

[T. Damon]

If tourism is actually the main livelihood of the town I am certain it is the lack of strip-mall style parking lots in front of commercial areas and it is a more traditional, charming and appealing commercial district right on the street/sidewalk with parking right on the street. If they (the civic leaders) are making the shopping/restaurant district more appealing to experience driving by and on foot or sitting down on sidewalk terraces by reworking the street/parking/sidewalk and are still providing convenient parking (hopefully just behind the shops) or a small, tucked away parking lot then they are probably doing the right thing. If they are not thinking through the logic of still providing some convenient parking then that plan will likely falter.

There is nothing though that ruins a small town with a little bit of uniqueness so succinctly than making it look and feel like every other convenient-for-parking-only generic chain center located in nearly every town and city in the country rather than the charming, organic growth it may have experienced over the decades or even centuries, maybe even before cars, and miraculously still may possess. And God Forbid if you actually have to walk a block or two to get to the local establishment.

If you are lucky enough to live in such a town or village neighborhood in a bigger city then support its local businesses before buying everything on line and at the Big Box stores, and enjoy the walk.

[eschaton]

Hrrm...island in Puget Sound. Can't be San Juan County, because people wouldn't drive through, so it must be Island County. Langley?

I'm not sure I get the "tourists just drive through" comment. If I want to go somewhere, and there's no parking on the main street, I just park a few blocks away on a residential street. No big deal.

[yourbuddy]

All the character of the old town is going away ,
People come here for the quaintness. Not the spiffed up looks
like every place else town. The rural character is one of the attractions.

If there is no shops and we lose between 5-15 every year since 2008.
Where do the boat people go ? Developers do not want to build any commercial
buildings because the spaces do not generate the income to justify the costs.
2 of the biggest and oldest restaurants on the main drag have been closed for 5 years or more.

As for "they should walk" they don't because many of my customers, and i've been in
business going on 44 years here, just don't want to walk too far. They tell me they came
in on Sunday but couldn't find parking and went home. Who else does that ? Unknown
but i hazard to guess that there are other people just like that.

Many people that are still in business close for the month of January or for 2-3 days mid week.
So maybe 40% of the shops are closed Jan/Feb because of not enough business.

And finally i have talked to 2 city planners from other places and 1 urban planning instructor
that has told me that parking is one of the city's assets and should be made the best of because there is no more to be had.

Anyway thank all of you who have piped in on this and cast a vote in the poll.

[yourbuddy]

Sorry for the extra post but couldn't find a edit button....

I forgot to add that when the 2 restaurants come on line
they will add to the parking issue even more and during the
spring/summer/fall the over flow from the lack of parking at the marina
ends up in town with each truck & trailer taking up 2 & 1/2 parking spaces.

However there have been developments .Seems that you can not satisfy
the ADA /handicap parking by turning the diagonal parking to parallel parking.

[North Beach Person]

If your town is a tourism destination, or hoping to become one, and eliminating parking without providing it somewhere then it will strangle. The residential areas adjacent to the commercial blocks will likely start to experience parking issues due to tourists parking there.

So, the question needs to be: Who is more important? The cars of tourists clogging up the parking in residential areas or the residents?

A note about sales tax: not all states remit sales tax back to the localities. Maryland is one who doesn't. I've run the numbers for where I am and, although they don't like to hear it, our tourist businesses here cost the residents over $100K/year coming from their property taxes, about 1/8 of our property tax revenues. The very small business license fees they pay don't even cover the cost of issuance.

[yourbuddy]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

If your town is a tourism destination, or hoping to become one, and eliminating parking without providing it somewhere then it will strangle. The residential areas adjacent to the commercial blocks will likely start to experience parking issues due to tourists parking there.

So, the question needs to be: Who is more important? The cars of tourists clogging up the parking in residential areas or the residents?

A note about sales tax: not all states remit sales tax back to the localities. Maryland is one who doesn't. I've run the numbers for where I am and, although they don't like to hear it, our tourist businesses here cost the residents over $100K/year coming from their property taxes, about 1/8 of our property tax revenues. The very small business license fees they pay don't even cover the cost of issuance.

Yes you are correct the parking does overflow into the non 4hr limit for parking otherwise known as
residential .The foresight for the 2 restaurants ,( one is limping along slowly may open 2019?)
is nonexistent. They both need about 16 employees between them plus management and we have
those 12 parking spaces used up easy.

About 10 years ago the city let it slip out that they preferred residential over commercial .

However what brought people here in the first place? The town ,not the old rundown farm houses
feed store or the 100 year old bordello (well maybe that one at one time). As it became known more
people came and it started to turn into a retirement community. They all claim to love the town
and bring their guests around to the shops.

We have not been well served by our public officials . It was sport for some to go to the
council meetings (15 years ago)to watch the drunk mayor(got a DUI while in office ,
was also was wanted by the FBI with posters in the post office non the less for assaulting a police officer with a brick in the 70's) and drunk council members .
Not long ago(5years) a planner who became mayor was caught forging a different planners
approval signature on the mayors daughters wetland building permit.
Judge said jail time and he couldn't hold public office anymore, but all the council members
supported him for 3 or 4 months as our mayor even when he did his time ...the last
mayor(2years) destroyed public records and the city was sued for that.

Current mayor has issues too. Some council members went someplace to have dinner
turned out there was a majority of them there , then they were called out on that
by the newspaper -- rule of appearances sort of deal . At the next council meeting
the city "forgot" to turn on the public radio feed of the meeting while they discussed the matter .
There is always a "tell", why would you forget to turn on the radio feed ? when your discussing
possible wrong doing? Unless you were concerned somebody listening may have other information
to the contrary. Also the radio feed equipment is on the same power strip that has the city's
audio recorder for the meetings....you just flip one switch to turn on both pieces of equipment.
I know that because i set up the radio feed equipment for the community.


So needless to say they can not be trusted with our best interests or to make the best decisions.