Title
Staff Report for Work Session on Draft Downtown Parking Management Plan
Staffreport
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Parking is a valuable and limited resource of our Downtown area. If managed carefully it can provide a part of the framework for a thriving city center. Our consultants, PlaceWorks, in conjunction with staff have developed a draft Parking Management Plan to define a vision, mission, and work plan for a successful Downtown. Staff recommends that the City Council receive the draft 2016 Downtown Parking Management Plan (DPMP), along with staff’s initial recommendations, and provide direction to staff on the initial recommendations, priorities and strategies suggested in the report. This report is informational and no action is required.
BACKGROUND
The goal of the Downtown Parking Management Plan is to improve parking utilization by understanding how different parking policies impact user groups in Downtown San Leandro. The plan analyzes parking inventory, utilization, and turnover in the core downtown and periphery areas. The data includes BART riders, employees of downtown businesses, shoppers, and residents who use parking either for short durations or all-day. By understanding parking patterns, the City hopes to adopt a strategy that will aid future land-use and economic development decisions.
In the Downtown area, the City controls about 3,239 parking spaces, of which 1,773 are on-street and 1,466 are off-street parking in seven parking facilities, including the recently reconstructed Downtown Parking Garage. The San Leandro Downtown Parking Management Plan seeks to:
• Better utilize the existing on- and off-street parking inventory
• Strategize best solutions for Downtown’s short- and long-term parking needs
• Address multi-modal access needs for residents, employees, customers and commuters in San Leandro
This effort has been funded by the Sustainable Communities Technical Assistance Program (SC-TAP) of the Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC). Under the direction of Community Development and Engineering & Transportation staff and in coordination with ACTC, two consulting firms (PlaceWorks and CDM Smith) have developed the draft plan.
Analysis
The Downtown Parking Management Plan is meant to help set program priorities, build consensus on program direction and define funding priorities. As the name implies, the DPMP focuses on the Downtown area defined to be located roughly between San Leandro Boulevard to the west, San Leandro Creek to the north, Bancroft Avenue to the east, and Elsie Avenue/Williams Street to the south. The study area is shown in Figure 1 of the DPMP.
The work started with a data collection effort for the Downtown area that included an inventory of all public parking spaces and mapping of on-street time limits in 2013 prior to the start of construction of the Marea Alta Housing and the San Leandro Tech Campus. This provided parking data that was not skewed by the temporary loss of the BART parking lot and Martinez Street and therefore a more realistic representation of the near future parking inventory. A user survey was then undertaken to gather input regarding existing parking conditions, opinions and concerns over existing San Leandro parking issues. Intercept surveys were conducted near entertainment, recreation, Farmers’ Market and dining venues to provide insight into the most common modes people utilize to reach Downtown, local concerns about parking in San Leandro, and opinions on potential parking solutions. The purpose of the surveys were to gather information from visitors to the area, regardless of whether they worked or lived in San Leandro, and to explore how they commute to the area and what sorts of amenities or concerns motivate them. Additionally, stakeholder outreach that included workshops with business, resident groups and property owners was completed.
Existing Condition Findings
Occupancy
• Documenting the true occupancy rates was the first step to identify effectively the real or perceived parking problems and provide a basis for determining parking time restrictions. Among the various parking areas, the periphery on-street spaces experience the highest occupancies throughout the weekday, peaking at approximately 64 percent, while the core peaks at 52 percent midday. Overall, weekend occupancies do not exceed 50 percent during any time period analyzed. Although the southern portion of the Washington Plaza Lot, Pelton Center and on-street parking in the neighborhoods immediately east of the San Leandro BART station exceed practical capacity during peak periods, the occupancy levels for the entire Downtown area is well below the practical occupancy of 85% at all times. The data indicates that there is parking available but that it may not always be convenient for the users.
Duration
• The average duration for on-street parking is 3.0 hours and for off-street parking is 1.76 hours. Further analysis of the data indicates that on-street parkers are most likely nearby residents or BART commuters and that visitors and shoppers use the off-street lots to visit retail, restaurants and other services.
Future Demand
Short-Term & 10-Year Horizon
• Projections of future parking demand and adequacy based on proposed land-use changes and specific development initiatives was completed. The Parking Model indicates that for both the Short-Term and 10-Year scenarios that at no time would parking demand exceed 85% of the available supply. This future supply is primarily due to planned public availability of the Tech Campus’s new parking structure.
Guiding Principles and Prioritization
Creating a set of “guiding principles” was the first step in creating a Parking Management Plan as it forms the strategic framework of a program. At the initial outreach meetings with residents and business representatives, a particular emphasis was placed on developing guiding principles to assist in the determination of a regulatory structure and implementation steps. Often, changes in parking regulations will benefit some stakeholders and inconvenience others. With principles in place, the team can continually assess implementation proposals to ensure that they are consistent with the community goals for the project. After extensive community outreach and discussion, the following guiding principles were proposed for this project:
1. Downtown San Leandro is a valuable community asset
2. Simplify parking operations
3. Make downtown accessible to all users through multiple modes
4. The Parking System should support downtown businesses
5. Prioritize residential parking for residents
6. Manage the parking system with an understanding of systemic and fiscal impacts
Implicit in the guiding principles is the idea that certain users will have top priority for parking access in certain locations. For example, parking in the residential neighborhoods between the BART station and East 14th Street should first serve the residents of those areas, with BART commuters and business employees falling lower on the priority list. By contrast, parking in commercial areas should be prioritized for short-term shoppers and visitors, which benefits both businesses and members of the community by making it as easy as possible to patronize Downtown businesses. Finally, the Estudillo Garage should be prioritized for employees of Downtown businesses who tend to park for longer durations.
Program Challenges
A number of challenges were identified that make it difficult to achieve optimal efficiency within the parking system. Those include:
Systemic non-compliance and Mandated Free Parking at Washington Plaza: As part of the development of the Washington Plaza Shopping Center, the City, Safeway and the center’s owner (currently Regency Centers) executed an agreement that governs maintenance and operations at the site. That agreement mandates that the City-owned lot offer free parking. Because these parking areas tend to be the most desirable for employees and visitors of Downtown businesses, usage of paid parking at on-street meters and in the Estudillo Garage has been limited. Moreover, employees of retail businesses in Washington Plaza are parking in short-term parking areas and moving their cars every two hours to avoid citations (two-hour shuffle). Some employees have developed their own warning systems to alert others of parking enforcement activities or even go so far as to wipe off chalk or devise other means to avoid parking citations in direct violation of city parking regulations. As long as employees can continue this practice without fear of significant enforcement, the paid parking facilities will remain underutilized and shoppers will face parking shortages near businesses.
Safety: Another challenge is personal safety and the perception of a safe environment in the downtown. In order to use the Garage and on-street parking, parkers need to feel safe walking to those locations. Lighting and security improvements can help to ensure that this is not a significant impediment.
Technology Challenges: The payment and enforcement technologies that were implemented concurrent with the opening of the Estudillo Garage have not gone as planned. Enforcement staff has had difficulty effectively using the mobile License Plate Reader (LPR) systems and the operator of the Garage payment system declared bankruptcy and ceased supporting the system in 2015. A transition to more effective systems will be critical to improved operations.
Need for new administrative and payment processes: There is limited staff and financial resources available and no one “official” City staff person dedicated to parking. Therefore, it is recommended that solution sets should be developed that make it simple to perform administrative tasks and handle payment processes. Simplicity is important not only for the City staff, but also for stakeholders who rely on parking resources in the project area.
Recommendations
Based on the analysis and outreach described above, the draft DPMP recommends the following implementation steps:
• Adopt the six DPMP Guiding Principles
• Refine organization structure: Staff is currently exploring options including, but not limited to, using a parking consultant to assist in providing centralized coordination of parking operations.
• Simplify Parking Time Stays and Update Pricing: Consistent with the Guiding Principles, the report recommends the following steps:
o Prioritize parking for residents in residential areas. Consider implementation of a residential permit program in the areas impacted by BART parkers. A Residential Parking Permit area is a neighborhood zone where on street parking is restricted. RPP programs are developed as a tool to balance the needs of all who park on our streets, including residents, visitors and commuters.
o Prioritize retail parking for shoppers and visitors. The best spaces should be available for shoppers, not employees who tend to park for longer periods of time. Off-street lots are proposed to be free for two hours and on-street parking is proposed to be free for up to three hours, both with rigorous zone enforcement in conjunction with a no re-parking ordinance. Over time, once usage reaches a functional capacity of 85%, the City should consider replacing the meters for on-street parking with new smart-meter technology to generate revenue for the parking system and encourage turnover.
o Maximize use of the downtown garage. Consider re-structuring the costs for garage parking so that downtown employees can use it as affordably and easily as possible. The DPMP proposes that monthly permits be reduced to $35/$55 for general and reserved (down from $45 and $70). The top deck is proposed to be $1 per day (down from $2.50). The top deck is presently predominantly vacant and this low price is designed to provide an affordable option for retail employees who may not be interested in monthly permits due to varied and/or part-time schedules.
• Identify and Communicate the Parking System: Once new regulations are implemented, it will be essential to ensure that the new policies are clearly communicated to those who rely on the parking system. This can be achieved through outreach, marketing materials, and clear signage.
• Integrate Parking Technology: Parking regulations should be easy to understand and our systems should be easy to use. The City has an urgent need to replace the existing payment technology in the garage and utilize license plate reader technology for parking enforcement.
• Manage Parking Fund to Solvency: The goal of the parking system is to support its users, not to raise revenues for the City. Nevertheless, the City’s parking fund presently faces a structural deficit. Although meter revenue and costs associated with maintenance and operation of the parking lots, on-street parking, and the garage are included in the fund, citation revenue is not. The fund should be restructured to provide a clear assessment of the net cost of the parking system and the City should move toward a long-term goal of making this fund solvent.
• Encourage Transportation Demand Management: Although this study focuses on parking, the City has a long-term goal to support a transit-friendly Downtown that supports all modes of transportation. As new development increases, the City should encourage programs that support use of transit, cycling, and walking to reduce the overall demand on the parking and transportation systems and support a high quality of life.
Proposed time restrictions and parking costs are summarized in the attached table.
Costs and Revenues
As noted above, the City parking fund presently fails to generate revenues to match its costs. In part, this situation can be addressed by restructuring the fund to give a more complete sense of the costs and revenues associated with parking. However, it is likely that the parking system will not generate net positive revenue in the near future. The proposed changes include elimination of on-street meters and reduced prices for monthly permits and daily parking in the garage. The City may also consider using consultants with parking expertise to oversee the implementation of the DPMP and the transition to new technology in the garage. To a certain degree, the costs will be offset by increased enforcement of violation of the time restrictions and increased usage of the garage.
As new development occurs and usage of the Downtown area intensifies, the City will also need to consider re-installing meters at on-street parking locations, generating additional revenues to support the system. Re-installing meters should be evaluated when the 85 percent occupancy threshold is reached.
In the near-term, the City may need to consider parking-related costs as an investment in the success of Downtown San Leandro. To the extent that the parking system works efficiently, businesses will see more success and the City will realize increased sales tax revenue. A successful Downtown will also be desirable for major development and re-investment projects, which will in turn generate increased property tax for the City.
As an assessment of the fiscal impacts and a full pro-forma of the DPMP will be included as part of the final DPMP, the draft Plan includes an initial assessment of these impacts that will be fully developed as part of the final report.
Next Steps
City staff and the consulting team anticipate revising the draft based on feedback received at the May 23rd Work Session and the final Downtown Parking Management Plan will be adopted by the end of July 2016. Consequently, proposed downtown parking improvement actions and projects identified in the Downtown Parking Management Plan could be programmed beginning in fall 2016.
Applicable General Plan Policies
13.07 Parking Requirements: Establish parking requirements that contemplate the desire to promote public transit use, bicycling and walking.
18.03 Public Education: Increase public education on laws relating to parking, circulation, speed limits, right-of-way, pedestrian crossings and other aspects of transportation safety in the City.
Action 19.01-A: Parking Reduction Provisions - Allow reduced parking requirements where specific conditions are met. These conditions should include transportation demand management measures, such as shuttle buses to BART and other destinations, carpooling and vanpooling programs, shared parking, provision of shared cars, and bicycle storage facilities.
19.03 Shared Parking: Promote the concept of parking areas which are “shared” by multiple uses with different peak demand periods as a means of reducing the total amount of parking which must be provided.
Summary of Public Outreach Efforts
Downtown San Leandro Business Meetings - July 15, 2015 and January 26, 2016
Downtown Resident Outreach Meetings - August 5, 2015 and January 28, 2016.
Through mass mailing, fliers and postings on NextDoor and the City’s website, businesses and residents of downtown San Leandro and all concerned citizens were invited to review the team’s findings and recommendations and to comment on the draft Plan.
ATTACHMENTS
• Table - Summary of Proposed Time Restrictions and Parking Costs
• Draft Downtown Parking Management Plan (also available at: sanleandro.org/transportation <http://www.sanleandro.org/transportation>)
PREPARED BY:
Keith Cooke, Director, Engineering and Transportation Department
Jeff Kay, Acting Assistant City Manager, City Manager’s Office
Reh-Lin N. Chen, Senior Transportation Engineer, Engineering and Transportation Department