By Adam Swift
The city continues to make progress in achieving some of the recommendations laid out in a recently completed Broadway parking study.
At last week’s economic development subcommittee meeting, Housing and Community Development Director Tom Skwierawski updated city councilors on the status of the plan.
One of the main recommendations of the plan was to improve wayfinding along the Broadway corridor, specifically with new signage, especially when it comes to pointing motorists toward the Central Avenue parking lot.
“We saw through the Broadway parking study that there is a lot of meat left on the bone with the Central Ave. lot,” said Skwierawski. “The vast majority of folks do not park there, as opposed to on the street, where we have a bigger parking issue.”
Skwierawski said there are signs scheduled to go up along the Broadway corridor which will point to various points of interest along Broadway, such as city hall, as well as parking locations.
“We also took a look at parking lot access, specifically along Central Avenue, what we could do to make Aucella Court, which is the walkway from Broadway to the Central Ave. lot a little bit more welcoming and inviting,” he said. “We have partnered with a group called Neighborways Design, who worked with city volunteers, folks from my department, the mayor was there as well doing participatory work on the ground, taking various designs that had been created and implementing it to create a welcoming (area).”
There have already been some improvements to the aesthetics and the lighting to the walkway, according to Skwierawski.
“Our next step, in addition to having art bring light, we are going to try to literally try to bring light to Aucella Court, lighting up some of the existing street lights that are not currently working,” he said. In addition, the city may look at adding some string lighting in the area to make it more welcoming.
“There were also recommendations about regulatory streamlining, streamlining operations in the Central Ave. lot, eliminating all the various areas designated for permits and hourly parking, managing demand through the number of permits sold, and restriping to actually increase the supply in the lot,” said Skwierawski.
He added that there were also recommendations to remove the time limits for parking in that lot.
“There were similarly suggestions on the city hall lot, eliminating the various separations among various spots in the lot at city hall, removing the two-hour limits, and pricing the lot and adjacent side streets as well,” Skwierawski said. “Those tend to be some of the higher utilized areas in the whole Broadway study area.”
Skwierawski noted that the city is also undertaking a pilot program along a section of Broadway where there will be sensored meters allowing cars to park free of charge for 15 minutes to run errands along Broadway.
“They also recommended performance pricing, this is not something we have done yet, but they recommended higher prices along the core of Broadway, no pricing along some areas where there is not a lot of utilization, and cheaper prices on the side streets,” said Skwierawski. “Again, ultimately eliminating time limits overall.”
The study also looked at shared parking, with the possibility that in the longterm, the city could enhance its parking supply by looking at arrangements with housing developers and other property owners along the corridor.
Skwierawski also noted that since the Broadway parking study has been completed, the city’s parking department has improved its enforcement efforts through cameras and license plate recognition technology that can monitor the city’s lots.
