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What: Downtown Parking Task Force

When: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Davis Senior Center Activity Room, 646 A St.

By Chuck Roe

The following is excerpted from a letter to the Downtown Parking Task Force:

As you consider your final actions and suggestions to the City Council, I’d like to share some thoughts and observations I’ve had while developing four mixed-use buildings in our downtown.

I know you have had discussions about providing on-site parking for new projects as a way of providing for part of our parking shortage. I don’t think this is feasible.

The type of development I have done is probably typical of what we may expect in the future. Davis property owners and local developers like myself typically do not have the means to assemble large parcels for development. I believe this is a good thing because I’m pretty sure our collective vision doesn’t include huge parcel assemblage and large-scale redevelopment projects.

Each of the buildings I developed was a single downtown parcel. In each, we struggled to provide a single on-site parking space for each living unit. This added greatly to our cost by requiring the building to be built over the parking in most cases. Even so, we were not able to provide any extra spaces for the retail or office tenants of those projects.

Since it is a great benefit to be able to provide more on-site parking and offer that to the owners and customers of the retail/restaurants and offices, we always looked into the feasibility of going underground. When considering ramps leading in and out, a car’s turning radius and structural elements of the building, it was impossible to accomplish. It could, of course, be done. However, we got only a few additional parking spaces on each level underground and the cost was immense for each space. If this was required, I wouldn’t have been able to build in the downtown.

As you consider the benefits of getting on-site parking for small developments there are a couple of big downsides that you may not have considered.

Driveways shouldn’t interrupt the storefront rhythm of a retail street with cars pulling in and out. Think of the best retail streets you know and you’ll find they all have a great rhythm of storefronts. Our best-designed retail street is the west side of G Street between Second and Third. Its buildings were developed decades ago in an age-old formula that is still the best. The flow of store windows and entrance doors pull foot traffic naturally along the street without dead spots or auto traffic. Losing storefront to car traffic would have ruined that flow and would have been a big loss for the street. What if each of those parcels was redeveloped and each had a driveway leading in? The magic would be gone.

Also consider that at-grade retail and restaurant space is the most precious commodity we have. This has the highest development value and the highest and best use of the at-grade space should be required of any redevelopment. It should rarely used for parking. This is the space that generates the most vibrancy and pays the most taxes. To lose a portion of that for on-grade parking of cars on a lot-by-lot basis would be very foolish and shortsighted.

Like many of you, I have closely watched the downtown parking issue through its many twists and turns through the decades. A few things are clear to me.

* We don’t have a future parking problem, we have a big current parking problem. A dozen years ago we recognized this and planned for a multi-story parking structure. After being blessed by many former councils and business organizations, the project fell apart along with the redevelopment district funds. Now the need for additional parking is critical. Please don’t recommend a bunch of studies that will just lead to passing this issue along into the future. We’ve already done that for a dozen years.

* We should not believe that we will help solve our parking shortage by getting on-site parking as the downtown redevelops. As noted above, on-site parking is probably the worst use of space as we redevelop.

* We shouldn’t suggest tweaking the current parking regulations and think this will have any significant impact. There have been decades of tweaking and re-tweaking and many committees have spent untold meetings trying to develop the perfect tweak, all with very little effect. We need more centralized parking.

* Like other successful downtowns like San Luis Obispo or Boulder, Colo., we need parking meters throughout. Set them to the lowest cost on a block-by-block basis that results in a fraction of empty spaces on each block. Paid parking would get the downtown workers out of their every two-hour free parking dance and it would assure a few empty spaces if you really need to park near your destination. It also would create a revenue stream.

We need strong leadership on this because there will always be those who claim it will kill the downtown. Tell that to Boulder and San Luis Obispo.

* We should take action to build our next parking garage. Like our other structures, it should be free to encourage workers and others to fill the garages and free up surface parking for those that need it or want to pay for it. The garage should have a financing plan that includes proceeds from the metered parking, possibly a downtown area assessment district and potentially a citywide bond. Let’s get concrete and move forward.

I hope you encourage our city leaders to move forward and not pass this issue downstream to the next generation in a never-ending cycle of studies and delays. We need real leadership to solve our parking issues and, failing that, our downtown can’t be as terrific as most of us believe.

Apparently, this City Council didn’t want to make any big decisions on additional downtown parking without input from your committee. This probably was a good idea. I hope with your input, the council will be prepared to act.

— Chuck Roe is a longtime Davis resident and former downtown developer.

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