Community members can get in on the action from now through mid-September by voicing their opinions on the city’s Town Center Parking Study report preliminary draft that’s currently available for their perusal.

The city published the draft on its Let’s Talk page on July 31, about three weeks after city council delved back into the reviewal and adoption process of the 2022 report.

City officials brought Walker Consultants on board to steer the study, which made its first appearance when city council approved to earmark $80,000 within the 2021-22 biennial budget to conduct the study. After the city initially scoped the project and rolled through the request for proposal process in 2021, Walker Consultants entered the picture in March of 2022, a year when the bulk of the study work occurred.

“Now what we’re looking for is just the community’s opportunity to review the report. Especially those strategies and recommendations that are included in the report for how to improve the Town Center parking experience,” said Sarah Bluvas, the city’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Project manager.

Citizens can provide feedback on the Let’s Talk page from now up until the public hearing at city council’s Sept. 19 meeting. The city hopes to finalize and adopt the report by the end of 2023. To leave feedback, visit https://letstalk.mercergov.org/tc-parking-study.

According to the Let’s Talk page, the project objectives include understanding parking needs for customers, employees, residents and business owners, including supporting the local economy by leveraging streets and sidewalks for outdoor dining and more. Bluvas said they spoke with numerous business owners while creating the report to get their vital viewpoint.

Within the 76-page draft are strategies and recommendations to manage, improve and expand downtown parking scenarios with some of them proposed to be implemented in one to three years and others sometime over the next decade, with each situation’s timeline depending on work plans and need, Bluvas said.

The draft lists a host of strategies to be evaluated, and some of them are: adding more on-street ADA parking; considering paid parking and deploying technology to create easier use and enforcement; adding bicycle parking; creating more community gathering spaces; revising on-street parking time limits to be consistent throughout the center; and creating additional on-street 30-minute loading and three- to 10-minute pickup/drop-off spaces.

“I think this report provides a solid foundation and a direction for where we need to go to ultimately just improve visitors’ experience heading to and from Town Center,” said Bluvas, adding that she feels the strategies and recommendations can be viewed as comprehensive holistic improvements.

One community commenter said that managing on-street parking to support retailers is the best strategy, but doesn’t think that new developments should be required to provide copious parking because the commenter feels it adds to the cost of a development and reduces housing affordability.

To view the draft, visit https://letstalk.mercergov.org/tc-parking-study/news_feed/draft-report-release.