Improving parking downtown will require policy changes, Lawrence City Commission told

A line of parking meters is pictured in this file photo from May 2007.

Improving parking in the core of the city will ultimately come down to a policy decision, consultants told Lawrence city commissioners at a work session Tuesday.

Staff from Desman, a parking consulting firm hired by the city, said the city’s policies will have to address the parking problems of a variety of groups, including residents, business owners and developers downtown and in surrounding neighborhoods.

“We’re going to end up coming back to you and having this menu of issues, and most of them are tied to policies, and of course that’s where it’s going to come back to you,” said Desman consultant Gerald Salzman.

The consultants are in the process of conducting a parking study, which is intended to identify deficiencies in the city’s parking system and compile feedback from various stakeholder groups. The study will also look at the city’s model for future development to predict parking deficits and surpluses. Potential solutions to the parking problems will range from simple changes, such as adjusting layout in existing lots to accommodate more spaces, to the development of new parking infrastructure, technology and policies.

“There’s lot of solutions; some are palatable and some are not,” Salzman continued. “And so we’re going to have to have a mechanism for discussing that. Some people say the city should provide all the residential parking, and others say the developers should provide it, and it’s really a policy.”

Tuesday’s work session came on the heels of nine meetings that were held in January to gather input from a variety of groups affected by parking in the core of the city, including business owners, residents and developers. The parking study will inform the city’s first strategic parking plan, which will affect parking downtown and in 12 surrounding neighborhoods for years to come.

The city’s public parking system downtown currently includes metered spaces, free two-hour lots, permitted 10-hour lots, and three parking garages. Generally, there is no requirement for new development downtown to provide additional parking, and no permitting systems are in place for the on-street parking in adjacent neighborhoods.

In addition to considering city code regarding parking requirements for new developments downtown, the commission will have to consider policies regarding permits, fees, enforcement and potential parking restrictions for residential neighborhoods.

Commissioner Matthew Herbert said he wanted to be careful about how those discussions are framed, as having a lot of businesses and residents downtown — and the parking issues that come with that — is in some ways a good problem to have.

“I just want to make sure that we’re looking for a way to benefit the city, but that we be very careful of what benefits our solutions have,” Herbert said.

Salzman said that is the “philosophical discussion” the commission will have to have as part of the planning process. Decisions regarding the plan will be made in the next couple of months, following the completion of the parking study. Salzman said a summary of the parking study will be completed in about two weeks and will come back before the commission at an upcoming meeting.


In other business, the commission:

• Met in executive session for 50 minutes in order for commissioners to join city staff taking part in court-ordered mediation in the lawsuit filed by the City of Lawrence against The Oread hotel. The lawsuit alleges Oread hotel developer Thomas Fritzel engaged in a fraudulent tax scheme. Mayor Leslie Soden said she could not comment about the mediation. The court will initiate a telephone conference with representatives for both parties to discuss the status of the case on Feb. 21, according to the court order.

• Reviewed the final draft of the Parks and Recreation Department’s Master Plan. The plan includes a model for determining how user fees should be structured in order to better support the department’s operations. Commissioners also expressed support for prioritizing efforts to optimize staffing and maintain existing facilities.