Study highlights ‘problematic areas’ with downtown city parking spaces

The first draft of a comprehensive study of Bloomington’s downtown parking resources and recommendations for solutions was released to the public Feb. 26. Though discussions have surfaced about the construction of a new parking garage downtown, it was not on the study’s list of “evaluated alternatives.” \nThe city commissioned Walker Parking Consultants in mid-November 2006 for the $55,500 report. Mayor Mark Kruzan said the study confirms the parking situation downtown isn’t terrible but does have problematic areas. \n“Our conclusion is that here is a parking problem and it can be solved by better management of the spaces and by adopting policies that shift parking from on-street to garages,” Kruzan said. “Our goal is to have long-term parking be in garages so that there is better flow on the street.”\nSusie Johnson, public works director for Bloomington, said the city has been taking comments and corrections from citizens. These suggestions will be forwarded to Walker Parking Consultants and the city will accept public comment on the final report until April 2.\n“This is a draft,” Johnson said. “I think that’s the important message to get out.”\nAccording to the report, the peak of parking occupancy was 63 percent for a 56 city block area. The borders of that study area are 11th Street to the north, Indiana Avenue to the east, Second Street to the south and Rogers Street to the west. \nThe study identified particular blocks that experience parking shortages, citing eight blocks that experienced public occupancy deficits.\n“Approximately 24 of the public on-street spaces experienced parking deficits,” Walker Parking Consultants identified in the report. It suggests that people in these areas are likely to consider lack of parking a problem.\nThe study projects that downtown will face parking deficits within five years.\n“There are problems that stem from the success of a downtown,” Kruzan said. “We’ve seen at least 2,000 new residents (move) downtown in recent years.”\nJohnson said the study was commissioned because the city wanted a comprehensive look at the parking options downtown to ensure that they were being used to full capacity.\nEve Corrigan is the director of outreach and development for Bloomington Transportations for People, a citizen group that advocates sustainable transportation culture in Bloomington. She said she believes instead of adding more parking spaces downtown, the city should better manage the spaces already available. Corrigan called the study’s deficit projections “artificial.”\n“I’ve read the report and it’s not entirely clear to me how they came up with those projections,” Corrigan said. “I do not think those are real projections because a lot of the growth is up to us as a city.”\nBloomington Transportations Options for People released a similar study concerning the city’s three downtown parking garages last fall. The study recorded the number of occupied parking spaces each hour and concluded that the garages were under utilized. At the garages’ peak occupancy, there remained nearly 600 open parking spaces.\nCorrigan cited the city’s Growth Policies Plan, which calls for a reduction of the vehicle miles traveled. Johnson stressed that this report will be reformulated in the future.