New parking garage, old debate

In 2006, two separate parking surveys found that the city’s three downtown parking garages were all vastly underused, stirring city officials and local residents on the old issue of limited downtown parking.\nThe first survey, completed by Bloomington Transportation Operations for People, led to the second survey, commissioned by the mayor’s office and completed by Walker Parking Consultants. \nThe surveys have thus far kept construction of more parking garages downtown on hold, until last week when IU opened its fifth parking garage, located at Henderson and Atwater streets.\nSusie Johnson, director of the city’s Department of Public Works, was not involved during the 2005 negotiations that led to the Henderson Street garage, and wouldn’t comment on the University’s decision to build another garage. However, the city is not taking similar action.\n“Building a garage doesn’t seem like a way to solve our problems,” Johnson said.\nBuff Brown, president of Bloomington Transportation Options for People and creator of the first survey, wrote letters to then-IU President Adam Herbert and IU trustees asking them not to build another garage during the 2005 negotiations.\n“This will contribute to the depletion of our oil resources, increase IU’s contribution to greenhouse gases and other toxic pollutants, and increase the danger to our city-friendly pedestrian, transit-riding and bicycling citizens,” Brown wrote in the letter to trustees. \nAfter the completion of this garage, Brown said it is time to take productive action with the spaces left.\n“Now that we’ve compacted parking in this parking garage, it’s a great opportunity for the University to develop the efficiency of its surface lots,” Brown said. He said many of the surface lots are located on prime campus real estate, and could be used for campus offices or sold for profit.