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Parking takes center stage in downtown debate
11% Pay for parking at workplace 19% Park for free at workplace
P
alo Alto residents and council members routinely lament downtown’s worsening parking crisis, but a new study indicates that the area actually has enough spots to accommodate the recent surge in office development. This conclusion, however, comes with a caveat: Downtown’s parking supply is only sufficient if the residential neighborhoods surrounding the commercial core are willing to share the free parking on their blocks with commuters. From the city’s perspective, that’s a significant sticking point. At Wednesday night’s review of the new Downtown Cap study — an in-depth analysis performed by the firm Dyett & Bhatia Urban and Regional Planners that aims to measure downtown’s capacity for further development — several Planning and Transportation Commission members made it clear that the current situation, with downtown commuters filling up residential
address not just new supply but better management of existing facilities,” the study states. “The overall parking supply is sufficient to meet demand, if the community accepts that many downtown employees park for free on neighborhood streets.” Just about everyone agreed on Wednesday that that’s a big “if.” Michael Griffin, a Downtown North resident and former planning commissioner, made it clear the neighborhood has no intention of accepting any such thing. “I think it goes without saying that it is not acceptable to the community,” Griffin said. Commissioner Michael Alcheck agreed and called downtown parking a “complex problem.” “I’ve been a very strong advocate of exploring parking-permit ideas, and I don’t necessarily accept this notion that residents in our downtown neighborhoods have to fight hard to be able to park in front of their homes,” Alcheck said.
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New study shows commuters increasingly relying on public transit by Gennady Sheyner blocks during business hours, is unacceptable. That has also been the position of downtown residents and of the City Council, which earlier this year directed staff to design a permit program that would set time limits for cars parking on neighborhood streets. The city is also looking to launch new shuttles, start a program that would encourage auto commuters to take other modes of transportation, and build new garages. But the new study suggests the parking crisis isn’t so much a problem of supply as one of preference. The study, which is being conducted in phases, stresses that downtown’s existing garages remain underused. The area’s offstreet facilities, the study states, are “below full capacity at peak periods, with garages overall and permit spaces in particular showing significant vacancies.” There are also some blocks “with a few open spaces available.” “In short, the city could improve parking with strategies that
35% Park on street
How Palo Altans who are employed downtown get to work
Where downtown workers park 30% Park in public lots, garages 30% Take public transportation 9% Walk
48% Drive solo
The commission’s discussion focused on the first phase of the Downtown Cap study, which is required by a 1986 law that set a limit on non-residential downtown development at 350,000 additional square feet and required the city to conduct an analysis when growth reaches 235,000 square feet. The city recently cleared the latter threshold, having added about 252,000 square feet of non-residential development downtown. Even with the strong growth, parking supply remains adequate, said Sophie Martin, an associate
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principal at Dyett & Bhatia. She noted, however, that the parking spaces “aren’t necessarily where people want to be.” “And we can only really say the supply is adequate to meet demand if we say it’s OK that employees in downtown park in adjacent neighborhoods,” Martin said. “Without the adjacent neighborhood parking, we start to run into supply issues.” According to the study, downtown has seen a gradual increase, though activity has “accelerated V Ì Õi`Ê Ê«>}iÊ£È)
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