Downtown Parking

[Southron]

The results of a downtown parking management study are available on the Downtown Mobile Alliance website. The study, prepared by Urban Place Consulting Group, Inc. and Downtown Parking & Planning Associates, LLC for the Downtown Mobile Alliance, recommends professional management of downtown parking (both on and off street) using one of three options:

[*]the City develop staff resources internally and re-align parking responsibilities within the traffic engineering department

[*]create a semi-autonomous public Parking Authority

[*]partner with the Downtown Mobile Alliance to develop a

[Southron]

Today's Press-Register includes an article about downtown parking, and what some perceive as a parking shortage. According to the article, the new RSA Battle House Tower parking deck is for business tenants only, and RSA leased the city deck on Water St. for hotel guests. Regions Bank is moving staff from three other buildings into the RSA Battle House Tower, and bank executives, along with other downtown executives, are concerned that there won't be enough spaces available in the area with hotel guests using the city deck.

Elizabeth Sanders of the Downtown Mobile Alliance made the point that there is no parking shortage -- people just don't like to walk several blocks to get from their car to their office, and they don't like to pay to park.

Downtown parking: Is there really a shortage?

Downtown Mobile is littered with hideous surface parking lots -- there definitely is no shortage of spaces. The city should aggressively build strategically located parking decks (wrapped with ground floor commercial space and maybe topped with condos or office space) around downtown to provide sufficient parking in all areas and remove the need for any surface parking lots. Surface lot owners should be given the clear message that their days are numbered.

[elb401]

I think that makes us look really lazy! I like your idea. sounds good.

[Southron]

Mobile could create between 120 and 150 new on-street parking spaces downtown by reclaiming unused loading zones and making some parallel spaces diagonal, according to Steve Gibson of Long Beach, CA-based Urban Place Consulting Group. Adding the 120-150 on-street spaces would cost nothing more than the paint needed to re-stripe them. If the city were to build a parking deck, the spaces would cost $18-20,000 each.

Consultant finds more parking

[Southron]

The Mayor's Parking Working Group is continuing to work on recommendations for downtown parking, and should have them fine-tuned within a few weeks. Details in the links below.

Downtown Mobile Alliance

Parking Memorandum of Understanding