The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About02/17/2015 17 Downtown Parking Recommendations UpdateBUSINESS OF THE CITY COUNCIL YAKIMA, WASHINGTON AGENDA STATEMENT Item No. 17. For Meeting of: February 17, 2015 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ITEM TITLE: SUBMITTED BY: SUMMARY EXPLANATION: Update of Downtown Parking Recommendations Sean Hawkins, Economic Development Manager 575-6274 The item includes a memo providing status updates to the short term parking recommendations included in the Carl Walker and Associates Parking Study that were presented to the Yakima City Council on September 11, 2014. Resolution: Ordinance: Other (Specify): Contract: Contract Term: Start Date: End Date: Item Budgeted: Amount: Funding Source/Fiscal Impact: Strategic Priority: Economic Development Insurance Required? No Mail to: Phone: APPROVED FOR SUBMITTAL: RECOMMENDATION: ATTACHMENTS: City Manager Description Upload Date memo parking 2/12/2015 Photos of Employee Parking Lots 2/11/2015 Angled Parking Options 2/11/2015 Costco Parking Diagram 2/11/2015 West Valley Walmart Parking Options 2/11/2015 Employee Parking Lot Map 2/11/2015 Type Cover IMemo Cover Memo Cover Memo Cover Memo Cover Memo Cover Memo Memorandum To: City Manager and Yakima City Council From: Sean Hawkins, Economic Development Manager James Dean, Parking Manager Date: February 12, 2015 Subject: Parking Update Yakima City Council 2.17.2015 The following is a summary of the Carl Walker and Associates Parking Study and the City's efforts to implement their recommendations. Key Findings from Carl Walker and Associates Parking Study • Study area of 29 blocks. Boundaries include Lincoln to the north, Sixth Street to the east, Front Street to the west and Walnut to the south. • Field observations show there is 4,700 parking spaces in the study area. Of this total number, 3,665 spaces are in off street parking facilities, and 1,035 spaces are located on street This number does not include the 1,400 spaces in the former Yakima Mall facility, the 100 spaces in the Dragon Inn Parking Garage or the 140 spaces the City created with the parallel to angled parking conversion project in 2014. • Carl Walker and Associates determined overall parking space demand at 50.4% during the lunch hour which is the busiest time of the day. In other words, at our busiest time of the day, there were stili 2,331 vacant parking spots in our study area. This number does not include the spaces mentioned above in the Yakima Mall facility, the Dragon Inn Garage or the additional 140 on street spaces. • In all 29 blocks studied, only three locations reached 100% capacity during the lunch hour period and in the 6-8 p.m. timeframe during a Friday night survey. Those three blocks were the City -owned Second Street lot, Millennium lot and the lot on the SE corner of 1St and SSgt Pendleton Way. Carl Walker documented turnover in those lots to be anywhere between 2.3 and 2.5 hours and verified that employee parking was causing lack of turnover and challenges to parking availability for retail customers. The following parking recommendations from the Carl Walker report were presented to the City Council at its September 11, 2014 meeting. A status update is included on each item. 1) Recommendation - Finalize Physical Plan to Increase On Street Parking - Status - the City added 140 new spaces in the core of downtown in November 2014. Additionally, we have found that we can add another 35 spaces by converting parallel parking to angled parking on 4th Street between Yakima Avenue and Walnut Street Another 25 spaces could be added using the same conversion on Chestnut Street between 1St Street and Front Street and Front Street between Chestnut Street and Yakima Avenue. 2) Recommendation - Designate Staff Person to Oversee and Manage Parking System - Status - James Dean was appointed Parking Manager by the City Manager in October 2014. On December 1st, 2014, the City's two parking enforcement officers began reporting directly to James which has created better communication to address daily parking issues. James changed the officer schedule to have one officer work until 6:00 p.m. in the evening so enforcement would happen later into the day as opposed to ending at 4:00 p.m. James worked on finding the best parking enforcement system and is recommending changing from Velosum to Passport Parking, Inc. James is also completing a return on investment study on another piece of technology that would allow customers to use their smart phones to see available parking spaces downtown. 3) Recommendation - Revise YMC 9.50 to Make Parking Hour, Loading Zone and Residential Permit Changes an Administrative Decision - Status- Yakima City Council approved this ordinance change at the October 7, 2014 City Council meeting. When striping season begins later this spring, we intend to remove the loading zone in front of the Yakima Train Depot opening three spaces in front of Northtown Coffee and shortening the loading zone on the Yakima Avenue side of the Larson Building opening two to three spots next to Jimmy Johns. All adjoining property owners have signed off on those changes. 4) Recommendation - Revise Time Limits in Three Primary Public Lots to Two Hours to Accommodate Customer Parking Turnover and Create Dedicated Employee Parking Opportunities - Status - This hour change process is ready to take place on approximately March 1, 2015 upon the completion of the parking communication materials. 5) Recommendation - Work with Owners of Existing Private Lots to Allow General Public Parking After Hours - Status - agreements with the private sector are still being developed. 6) Recommendation - Convert Under -used Public Lots into No Time Limit / Free Employee and Residential Parking - Status - This process is ready to take place on March 1, 2015 upon the completion of the parking communication materials. The parking lots scheduled to be converted to eight-hour free employee and residential lots are the following: • Barrel House lot (1st and Yakima) - 64 spaces • Yakima Avenue and S. Front Street lot - 68 spaces • YPAC lot (S. Second Street) - 22 spaces • Probation Parking lot (S 3rd and Walnut) - 78 spaces • On Street E Chestnut between 1st and Front - 25 spaces • All of these spaces are owned by the City of Yakima with the exception of the Front Street lot, which the North Front Street Association leases from Burlington Northern. • This is 257 spaces dedicated to all day, free parking in the downtown district Permits will still be available for those in closer lots for $40 per month plus tax. An attachment to this document shows the walking distances for employees to various key destinations in downtown. 7) Recommendation - Develop Multi -tiered Special Event Parking Plan - Status - once the new director of the Capitol Theatre is established in his position, we intend to work on a series of signage and communication directives to promote the easiest and best places to park for performances. 8) Recommendation - Develop Parking Marketing and Communications Plan - The first piece of the communications plan, an attractive parking map, will be presented at the City Council meeting on February 17tH. Additional Recommendations to Parking System 1. Add Nighttime Security on Friday and Saturday Evenings Year Round - We can add nighttime security throughout downtown Yakima on Fridays and Saturday nights by adding to the Block by Block contract. Block by Block currently performs this service in the Golden Triangle (Washington, DC), the Old Pasadena Management District (Los Angeles) and Downtown Long Beach, California. Adding a 6:00 p.m. - 2:00 a.m. service on both Friday and Saturday nights year round would cost $23,000. Security guards could perform escorts as needed to walk employees to their cars upon completion of their shifts. 2. Lighting Updates to Three City Owned Parking Lots - Three lots that we are proposing for eight-hour employee parking are in need of lighting upgrades. a. YPD Probation (3rd and Walnut) $ 33,000 b. North of YCTV (2nd Street) $ 30,000 c. Barrelhouse Lot (1St Street) $ 65,000 Totals: $128,000 3. Passport Parking Enforcement Security - We recommend terminating the contract with our current parking enforcement software vendor, Velosum, and entering into an agreement with Passport Parking Inc. Passport Parking system includes many significant upgrades that the Velosum system does not offer: • The ability to assign outstanding accounts directly to collections. We currently do not collect on 40-45% of citations that are written by our officers; • Offers the ability for officers to look at an offender's history (write warnings instead of tickets); • Mobile pay service to allow people to pay fines with their credit card. The Passport Parking system has no monthly cost to the City but adds a $3.00 service fee to each collected ticket amount At first, we recommend that the $3.00 fee be deducted from the $20 ticket fee, not added on. The contract with Passport Parking is a month to month service and their service is currently used by 41 municipalities. The only upfront cost to the City would be for two Android phones and two Bluetooth enabled printers. 4. Staff is in discussion with owners of the Yakima Mall Garage and Dragon Inn Garage about leasing additional public parking opportunities once the plaza is under construction to accommodate the 196 spaces being temporarily displaced. Photo Occupancy of Proposed Employee Free Parking Locations Barrel House Lot — February 4, 2015 — 1:15 p.m. Barrel House Lot — February 3, 2015 — 1:45 p.m. Front Street and Yakima Avenue Lot — February 4, 2015 — 1:15 p.m. Front Street and Yakima Avenue Lot — February 3, 2015 — 1:45 p.m. East Chestnut Street between 15t Street and Front Street — February 4, 2015 — 1:15 p.m. East Chestnut Street between 15t Street and Front Street — February 3, 2015 — 1:45 p.m. YPAC Lot — February 4, 2015 — 1:15 p.m. YPAC Lot — February 3, 2015 — 1:45 p.m. Probation Lot — 3rd Street and Walnut — February 4, 2015 — 1:15 p.m. Probation Lot — 3rd Street and Walnut — February 3, 2015 — 1:45 p.m. 0 245 490 980 1,470 Feet 1,960 Angled Parking 25 New Spots 35 New Spots 140 Spots Already Complete s Prepared Februay 6th, 2015 - Yakima GIS/ITS ; 1 ' ; :.:: .all • • • - • Z :Ii.t.,1:e1:::::51 ,.!.i: ../2 . : #515:ggge . i iii .iiki rEi1b /nm-unwr :1:44111 I ' WI AntiLA. IJ I I 0 0 0 180 360 720 1,080 Feet 1,440 Costco Walking Distances Blocks to Walk 1.5 1.7 1.9 Prepared Februay 10th, 2015 - Yakima GIS/ITS 0 220 440 880 1,320 Feet 1,760 West Valley Walmart Walking Distances Blocks to Walk 1.1 1.4 1.8 Prepared Februay 10th, 2015 - Yakima GIS/ITS All Day Free Employee Parking 0 220 440 880 1,320 Feet 1,760 Barrell House Parking Lot (64 spots) City Owned 1.7 blocks to Second Street Grill 2.0 blocks to Larson Building/Cowiche Kitchen 2.7 blocks to Olive Garden 3.4 blocks to Capitol Theatre Front Street Parking Lot (68 spots) Lease By North Front Street Association 2.3 blocks to Larson Building/Cowiche Kitchen 3.0 blocks to Olive Garden 3.1 blocks to Second Street Grill Chestnut On Street Parking (24 spots) City Owned 2.1 blocks to Larson Building/Cowiche Kitchen 2.9 blocks to Capitol Theatre 3.2 blocks to Olive Garden YPAC Parking Lot (22 spots) City Owned 1.7 blocks to Larson Building/Cowiche Kitchen 2.5 blocks to Capitol Theater 2.7 blocks to Olive Garden Probation Parking Lot (78 spots) City Owned 2.2 blocks to Capitol Theater 2.8 blocks to Olive Garden 3.6 blocks to Larson Building/Cowiche Kitchen *Blocks based on 440 foot average length N S Prepared Februay 6th, 2015 - Yakima GIS/ITS