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Downtown Parking Strategy and Implementation Plan—Public Comments ATTACH 1V!E N !! 3 Pleasanton Planning Commission Re Downtown Parking Strategy March 8, 2017 Page 2 When the increased supply of parking consists of public parking spaces,then those spaces are worth at least 50% more than parking spaces in private lots because they turn over throughout the day meeting the different peak demands of different businesses. More public parking allows greater building intensity and vitality. Micromanagement of scarce parking often has unintended consequences. The#2 recommendation is"Enhanced Time Restrictions(Strategy 1.4.1). The recommender of that strategy may be unaware we had a two hour restriction (rather the three hour restriction)on downtown parking until several years back. A frequent complaint of retail merchants was that customers browsing in their stores before or after a lunch or meeting would feel forced to stop browsing because their two hours of parking was about up. Three hours is the sweet spot that allows lunch customers and visitors to hang around downtown, but prevents all day employees from taking the close in parking spaces. Increased Surface Parking I agree with Strategy 7(Identify Opportunity Sites for Surface Parking). Here the problem is with implementation. Several sites, including the Humane Society lot on Spring Street, have come up for sale in recent years,and not been purchased by the City to build public parking lots. The Chamber of Commerce in its recommendation to City Council on priorities for the year got closer to the activist strategy needed: "Commit fiends to acquire key properties over time that will expand and improve access to public parking in the north, central and south segments of 11/lain Street near Peters Avenue and implement in 2018 as per the Downtown Parking Study" (underlining added)Those committed funds need to be accompanied by an executive City employee who is empowered to make timely offers for properties that come on the market which could provide functional surface parking lots. Parking Garage and In Lieu Parking Options Successful downtowns like Walnut Creek, Livermore, Campbell,and Davis almost always have parking garages because of the increased building intensity and vitality enabled when parking is concentrated rather than spread piecemeal lot by lot throughout a downtown. One of the most useful pieces of information in the Parking Study is the costing out of parking garage alternatives at p. 51. One option not costed out for the Bank of America lot alternatives is a three story above ground parking garage. That option can be readily created using the math provided in the study. A three story above ground parking garage on the Bank of America lot could be built(at$22,820 per space)to provide 289 parking spaces(211 net new spaces)at a cost of$6,594,980. The cost per net new Provided to Planning Commission for March 8,2017 Meeting and City Council for April 18,2017 Meeting 8