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Beaudin: It sure is, and what we'll talk a little about that is as a management strategy when we get into it. There are a lot of communities that have employee permit parking and we have not identified permit parking lots or have gone down that path yet. What we've done is ask the PDA because that lot and the Firehouse Arts Center lot are fairly under - utilized as parking locations. So we've asked the PDA to help or to remind and help their downtown business owners, especially employees, to use those lots if at all possible. It really hasn't taken off but we can talk more about that and how we need to put some emphasis on strategies. Parking demand is a really good thing for downtown commercial districts. When you have people complaining about parking it means there are a lot of people in your downtown, especially in one like ours where there's over 3,100 public and private parking spaces available, so when people are telling us that they feel like there's not enough parking spaces I think that's a good thing. I think what you'll find and what our data shows is there's a demand for key locations for parking and a lot of our parking spaces are towards the edges or maybe not as obvious or not well -used. Our specific plan does dictate the kinds of parking requirements that come with development in downtown and we all know we're just about to get started with a specific plan update. We've acknowledged that some of these requirements may be out of date or at least need to be looked at again, so we'll do that as part of the specific plan update. Also, like I mentioned, the confusion between public and private parking lots, is something that we want to look at. So, here are study areas, the area outlined in red is the entire Downtown Specific Plan boundary area; the area in blue is the parking management plan, it's our area of influence essentially; and the area in black is the area we really focused on, it's kind of the heart of downtown, the commercial area where we hear the most concerns about parking. Commissioner Balch: This is the best slide right here Chair Ritter: It tells you where to park. Beaudin: It does tell you where to park. That's a very good point. So on street parking is functionally at or over capacity. And over capacity in parking terms, in peak times, means 85 percent occupied. What that means is you're always looking for 15 percent to be available and the turn -over that comes with that. Main Street often exceeds 90 percent capacity. We see vehicles circling, its not good for visitors that come to downtown, or for air quality, there's a whole host of problems, but the main thing is it causes frustration and people will not come downtown as often. We want to make sure people know there are spots available such as in the Firehouse Arts lot or St. Mary's Street lot. St. Mary's Street is a great example, it's not shown here because when we did this study it didn't exist, but that is a lot that's often vacant, 100 percent vacant at this point in time. The only time we see it really occupied is Barone's Thursdays. Please take note of that, it's on St. Mary's close to the railroad track. Commissioner O'Connor: How many of the prime parking spaces are taken up by employees who aren't going to the lots? Beaudin: So the anecdotes are out there and it's certainly a concern both for PDA, for staff, and for some business owners. And you can see it, it'll often be the same car PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, August 24, 2016 Page 21 of 39