City officials will have to wait a little longer to request new recommendations for downtown parking.
The Columbus Parking Commission was briefed Wednesday by Nelson/Nygaard regarding progress on an updated parking study but was unable to vote on moving forward with the next step due to a lack of quorum.
The parking commission had hoped to vote on authorizing the firm to make updated recommendations on downtown parking. Following a presentation by Project Manager Tom Brown, the board tentatively scheduled their next meeting for 2:15 p.m. April 14. They would then seek approval on the matter from the Columbus Redevelopment Commission at its April 18 meeting.
Nelson/Nygaard is conducting an update to its previous downtown parking study at the request of the parking commission. However, due to the commission’s inability to contract or receive funds, the work is being funded through a $19,470 grant from the redevelopment commission to the Columbus Board of Works, with the latter serving as the contracting entity.
According to city documents, the original 2013 study cost almost $85,000 and was also funded by the redevelopment commission.
Brown said that for the update, the initial project startup and coordination phase included coordinating with city officials, looking over background documents and reviewing 2022 parking counts.
City Engineer and Executive Director of Public Works Dave Hayward led a series of parking counts on weekdays, replicating work done by the firm in 2013.
“Demand is clearly down compared to 2013 counts, and presumably compared to pre-COVID norms,” Brown said in his presentation.
He added that the higher demand on secondary streets in 2022 counts indicates that downtown employees and commuters have probably moved into a “demand vacuum” created by reduced visitor traffic.
“The blocks with more generous time limits start to fill up,” said Brown. “And I’m guessing that during COVID, the lack of visitor demand on-street — and I’ve seen this in other cities — employees start to park on those blocks. Because the usual messaging of, ‘Let’s save those spaces for visitors’ — well, the visitors aren’t there.”
However, Washington Street was not as packed as in the 2013 study and is seeing fewer spaces taken by commuters, which Brown said is likely the result of greater enforcement there than in other areas. He added that it’s probably still seen as a place to leave for visitors.
At the time of the 2022 counts, Cummins, Inc. had not yet reopened its offices, meaning that the results still reflect a time impacted by the pandemic, he said.
The company was scheduled to reopen its Indiana offices Monday.
Cummins employs about 8,000 people in the Columbus area and has several offices in downtown Columbus, including its corporate headquarters, which can accommodate around 1,000 workers.
“I think it’ll be interesting to watch the next two to four weeks, as Cummins calls people back, to see just what happens to our situation,” said Hayward.
The firm’s second step, following project start-up and coordination, was stakeholder engagement. This has included communicating with city staff, commission officials and downtown stakeholders.
“We held a series of focus groups — I think we ended up doing three of these — with downtown stakeholders,” said Brown. “Primarily business owners. This was a task that we added specifically to understand what has changed not only since 2013 but also during COVID, to make sure that we weren’t ignoring the fact that things have been very different for the last two years, but to also get a sense of what the new normal might look like and what today’s pressing needs are, as well as looking into the future and comparing that to 2013.”
The firm also developed an online invite-only survey with questions similar to the ones asked of focus group members, and there were about 25 respondents. Their feedback that matched the focus group results.
According to Brown’s presentation, results were mixed on the 2013 recommendation of pricing on-street parking to improve availability. Approximately 35% of those surveyed did not support the idea and roughly the same percentage favored it — with about 30% supporting it and 5% “strongly” supporting it. A little under 10% weren’t sure, and close to 20% suggested other options.
There was strong support for the idea of having a credit card payment option if parking was priced, with about 70% of respondents in favor. A mobile payment option was also supported, and the idea of kiosks rather than meters was popular as well.
A little under 50% of respondents supported the idea of having progressive rates rather than time limits.
“Instead of, say, a two-hour time limit, maybe the parking just gets more expensive in that third hour,” Brown explained. “…It’s not often done, but it can be an effective message, again, to folks that, ‘Hey, we got rid of time. We’re charging you for parking, but there’s no time limit. You can stay as long as you want, but it will get more expensive the longer you stay.’”
Survey respondents were positive when it came to the recommendation of providing more wayfinding signage; a little over 55% supported it and about 20% strongly supported it. Bicycle, pedestrian and transit improvements were also well-received.
The final two tasks included in Nelson/Nygaard’s scope of work are to provide updated recommendations and “meter procurement guidance.”
City officials have said in the past that they could decide at the end of each phase if they were ready to move forward to the next. If, at any time, the officials decided not to continue, the remaining funds for the project would return to the redevelopment commission.
Hayward said that the parking commission needs to check in with redevelopment before moving on to the next step. He would then hope to get their approval in June to move forward with the final step of meter procurement guidance.
