Parking Advisory Board seeks volunteers for public-private parking partnership planning

The Parking Advisory Board is going to hold approximately three stakeholder group meetings beginning in late October to discuss how we might be able to enter into a public-private parking partnership with a developer. Consensus will need to be about whether or not more parking supply is needed and who will pay for it. If and when the next opportunity in downtown Kirkland becomes available, the board wants the City to be prepared to enter into a potential partnership.

The Parking Advisory Board would like a few residents in and around the downtown who would like to volunteer to be apart of this meeting group.

The Moss Bay Neighborhood Association has published the minutes to their September 21 meeting which includes some interesting information. One item of interest to the neighborhood is of course, downtown parking. Ken Dueker, from the Parking Advisory Board (PAB), spoke about that group’s efforts:

Parking Solver 101 hosted by Moss Bay Neighborhood Association

1. Kirkland will temporarily lose 40 on-street parking spaces on Park Lane between Main and Third (where the Farmer’s Market used to be held) for about three years during reconstruction of the transit center and the Metro sewer pump station. To replace these, the City is negotiating to lease the parking lot at the Antique Mall and operate it as a public parking lot. The cost will be $1 per hour from 9 AM to 9 PM.

2. The PAB is asking for volunteers to serve on a stakeholders committee to prepare a contingency finance plan to incorporate an extra floor of public parking into one or more new developments. The last stakeholder committee decided not to recommend a new stand-alone parking structure, but to partner with developers and build smaller amounts of parking in more locations. The City needs to have its financial plan ready when developers are ready. The Parking Solver 101 flyer has info on how to get involved.

3. ParkSmart is a program that prohibits employees from parking in downtown public parking spaces and encourages them to park in the Library garage. It was designed by downtown merchants to make parking available for customers and it is administered by the City. The PAB will work with merchants to renew their ownership and support of the program to make it more effective.

4. The PAB is preparing a recommendation to the Planning Commission to reduce the parking requirements under zoning in downtown to make redevelopment more feasible. The existing parking requirements are designed for suburban developments that are strictly auto oriented and are single use in character. Although reducing parking requirements seems counterproductive, well managed and shared parking requires less parking.

The Moss Bay Neighborhood Association meeting minutes are an outstanding asset to not only their community, but to citizens from other neighborhoods as well.

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