Re: Cherry Street Parking Plan

[Limabean]

Councilor Gomez is getting ready to announce the Cherry Street Parking Plan.

There was a rumor about building a parking garage near Cherry Street, is this the Cherry Street Parking Plan?

Did Councilor Gomez create the plan?

[SXSW]

A second level parking deck over the big lot in front of Jason's Deli and Chimi's would be a nice improvement and maybe spur redevelopment of the A&W/Long John Silvers.  That site has too much potential with its view of downtown to be a fast food drive-thru.  I still think that would be a perfect location for a Marshall brewpub/restaurant with a rooftop patio.

[OpenYourEyesTulsa]

I hope it is a free parking garage.  Make the businesses cover the cost.

I hate that A&W/Long John Silvers and the McDonalds.  I agree, tear them down.

[Nik]

I still think that would be a perfect location for a Marshall brewpub/restaurant with a rooftop patio.

I could be wrong, but I believe current Oklahoma law would require the beer to be low point, which I don't know if Marshall's is willing to do.

[Townsend]

I could be wrong, but I believe current Oklahoma law would require the beer to be low point, which I don't know if Marshall's is willing to do.

Man, every day I have another reason to want ABLE to go away.

[Conan71]

I hope it is a free parking garage.  Make the businesses cover the cost.

You're funny.  And who will pay the businesses to cover the cost?

[Cats Cats Cats]

You're funny.  And who will pay the businesses to cover the cost?

Fine then..

Make all the businesses I don't go to cover the cost.

[Conan71]

Fine then..

Make all the businesses I don't go to cover the cost.

+1

[OpenYourEyesTulsa]

The other alternative is to charge for parking or have the city pay for it or both.  I won't go anywhere in Tulsa if I have to pay for parking.

[brianh]

I hope it is a free parking garage.  Make the businesses cover the cost.

I hate that A&W/Long John Silvers and the McDonalds.  I agree, tear them down.

That McDonalds I bet makes more money than all the businesses around the area combined. I get my coffee there every morning, and it is substantially better than Starbucks. Maybe if they open a second Shades of Brown there and lower their prices for a giant coffee to about $1.50.

Why not just set up a Marshall's pub instead of a brewpub, but call it a Brewpub on the sign? That location is only like a mile and a half away from the brewery.

[nathanm]

I won't go anywhere in Tulsa if I have to pay for parking.

Close your mind much?

[MichaelBates]

I don't know what Gomez has in mind, but here's what I suggested a month or so ago:

If Cherry Street merchants would pull together, they could work out a solution that would meet the needs of merchants, customers and neighbors alike.

The solution I have in mind would respect the property rights of existing parking lot owners and would avoid eroding the neighborhood with more parking lots. My solution would require a minimal amount of government involvement and a willingness on the part of the merchants each to pony up a small amount of money (less than it would cost them individually to acquire more land for parking).

The solution is to create a business improvement district. Collecting the funds to provide shared facilities for a group of adjacent properties is exactly the sort of situation that an improvement district is meant to address.

The improvement district would cover property owners along Cherry Street, each of whom would pay an assessment proportionate to the degree of benefit from the district's improvements. The formula could be based on frontage, square footage, the number of parking spaces required by the zoning code, or some combination of those factors.

Assessment funds would be used to pay the owners of existing parking lots to open their parking spaces for the general use of customers of any merchant on Cherry Street. Lease payments could be based on the number of spaces and how many hours the spaces are available for general parking.

One lot owner might choose to make more money by allowing wide-open parking at any time. Another owner might choose to forgo some lease revenue, reserving her spaces during her peak business hours. Some lot owners would choose not to participate at all and would miss out on using their empty parking lot to generate some extra money.

The more spaces you make available, the more hours you allow open parking in your lot, the more lease money you'd receive from the improvement district.

As a purely hypothetical example, a school might allow open parking except when the space is needed during the school day or for special events. The school could use parking revenues to fund special school projects.

Assessment revenue could also be used to pay for a few security guards to walk a beat on busy evenings, deterring vandalism and other kinds of misbehavior in the parking lots.

As a further incentive, the City Council could cut the required number of parking spaces for properties in improvement districts that provide shared parking.

Of course, the simplest and least bureaucratic solution for all concerned would be for the city to reduce off-street parking requirements to a reasonable level and for property owners to be more easy-going and open-handed about who parks where.

[OurTulsa]

I've heard a rumor that there is going to be redesign of Cherry St. to include angled parking and permanent reduction of the travel lanes to two.  If so, I say meter every one of those on-street parking spaces and charge market rates from lunch time until after dinner (these are premium spaces after all).  The revenue can be pumped back into the maintenance of Cherry St. 

I like the Business Improvement District idea.  Why not use the revenue to build (or partner with Tulsa Parking Authority) a parking structure behind the Colonial Building, in front of Jason's Deli, in place of the car wash and the empty lot behind it, or beside Christ the King and eliminate the parking requirement on Cherry St.  No parking requirement will allow the business/property owner alot more flexibility (value) with their property (zoning would still keep bars 300 ft. from each other) to build up or maximize their current buildings.

Parking in a new structure should cost something, even if just a dollar into an automated gate.  If it's built on Cherry St. it should include small storefronts.  The storefronts can help pay for the structure. 

[Red Arrow]

Pay parking is much like pay toilets.

[cannon_fodder]

Pay parking is much like pay toilets.

You'll just go behind a dumpster or did you mean the bums will use them as campers?

Pay parking is a good way to pay for the service (property is not free) and allocate a limited resource (in urban neighborhoods, it should be a limited resource).