The Terrace Downtown Parking Study final results recommend ensuring vehicle turnover so businesses can see more customers, increasing short-term parking time limits and identifying appropriate long term parking locations.
High priority actions that can be implemented in the short term include increasing parking enforcement in high-demand locations to promote turnover so people don’t park longer than allowed.
That’s because businesses are dependent on parking turnover so customers have access to the business.
The second high priority task is to increase short-term parking to at least two hours because one hour is not long enough for tasks, such as going to a doctor’s appointment or an appointment with the hair stylist.
“You don’t want to get a ticket because your appointment ran over [time],” said MMM Group manager transportation planning Floris van Weelderen, who conducted the parking study.
The financial implications of the first two high priorities would be costs for administrative and staff time.
Third on the high prioirity list is to have proper sign maintenance. For example, some signs are missing so it’s not clear where short term and long term parking is located, said van Weelderen.
“We recommend a sign maintenance policy be implemented,” he said, adding that means having an inventory of where signs were located and which ones need to be replaced.
Fourth on the list is to review on-street parking to ensure short-term and long-term places are where they are needed, added van Weelderen.
These third and fourth prioirities would have financial implications of costs for administrative, staff time and some capital costs.
Also on the list is a street design concept plan, which would require budgeting and planning costs.
Medium term plans include enhancing active tranportation facilities, such as bike racks and lockers, to encourage other forms of transportation; using cash in-lieu funds to provide transportation infrastructure to support walking, cycling, public transit or other alternative forms of transporation; improving parking enforcement to improve collection rates, revenue and customer service; and re-evaluate the need for an off-street public parking facility outside of the downtown core to be ready for changes in the future as the city grows.
