Angling for better parking downtown

Downtown residents, business owners, employees or visitors who park in downtown Vancouver are welcome to take the city’s downtown parking customer satisfaction survey. A link to the survey is at www.cityofvancouver.us/parking. The survey will close on Nov. 1. The new guide to employee parking options in downtown is available from Destination Downtown at www.MyDestinationDowntown.com

Michael Lary and his business partners gave plenty of thought to where they wanted to locate their business, The Source Climbing Center, in 2011. They landed at 1118 Main St. in the heart of the downtown business district, bringing about 10 employees and 100 to 150 daily visitors, most of whom arrive by car, into the downtown mix.

Lary, the center’s co-owner, says the location works for the gym because climbing is a social activity, and downtown offers places to meet for meals, drinks and conversation. Even with the limited parking that comes with an urban site without its own parking, he said, The Source offers better parking availability and less congestion than its competitors in Portland. Locating in downtown Vancouver, Lary said, is “one of the best decisions we made.” His challenge, Lary says, is to convince his employees not to park in prime on-street parking spots that should go to customers.

Downtown’s position as the only business district in Clark County where visitors must pay for on- and off-street parking creates unique competitive challenges for its retailers and restaurateurs. And while city officials and downtown business boosters emphasize that the district has no shortage of parking spaces to meet today’s demand, they say that now’s the time to take steps to manage parking effectively before parking problems put a damper on businesses and visitors.

That’s a nuts-and-bolts challenge for the city, Vancouver’s Downtown Association and the Destination Downtown commute options program. They are responding with a new brochure for business owners to educate them about employee parking locations and parking management programs. Representatives from the city and the downtown association say they hope other businesses will follow Lary’s lead in educating employees to park away from storefronts, leaving those valuable spaces for customers, or even get to work without driving.

At a larger level, downtown boosters want to assure visitors that parking is available and affordable, even as the district becomes increasingly popular with downtown events and new places to gather. At the same time, they’re hoping to keep parking issues from becoming a deterrent to downtown’s growth. That requires a willingness of Clark County residents to accept some parking challenges and local congestion as part and parcel of a successful downtown, Lee Rafferty, executive director of Vancouver’s Downtown Association, said.

“We see congestion and demand for parking as a healthy sign,” Rafferty said. “People are coming downtown and enjoying downtown.”

The city last week launched an online customer satisfaction survey that solicits public opinion about parking availability and costs, and asks policy questions such as whether the city should build parking structures or privatize existing city-owned off-street parking. The survey continues until Nov. 1. The city will use the results to update its policies and make decisions about the city’s role in downtown parking.

The city collects $600,000 from meters and $650,000 from off-street parking per year, which is enough to cover operations but not enough for debt service on its parking garages.

The Destination Vancouver program, with funding from the city of Vancouver, is pressing the point that business owners need to recognize the economic value of on-street parking spaces. Its analysis, based on interviews with 30 downtown businesses, is that each occupied street space can generate potential retail sales of $176 per day. That figure is based on an average retail transaction of $31.55 per customer and a daily turnover in parking spaces of 5.5 vehicles per day.

Destination Downtown’s goal is to provide enticements for downtown commuters to get to work by foot, bike or public transit, even if only once in a while. It offers incentives for commutes to avoid solo travel by car to downtown jobs, including a free 30-day carpool parking permit and discounted transit passes.

Rick Williams, a Portland parking consultant who assisted with the city’s 2011 study, said it isn’t easy to balance parking supply, price and other transportation options when developing a parking policy. “The city’s job is to make sure we are building a downtown that it inviting and accessible,” Williams said Thursday at a breakfast meeting hosted by Vancouver’s Downtown Association. The goal, he said, is to make downtown attractive enough to fill every parking space. “If you don’t have a parking problem, you have a problem,” he said.

“What I have learned is that sometimes we get too focused on parking,” Williams said. “Let’s get better control over parking, so we all agree on where people should park. But I think people are going to come downtown more and more because the product is getting better.”