Results In From City Meeting About Downtown Parking

Information submitted by City of Livermore—

On Tuesday, March 25th, at the Vine Theater, the City of Livermore held a public workshop on downtown parking. Attendance was limited but residents and businesses were equally represented. 

The City’s Consultant, Nelson Nygaard, presented information on both existing and projected parking conditions in the downtown area. There are approximately 5,200 parking spaces within the study area, however; 2,400 of those are privately owned and operated. 

Parking counts indicate that the downtown area generally has adequate parking. However, during peak periods (weekday lunch hour and weekend evenings) parking on First Street and in the Livermore Village lots are at capacity, while less convenient on-street parking, private lots and the City Railroad Avenue garage are underutilized.  

In the near to mid-term, continued revitalization of the Downtown will result in the need to replace and increase available parking supply. Field reviews and customer surveys also indicated that directional signage to parking was limited and time limitations were complicated and should be simplified.   

The Consultant introduced numerous strategies that could be considered to help increase available supply, manage parking demand, encourage better parking practices, and finance new parking facilities. 

After a brief explanation of each strategy and its possible benefits and challenges, participants were polled to determine the level of general support for each strategy. The polling was followed by a question and answer period. Comments included concerns for pedestrian safety at the Railroad Parking Garage entry, and adequacy of existing disabled parking. Participants also voiced opinions on who should be responsible for providing parking, which ranged from the City, to developers, businesses, and the user.    

A copy of the presentation and an on-line poll on the strategies is available at www.ParkDTL.com.  Participation in the on-line polling will be available through April 18, 2014.