Could Bend scrap free parking in Mirror Pond lots?

Some dramatic changes could be coming to downtown Bend’s parking, such as eliminating two-hour free parking at the Mirror Pond public lots and the Centennial Plaza parking garage, if a set of strategies proposed by consultants gain support in coming months.

The Downtown Stakeholder Advisory Committee was meeting Thursday evening to review the draft “initial strategy considerations” from Rick Williams Consulting, hired by the city for an evaluation of the downtown parking system and to develop a strategic plan, working with Kittleson & Associates and Anne Gorge Facilitation.

The consultants have spent recent months reviewing existing parking operations and previous study findings, as well as public engagement/outreach and data collection.

“The consultant believes these recommended strategies respond to the unique environment, goals and objectives of downtown Bend,” the draft report said.

It noted that “summer is definitely the peak season” for downtown vehicles, up nearly 13 percent from spring. There’s little difference in parking behavior between the two seasons, by employees or visitors.

Parking is “very constrained” in the downtown core, but not so much on the under-utilized east side of the downtown, so “the idea of management by parking zone may make sense,” the consultants said. Still, they said, “the off-street system still has a meaningful amount of unused parking, particularly in the parking garage.”

“New systems need to be implemented to direct intended users into available supplies,” they added.

The consultants also recommended the city “centralize parking management” and create and hire a downtown parking manager/coordinator, and look at more data collection “to measure parking impacts in select neighborhoods adjacent to the downtown, as well as costs/feasibilities of neighborhood area permit programs.” The city also needs a policy for adjusting rates for on- and off-street parking, they said.

The consultants suggest the city “attrition” the number of two-hour parking spots and look at establishing two parking management zones, keeping the base standard at two-hour free parking in the “core zone” and three-hour parking in the zone to the east, where limited employee permit parking could be allowed.

The report also suggests the city “consider eliminating first two hours free at Mirror Pond lots” and “implement progressive hourly parking (very low first two hours, increasing each additional hour).”

The consultants also said the city needs to standardize the design of on-street parking signage and should consider expanding a bike parking network, such as bike lanes, on-sidewalk bike parking and bike corrals, in street or public/private plazas.” They said that could “create connections between parking and the downtown to encourage employee bike commute trips and draw customers to downtown businesses.”

They also recommend evaluating on-street pricing for parking in high-occupancy areas, and the idea of “eliminating free parking in the public garage, moving to progressive-rate pricing for all hours of parking (e.g. hourly rates, evening, weekend, overnight and event rates.)

The consultants also urge the city to identify possible new parking sites, both downtown and remote, with improved shuttle/circulator connections.

They conclude by noting the city and committee could rearrange, speed up or choose from among the strategies “depending on community support and consensus, opportunity and/or funding.”