Excuse me.

I'm going to call to order this work session of the Forest Grove City Council.

The date is April 13th.

The topic is historic downtown design standards and guidelines.

Just a reminder: no public comment will be taken, and the council will take no formal action.

And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Jesse.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council.

So this work session is really intended to allow City Council an opportunity to comment on our historic guidelines and standards before we get started in this process.

As Kim and Matt will take you through the presentation and also through the work session, we'll introduce the consultant, introduce kind of the scope of the project that's before us.

But before we get started, if there was any kind of overarching kind of guardrails that the council may or may not have pertaining to this particular effort, we would love to hear from you about that.

We had a previous work session, kind of just explaining what historic uh design guidelines and standards were and the difference between standards and guidelines.

We'll do a little bit of recapping about that.

But um other than that, um thank you, Mayor, and I'd like to turn it over to Kim and Matt.

Cool.

All right, thank you, Gen C Council Matt Johnson Senior Planner, Robert Dortnet.

Next to me, historic architect.

Um I'll give him a more formal proper introduction here in a moment.

We'll go ahead and go to the next slide.

So here's what we're we'll be talking about today.

Uh we'll connect it to the Vision 2040 plan, uh, describe a purpose, uh, do a whole timeline uh creation from the district to where we are now, uh, introduce Robert, um, give you another little bit of project background, because I know it's been about a year since we last talked about this.

Um scope of work, um, uh what Robert will be producing for us and how it will be applied, um, and then we'll invite your discussion.

Okay, so within the vision 2040 plan, uh the goal statement economy very much applies uh the outcome to revitalize downtown and foster community identity and sense of place uh actions that it contributes to increase volume and diversity of commercial business development, encourage and attract more events downtown to promote traffic, and of course, explore exterior and architectural design standards to create that visual identity.

So our purpose again today is to uh discuss the process, our our timing and expectations of the development of these standards and guidelines for our downtown historic district.

Let's go ahead and get started on this timeline.

And next slide, please.

Thank you.

All right, so this is uh been a long time in the making.

Uh so this all started in 2017 when city council adopted the city's historic preservation plan.

Part of that preservation plan was to explore the creation of a downtown district.

Um the first steps in establishing that district were to identify and evaluate uh historic resources uh to our downtown.

Um the city completed an updated historic survey, uh part of the original town plat, um, accompanied by a contextual statement that basically details all the the character of Forest Grove.

Um the consultant that was hired to prepare those updates was also directed to find out you know what's the what's the best boundaries for our district.

Three years later, um city council recommended the nomination of the districts in early 2020, and then uh it was sent to the state and was officially recognized as a national historic district um in October, late October 2020.

And then in 2023, council officially adds the downtown historic district into our city's comprehensive plan.

And just last year, around this time, staff secured a grant from the state preservation office, now Oregon Heritage, to create these standards and guidelines to accompany our national historic district downtown.

Um shortly thereafter, we held the work session with council and the HLB describing what this is.

The winter we found Robert uh who will draft our standards and guidelines for the districts.

Slide please.

And so this is Mr.

Mr.

Dortney.

This is uh Robert has very long career.

These are just a few things that are specifically applicable to the work that he's doing here in Forest Grove.

He was the one that actually created the standards and guidelines for all three of our residential districts.

I believe that's 2016.

2014, time flies.

So in addition to his work that he's done here, specific in Forest Grove, he's also created design guidelines for Oregon City.

And he's worked with the city of Independent Independence to combine their work guidelines with the commercial and residential.

As a conservator for the American Institute for Conservation, he prepared architectural condition reports for the Hoover Minthorne Historic Museum and Property in Newburgh, and also for the Troutdale Historic Society properties.

And lastly, he prepared preservation ports projects and consultations for Fort Dells, the Salem Pioneer Cemetery, the Willamette Heritage Center, Jason Lee House, Deepwood State Patrol Garden, and he's continuously involved with ongoing work for the Portland's Water Bureau, Washington Park Historic District, and Mount Tabor.

Welcome, Robert.

Residential guide resident control guidelines.

Two terms, we had a field trip.

And Michelle Dennis was working with you or had worked in some of that at that time, the concrete houses and so forth.

So that's a nice uh field trip way back when.

So happy to be back and help out.

Thank you.

All right.

So where we are today and looking ahead.

Um, Robert's scope of work includes reviewing all of those supporting documents from the creation of the historic district.

So when that was nominated, all those historic surveys uh and and documents supporting that nomination is what he's using to create those standards and guidelines.

Uh and an initial draft of these historic standards and guidelines must be reviewed by the state preservation office before the end of the project's funding grant cycle.

So by the end of July 2026.

Um the purpose of the state's review is to ensure that it meets the federal guidelines, the Department of Interior for the rehabilitation rehabilitation standards.

So things like preservation, rehabilitation, uh reconstruction.

There's a fourth component there, but those basic federal guidelines on what your historic regulations need to be is what we need to have a very bare draft um green lit by the state.

So we are working with uh uh Joy Sears.

She's our um she's the one coordinating our grant and our work.

She's going expecting a draft from us uh the beginning of June to start that process.

So once she confirms that the basic framework and the draft that we provide, the state meets those federal requirements.

Uh excuse me, there's no timeline in in the local adoption process.

So the city can review, modify, refine it, uh, subject to whatever timeline that we decide.

Um so I just wanted to make that clear that we getting this through the state is just getting it through the bare minimum of meeting the federal standards for preservation.

How we tweak and refine that throughout the future, that's all up.

All right, and then um circling back just kind of uh what we covered last summer.

Um, so again, what is a historic district and and what is the purpose of a historic district?

So that its intent is to preserve and maintain the character of buildings just as they appear from the public.

So what you see here is what could be regulated by those standards and guidelines.

Um nothing that is uh or things that are not visible, so inside the building, um, sides of buildings or rears of buildings that aren't visible from public right-of-way, um, all of those are not subject to the standards and would just be held to regular city code or building code.

So the difference between a standard and guideline.

So the standards are the clear and objective standards for proposed project design.

So an architect, a contractor, folks that look to these standards to see these are what I need to do to be able to obtain my permit.

Um they're black and white in terms of review.

Uh, if you meet the standards, you're approved by staff.

There's no public process.

Similar to every other building uh within town, you know, our development code applies.

Um if you're able to meet that code, you're approved.

The guidelines, however, um, it's your way to vary from those black and white standards.

They're more gray and flexible in terms of how they're written and how they're applied.

Um they are you are intended to meet the standards that you can't necessarily meet.

Um, they are written in mind to have that flexibility that not everything fits within black and white.

Uh, but again, to do our best to try to meet the standards intent, whatever that standard would be.

Um, and of course, the applicant chooses their path to compliance.

So if they're unable to meet these standards, then they'll go through our public process and they have that option.

Um I won't dive into this too much.

The the purpose of this slide is just to kind of uh portray the product of what we're getting.

This is what our design manual looks like in our development code.

Uh these are the residential standards that Robert created.

You see the standards, the strict uh standards on the left, the variable guidelines that highlight the intent of said standards, and they include pictures and uh illustrations, uh for instance setbacks.

So here's uh you see the uh kind of continuity in the setbacks of those historic buildings in a residential district, um, and then you have the illustration.

New buildings, do this.

Don't do this.

Um, this is how you can expect to see our downtown guidelines and standards as well.

Um, what is a good example of one of those standards?

Um, I like to just kind of keep focusing on setbacks since what I use for the residentials.

The strict standard would be you have to build to the property line to the front, similar to other buildings downtown.

You have to build to your side property line, abutting the adjacent building, similar to other buildings in downtown.

The guideline.

Um if you're unable to meet that, new additions are encouraged to fill the lot with.

Um if you're unable to meet that, then it should go through review.

So let's say there's a heritage tree that uh property owner is attempting to preserve and would like a building addition, but the strict standards would require you to remove that heritage tree and build it all the way out.

Um potentially, you know, that is something that could be approved through the guidelines.

Or let's say if you want to convert your second story to residences, and you have you you require an emergency access, um, you know, a staircase, something where you know people need to have that space in between to be able to have the egress to get out in case of an emergency.

Um these are all little things that you know can meet the intent of the standard without meeting the strict standard, and then again having that flexibility in our code where it's designed where it's not prohibitive to be able to develop within our historic district.

So um again, this is from last year, but just these are some of the things that we talk about when we're talking about what what are these standards regulating?

Uh we just we said building setbacks, building form, uh, but then building components, so things like storefronts, awnings, uh entrances, windows, roof pornices, building materials, um, all of those can fall within the standards for regulation.

And um we kind of went over this, but uh Robert's work plan, so it includes start off by establishing a framework and refining the structure of standards and guidelines as they'll apply to our sort of downtown.

Um define the district character.

So, what are the things that we will uh propose to regulate through standards and guidelines?

Uh developing detailed design guidance for buildings and features, you know, how are these to be applied through design, conducting a field review of existing conditions.

Um we actually just did that today.

Um but um also I'm happy that uh the I don't know if you noticed the Google street bar through here uh July 2025.

So all of our street view is is up to date.

So in terms of you know having a capture in time of where we're at is actually pretty beneficial for that right now.

Um then, of course, preparing a supporting native uh narrative.

So um showing how uh just kind of where the the context and and the history of what where these standards and guidelines are coming from, and then of course the graphics and uh illustrative materials to support those standards.

Okay.

So lastly, um I mentioned that uh we have that deadline with the state to get that rough draft green lit, make sure that it meets the uh department interior uh standards for rehabilitation.

Um once that's done, um, we're able to kind of decide what our local process and engagement plan will be.

Um so that's still being developed, and we definitely want to hear your thoughts, but the minnow middle include city council, um downtown business and property owners, uh planning commission and the historic landmarks board.

So yeah, with that, um like to open the floor to any of you.

If you have any questions for staff or Roberts or comment, we're happy to hear.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions?

I have I don't know if it's a question, more so a statement.

Um, thank you for coming back.

And I hope that means that you liked working with our staff and the council.

Uh I think, you know, my concern, or not really concern, I guess.

I think it's really important, all the work we're doing, but also in our vision planning, you know, we just finished our 2040 vision plan and it's really to revitalize downtown.

And so the URA, which is kind of like the council in a different capacity, you know, it's purchased two additional properties.

We had a third gravel lot.

And you know, I think, and I don't want to speak for the whole council, but I think that some of us know that the way to revitalize downtown is walkability, right?

Really making sure there's housing close by to downtown.

And so when we're doing these standards and guidelines, I just really want that to be kept in mind.

Like, you know, I I think Alexandria, I think of like some, you know, really dense cool downtowns that also are inviting housing.

Um to and I think that's just really important to us as we move forward.

So I just want to elevate that thought.

Go ahead, Counselor Schimmel.

I saw like an eye.

Oh, thanks for for rejoining Robert in this endeavor.

Uh and just as a background, my my day job is uh commercial uh reconstruction or renovation.

So I've I've had several years of interaction with Joyce Tears and with uh historic preservation.

Um so I'm always thinking about operationalizing you know standards and guidelines and um materials and methods can oftentimes be the Achilles heel of historic commercial renovation.

So I'm I'm curious generally between your experience with the residential versus commercial, how you have uh are maybe just as a group, how you distinguish between the two in terms of determining guidelines on material and method how you approach guidelines for materials and methods from commercial versus residential uh so yeah, for actually in I'm not I don't have a big voice, so that's good.

Sorry.

Can you hear me all right?

Yeah.

Uh actually um uh a good question.

Uh in a lot of ways it's it's similar.

Uh you know, products are um commercial, strictly commercial products are a little typically a little different than residential.

Um on the other hand, um the um uh for a commercial structure, and that's really my our more architectural background of renovating uh commercial buildings and institutional buildings.

Um and so I'm you know versed uh well versed in that end of it.

But uh here we have really with the your commercial buildings, you're uh in the historic district, you're primarily looking at the front of the building.

Uh so uh we had discussions when we did some walk around uh about materials and products and things change over time.

So um uh, you know, I think uh there's there's uh uh a lot of what what was done when the buildings were built was pretty simple construction by and large.

You know, some were a little more elaborate.

uh in the historic district you're primarily looking at the front of the building uh so uh we had discussions when we did some walk around uh about materials and products and things change over time so um uh you know I think uh there's there's uh uh a lot of what what was done when the buildings were built was pretty simple construction by and large you know some were a little more elaborate so it's from that standpoint it's it's construction methods and and products are are fairly simple really uh you're not doing with uh it's not like you're dealing with a downtown Washington DC or New York City uh types of structures so um and I was uh I was happy to see that a lot of uh the buildings um when you see the construction on the side you see that they were board formed concrete uh which is uh you know uh good to see I mean because a lot of uh old historic districts don't have that they're you know solid masonry construction and that's more problematic not from the guideline standpoint but more from getting your building permit and getting uh and so we've had I've had a lot of discussions that because I think a lot of the success for economic success is going to be tied to how do you do this how strict is your you know uh questions about uh and I was I the answers I was hearing what so uh made me happy here that uh it sounded like uh the you know the your building department and your engineers and everything uh want to help support the community revitalize this so uh because that's been some of the most difficult uh aspects to renovate buildings uh you know seismic retrofits where a building department may be really uh overly uh harsh uh and you know it just is it's too hard for the owners to do it and you know uh in my mind you know that whatever we can do to to keep the b uh buildings vital uh is the b way we want to do it and and that said we don't want to have a district where buildings uh uh that are contributing become not contributing and that's happened and and when that happens the the uh uh park service goes through and evaluates does this still meet you know the the balance point of having enough contributing buildings uh I don't see that happening here I think that there's a lot of support there's a lot of things that aren't really architectural that we talked about too or economic viability and you're really blessed to having Pacific University here I think and I think there's good uh in my mind and this is not architecture this is you know sort of an economic thing but it's what I observe you travel around the country and small towns that have a college or university are all thriving way more than towns that don't and so that's a that's a a a biggie that uh I think you could take the better advantage of pushy and we discuss different you know what would work what doesn't you know type of thing.

But in terms of products come back and materials and as you know those things change and we I pointed out some things okay well this is this is engineered wood you know for example is that okay or is that not or do you you know and so we we sort of had those kinds of discussions you know how how there is latitude when you in in uh the National Register uh properties and in renovation of how strict you want to be and how puristic uh uh of a restoration and uh rehabilitation and so uh I think that's uh a good those discussions always come up in our office um we used to always have uh the three of us uh McMath and Hawkins and I and Frank Allen about what what you know and kick it around okay well should it be this way or that way and those are good discussions to have I think and they they're not always set in stone one way or the other is that answer fully or in a a specific example in our historic district is just right at the corner.

I'm sorry.

A specific example on our historic district is right here at the corner with urban decanter and and Dauntless where the the lower section was primarily changed from wood to aluminum.

Uh-huh the storefront yeah the storefront so and and that's consistent with other projects or other cities that replace wood with aluminum and and that meets the state standards because the look is similar enough even if the materials is very different.

So uh so I I think that's a good example of both where it it was done well and where it it compromised a historic material.

Yeah the material was as I understand you're saying original original material is wood.

Yeah, and we and we looked at some of the uh there's a lot of uh um uh extruded metal, uh metal aluminum storefront, typical, you know, uh strip mall, anywhere you go, factory stores, you know, uh uh aluminum uh storefront, and you know, is that appropriate or not?

Some some districts don't want to have it, some some say songs it it you know fits the uh general aesthetic.

Those you know, we looked at some were painted, some were uh like a uh a brushed uh aluminum finish, a mill finish, and some were painted or some are painted uh or dark standardized.

So some things can stand out more in your eye than other things.

And so I think though and and but yeah, they might still be uh the same price, you know.

So um I think there's a lot of ways to do that, and I think that you know, looking at like you said, the the whole the big picture, does this sort of meet the uh intent or or not?

So uh mayor uh the that you also alluded to the structural integrity and and this same property I know spent most of their money on structural upgrades before they even began on the on the storefront.

So I I know from uh uh not only a cost but an investment standpoint, both for our grant money and any owner is going to be structural integrity.

And there's already an example on our street where a prior owner removed a structural post, and you can literally see the sag that after 15, 20 years then compromises the structure of the outlying buildings.

And so when that owner approaches us with a grant to to do something to the facade, it inherently will impact the neighboring property owners.

So um, I'm not sure if and how that factors into our guidelines when we're you know, we're making an investment and we're we're essentially complicit in whatever happens to those outlying buildings.

Do we need to how do we need to take some investment into that or or is there guidelines that ensure that we're we're not doing more harm to the to the entirety of the street on the structural section?

I think you know, I don't think the guidelines will get into that kind of a situation.

Uh it probably will would come up during uh when they go to get permits, you know, and I think we talked a little bit about that uh, you know, when we walked around.

Uh you know, some of those it's good that the the one owner did uh the structural improvements uh because often that's a hard sell because they just want to, you know, you want to get this, and you know, I had very good client in Albany on in the uh first street there that we uh and uh great relationship over many years, and I was having the bear to get them to do the minimal strapping of his roof structure to the walls.

I said you should really do this, you know, be good if you can, but it's just extra cost, and so can't do it.

So but but that's really outside the purview of what we're gonna be looking at.

But uh I would say it it would would probably likely come up during uh you know that your discussion with permits.

Yeah, at least uh it should be appropriately.

Um the other question, the other the other thing is, and I don't know where and I wasn't sure either, is party walls and how many of the buildings are actually are they built over the part uh the lot line on the you know, because that is all over the map.

In some cases you don't even know, and you you can look at a survey and they and a surveyor doesn't know.

Um, but a true party wall uh would have a would have the uh property line right down the center of the wall.

And so, okay, well, what if one person's isn't taking care of their wall?

Or what if it, you know, is one building's taller than the other, and or you want to add up, how do you do that?

Uh I don't know where that is here.

I know when we did work in Jacksonville, sometimes the property lines are out in the street down there.

Uh so uh, you know, it it that that's something that can come up and it can be really tricky to do.

But but that's sort of outside of we're we're looking at you know what you see pretty much and and uh and you know what products, you know, is it and you know, and and and sometimes they're readily available products.

know when we did work in Jacksonville sometimes uh property lines are out in the street on there uh so uh uh you know uh it that that's something that can come up and it can be really tricky to do but but that's sort of outside of we're we're looking at you know what you see pretty much and and uh and you know what products you know is it and you know and and and and sometimes they're readily available products it may not be at home depot on the shelf but it doesn't that doesn't necessarily mean it's more expensive just maybe a different color you know something like that if if I may add to just the pieces of minds that so anything health and safety code related um would not be preventable through historic review so the urban decanter is a good example so they have uh build a building and put in the the fire department riser room and the fire department connection on outside there's any visual elements there you know we'll we'll try to make some suggestions but at the end of the day those things need to be there and they can't be prevented by historic review since those life and safety codes will supersede historic review to that sometimes sometimes you can do things to you know medicate their presence if it's something that that should be medicated you think you know or you know sometimes things can be painted you know um we had a uh yeah unit station we did uh uh work for like 20 years there and there was a look like there's mushroom growing out of the the clock tower is that was uh it was a like a um truck wave right radio uh antenna or whatever I said well can we paint it oh yeah yeah you can paint it how come nobody has you did this mushroom growing out of the of the brick clock tower so we painted it and then nobody saw it afterwards um we've sort of touched a little bit about you know sort of one of the main concerns I have is you know designing standards and guidelines that um ultimately you know deter property owners from investing in their buildings um and so one thing that I just want to make sure that we keep in mind is that you know that these standards and guidelines really incentivize preservation and and not you know weaponize preservation um because if you know of course if if a if a building owner declines to make upgrades declines you know to to do you know some of these investments then we're not really preserving the ben you know the the building for for future use anyway in fact we're just sort of delaying decal you know decline and decay um and so that's one thing the other thing that I I also you know something that kind of comes to mind is that you know our district is pretty small you know the confines are are pretty small district and I don't think that there's a ton of opportunity for new development um but I know in some other in some other districts you know these standards apply even to new development and that's a concern that I have um because you know I'm I think there's probably a few different schools of thought you know in historic districts and historic preservation but you know I'm of the mind that um you know I don't want this isn't a theme park you know we're not trying I mean at least I I don't think we're trying to build buildings to make them look old you know I think you know modern design has can can live next door to a historic you know a preserved building they can both contribute to the community they can both you know achieve a sense of place and identity um without mimicking and so that's another concern I would I would not like to see guidelines and standards apply to new development and and so that they would encourage that kind of sort of Disney you know kind of architecture um because I think that we've got you know some places I mean you know mayor you've mentioned you know we've we've got some opportunities that you know we as an urban you know sitting with our other hats you know we've made some investments in our downtown to try to you know sort of create some catalyst project you know to really revitalize our downtown bring you know breathe some new life um that will have to include some housing and so we need to be very careful to be incentivizing that kind of investment not just thank you very much thank you Robert thank you Robert okay so I'm gonna ask Jesse to come up and I don't know if Greg's in the hi Greg is so great nobody knew who you were at the entire meeting okay um in the interest of time we're gonna get started right away this work session has run a little long over the hour and so if there's consensus from the council I'm just gonna ask for permission we had our executive session that's following tonight's meeting was canceled and so if this runs long can we finish it up after the URA meeting?

This work session has run a little long over the hour.

And so if there's consensus from the council, I'm just gonna ask for permission.

We had our executive session that's following tonight's meeting was canceled.

And so if this runs long, can we finish it up after the URA meeting?

No, okay.

Okay, see head nods.

So with that, we're here to talk about downtown parking.

And we have Jesse and Greg here to do that.

Just a friendly reminder, no public comment will be taken.

And yeah, no formal action.

Okay, I'll turn it over to you, Jesse.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council.

So I'll be doing a majority of the presenting here this evening.

Um Brian Poe, our community development, who would normally be doing this, is on scheduled leave, and then Dan Reardon had two other pretty large things on the agenda tonight.

And so I'll be taking the lead on this one.

And thank you to Greg in advance for helping me with any questions that may come up.

So tonight's work session is about downtown parking.

This came up at the last meeting.

The council requested a work session.

Um just please be a little bit forewarned.

This is a pretty long and detailed presentation.

I do want to kind of go through it fairly methodically so that there's kind of a complete understanding of how the study transpired and also what the results in the parking study were, and then of course, answer any questions that the council may have.

So with that, we're gonna go over the background, we're gonna go over some parking influencers, and then um we met at the staff level a considerable amount discussing both at the traffic review board um and just individually about potential solutions.

So we'll go over some of those as well, and then of course, uh receive feedback from the council on any direction that the council would like to go.

So next slide, please.

Next slide.

I'm not gonna go through all of these within the 2040 plan, but if you look at the 2040 plan, there's a couple action items that are specific to parking.

So for example, in this one, 1.13 increased wayfinding signage for downtown parking.

There are, however, a lot of action items that are related to parking or that parking would have an effect on that potential action item.

And so not going to go through all these, but in the air in the goal area of the economy, uh there's about six items that touch parking.

If you go to the next one.

2.37 is specific to downtown parking.

And if you go to the next goal area, community connection, uh, we are gonna get a little bit into a potential pedestrian mall and also community gathering spaces because those too can have an impact on parking.

So a little bit of background.

Uh the city conducted a parking study in 2022.

We're gonna go through that in some level of detail.

Also, just a couple years ago, the Department of Land Conservation and Development published a parking management guide to assist with communities.

A parking management guide is essentially kind of a demand management guide as you experience certain parking issues or parking challenges.

It has some recommended strategies for how to deal with those challenges.

Interestingly enough, Forest Grove was a case example in the DLCD study.

There was two other communities that were case example.

The reason Forest Grove was chosen is we have a fairly high density commercial center in the downtown, namely along Maine and 21st.

And the other one was the proximity to Pacific University.

And so how those two things kind of coalesce, how they interact with each other, what the contingencies were, what the patterns were.

It's a pretty fascinating case study.

Um and then the last bullet, as I mentioned, we'll go a little bit into demand strategies.

Next slide.

So as I mentioned, uh the parking study was uh done in 2022, accepted by the council in June of 22.

There were two study days.

One was on a Tuesday, and one was on a Saturday, and those days were selected by the consultant specifically for a reason.

The one reason for the Tuesday was because that was a school day, and it was assumed that most of the classes, unlike a Monday or Friday when you have fewer classes, all of the classes will be occurring on Tuesday.

That that was true for both the Forest Grove um community school and also for Pacific University.

Um and then Saturday was chosen um as a non uh weekday and what the demand patterns were on a weekend.

The study cost approximately 14,000.

Next slide.

This is the study area in question.

This is what they caught commonly refer to in the study, and we'll refer to it in some of the graphs as the city center area.

They actually looked at two specific areas.

One was the city center, and then they did some separate studies for Maine and 21st between Pacific and 21st off for Maine, and then 21st between college and A.

And we'll that's the kind commonly referred to as the T.

We'll talk a little bit about that as well.

They also studied the parking lots.

Next slide, please.

When you start talking about parking and you start talking about demand strategies, one of the demand strategies that's kind of an initial demand strategy, it's what they call timed parking.

And time parking is where you have a time limit for parking.

In Forest Grove's particular case, we've had time parking for decades.

It's varied a little bit between two and four hours, but for the most part, uh the residential permit program was put in in the uh I think 2005, somewhere in there.

And then the hourly parking followed shortly thereafter.

If you look at the existing map, most of it is four hour parking around Pacific, and then you have quite a bit of two hour parking in the downtown area.

Those four hours and two hours only pertain to the daytime, only between eight and five.

So after five, there is no uh parking limitations.

Next slide.

So before we start looking at some of the graphs that came from the study, it's important uh to kind of understand what's called the 85% rule.

And the 85% rule is a target occupancy of about 85%.

If you look at a lot of the parking studies, this is kind of the common metric by which they measure parking studies.

If you're above 85%, parking tends to cruise because you have too few vacancies in which to park.

If you drop below 85%, that could mean that your demand management techniques are a little too strong.

They're a little too much, and you may want to try and encourage actually more parking in a downtown area.

Be mindful that on both ends of the spectrum, in some cases, if to parking parking, if the demand strategies are too strong, people may say, you know what, I don't even want to go there.

Parking is too expensive.

I'm gonna go somewhere else.

So there's kind of both ends of that spectrum, if you will.

Um, the study consulted, excuse me, selected a weekday and a weekend day, and they tested the occupancy between 10 a.m.

prior to lunch and then 7 p.m., which was typically after uh the dinner hour.

This is just an example that was in the Department of Land Conservation and Development study for demand management uh techniques.

It's really just kind of a referral document.

The arrows kind of point to approximately where the study concluded that Forest Grove was.

So on the one spectrum on the top, uh there's little to no parking complaints, there's plenty of space to park.

Um, and as a result of that, you're really just doing assessment and outreach.

There's really no demand management techniques.

If you go all the way to the bottom on the other extreme, uh it's always well occupied, it's very crowded.

Uh, and some of the techniques for that is not only time parking, but paid parking, metered parking, high enforcement, etc.

So those are the kind of two ends of the spectrum, if you will.

Um, a couple notes about the city's parking.

Um, all public parking in the city is free.

So there is no metered parking, there's no parking fees for any of the parking lots.

Uh, of course, we've all driven into cities near adjacent to us where parking is not free.

And parking lots are by charge.

Um, and then uh the second third bullet based on the study results, forest grove parking can be hard to find during peak times.

We'll show you those peak times.

But the overall supply is within what's called the 85% rule.

This chart would indicate a need to look at kind of four strategies, and we're going to cover all of those in the presentation.

Wayfinding, that's directional signage about that the parking lot, and two the parking lot.

Time limited parking, we already have that.

Three, employee parking away from the busiest areas.

The thought is if you can have employee parking in a certain aggregate area that you could free up on-street parking for businesses.

And then fourth, curb space for priority uses such as loading and unloading, what we're going to call a fast stop position.

We'll get to that later in the presentation.

Next slide.

So to get into some of the study results, and again, this was four years ago, it was 2022.

There are a few things that have changed as a result since 2022.

We have had about a thousand people come into the city, so we have had a population increase.

Um, if you look at some of the enrollment at Pacific University, it's remained steady.

However, there has been a program or two that has moved out of Forest Grove to Hillsborough from a graduate study for perspective, which would tend to think that you might free up a little bit of parking.

So there's been kind of some on the plus side, maybe some also on the minus side.

Um, but this graph shows where the parking occupants is she issues occur at 1 p.m.

on a Tuesday.

Now, as you can imagine, school is in at 1 p.m.

on a Tuesday.

There's kind of two things that are really highlighted here.

One is all of the parking along college way proximal to Pacific University is crowded.

Um, and then if you look at the parking on the north side of Pacific Avenue, north of the Forest Grove Community School, that also is full.

So those areas are occupied.

The two other things worth noting is parking lot two, the central city lot, and parking lot three, the south south central city lot are full.

That would tend to indicate that that's being used for employee parking because it's full in the middle of the day.

Interestingly enough, if you go beyond those areas, whether it's Main Street, whether it's 21st, Pacific Avenue, and especially down at 19th, and also the parking lots four and five, there's occupancy.

So next slide, please.

This is the same day at 5 p.m.

Now, what you'll see here is that the trend is shifted.

Whereas it was read before on college way, a lot of that parking is now shifted to Main Street where previously there were some vacancies.

This would indicate that school is out.

So the students have left, parking is freed up.

It also indicates a higher demand in the downtown area for shopping, for business, for eats eating, etc.

Um, and so just kind of noting that shift.

The other thing worth noting here is parking lot two is green, indicating it is below 85% occupancy.

And in this case, it's got it's at about 25% occupancy, meaning there's quite a few stalls.

And then three is in that middle range at about 50% occupancy, indicating that if parking is crowded on Main Street, there is available parking in parking lot number two, just behind some of those businesses.

Next slide.

This shows uh the same kind of demand area, it's the city center area, but it's all day.

So in this particular case, it's Tuesday, it's all day.

It starts at 10 a.m.

and it goes all the way to 7 p.m.

And what you'll see here is in that broader city center area, that entire area that we were looking at before, you really don't get above 65% occupancy.

So that would indicate that in that particular area, there's there's stalls available.

It's well under the 85% um occupancy.

Next slide.

This is a smaller geographic area.

This is the T, Main and 21st, and it also shows the same time paradigm that we had in the other one.

What this would indicate is that you have availability in the central T on Main and 21st, all the way up until the evening.

And then the evening, as the previous graph showed, it does get full.

And so the parking on Main and 21st in that particular area is going to show red.

It's going to be difficult to find a parking position.

You're going to be circulating, or you're going to park a block or two away where there is occupancy.

Next slide.

So, same study area, different day.

In this particular case, it's Saturday.

And we do toward the end of the presentation have a slide that shows a summer month, in this case uncorked on a Saturday.

We'll go into that when we talk a little bit about events and placemaking.

But in this particular case, it's noon.

It's a Saturday.

Notice again, it's the same kind of demand pattern that you saw on a weekday evening.

So you have green on Collegeway where there's availability, but you have a crowded downtown.

And in this particular case, you also have uh central city lot number two is full.

So all the streets on Main Street are full.

If you look at 19th and Pacific, those are also fairly, or excuse me, Pacific and 21st, those are also fairly full.

But it's again that kind of reverse pattern that we saw on a on a Tuesday uh day, and it's similar to what we saw on a weekday evening.

I would point out lots four, five, and six, and seven are also available.

And in this case, lot number one is also available.

Next slide.

So this is Saturday at 6 p.m.

So this is kind of an interesting graph.

What this would indicate is that for some reason you have more parking now on A Street.

We believe this is probably result of the Jesse Quinn development where you have some on-street parking occurring in the evening, folks trying to find a parking spot that are living there.

Um it might also indicate some demand from a commercial perspective on that same block, um, and that would explain the red on the north side of Pacific Avenue.

Main Street is still crowded.

Interestingly enough, parking lot two frees up a little bit.

This would indicate that potentially at 6 p.m.

Some of the employees that may have otherwise been working are leaving, which would free up some space for shopping and and dining, etc.

But if you look south, uh parking lots three through three through seven are all uh uh plenty of stalls available for parking, as well as on Collegeway.

Next slide.

These are again just the kind of time graphs that take you throughout the whole day.

This is uh on a Saturday for the entire city center area.

It indicates that we don't reach that 85% threshold.

If you go to the next slide, this is the T area.

It indicates that we do reach that threshold approximately 1.30 to 2.

So in that kind of early afternoon time on the other times of the window, um, there's there's parking availability within the central T.

So to get into the parking lots a little bit.

We also have some occupancy um tables for the parking lots.

Overall, the city owns seven public parking lots, as I mentioned earlier.

Um, none of them are are um are charged.

Uh, there's 37 of which uh of the total 202 total stalls, 37 are timed.

Those are in lots four and five.

That's the community auditorium just south of here, and then across the street.

That's timed during the day and the weekdays on the weekends and in the evenings.

They are not timed.

All of the lots are unregulated, meaning there is no permit, there's no time limits, and there's no fee to park.

So next slide.

This is the most crowded lot that the city owns, and that's the central city lot.

And they did the same two study days.

And what's kind of interesting about this particular graph is it would indicate that during the week on a Thursday, that you will see there is over 85% occupancy.

This lot is full between 10 a.m.

and approximately 4 p.m.

And then the demand drops off.

That would indicate that during the week, this is being used as employee parking.

So that central city lot, when it shows red, it is in fact this data is backing up that those are employees that are parking there.

If you look at the same parking lot on a Saturday, what you see is that that drops below the 85%.

This would indicate that there's either fewer employees parking there, and it's being used more for you know, shopping, for dining, uh, etc.

So just different demand patterns.

This is all the rest of the city lots.

Uh the one I would just point out on here is the upper right.

That is lot number three.

That was the other one that tended to be full during the weekday, and then the demand would drop off after that four o'clock time frame.

That would also indicate that lot three, which is our lot right just west of us, uh, would also be used for employee parking.

All of the other parking lots, there's there's quite a bit of vacancy in each of them uh throughout the day.

So the study also looked at outer blocks.

So, in theory, what what is the impact to some of the areas around that particular city center area?

What it found is that the impact was the largest in the northeast section.

Um none of the three areas, however, reached that 85% uh threshold.

Um, but the northeast section did have the most kind of demand, if you will, during the week.

Next slide.

So the findings that the parking study had was generally the it's working reasonably well.

So the demand strategies that are in place with regard to the supply of the city parking lots, but also the time parking, where the time parking is at, how it's being managed, that generally speaking, it's working pretty well.

They did note that there was localized congestion with little to no parking at peak times.

The graphs clearly show that.

However, there's congestion is limited to small areas during those times, and quote, downtown as a whole has ample parking supply to accommodate demand even during the busiest times.

However, the study also noted that there's underutilization exists, and that can be improved upon to manage and possibly reduce parking congestion during those peak times with some strategies.

So next slide, please.

So the so the study's recommendations, and I know this gets a little bit specific, but um, these were the main recommendations that that the study came up with.

Prioritize the maintenance of central lot two.

That's what we were referring to as the central city lot.

That's the one that is west of all the main street, a lot of the main street businesses, and then south of some of the 21st and north of some of the Pacific.

It's that central city lot.

They say this is really kind of the key to the system working.

And what they mean by the key to the system working is it absorbs employee parking during the week, freeing up on-street spots for business, and then in the weekend, it tends to not have employee parking, and therefore having more spots for businesses during the weekend.

Um, they did consider designating central lot two employee only.

We'll go into that in a little bit in a in a future slide.

Uh, they said specifically do not consider lot one.

Lot one is that lot that is just to the east of A and north of 21st, that's smaller kind of parking lot up there.

They said emphatically, do not consider that for employee parking.

That is ideal for customer parking.

The graphs would indicate that it might get some employee parking, and so I don't know that this would be much of an impact for employees that may park there.

Um, it did indicate that it is principally being used for customer parking.

Um, but it did say to consider two-hour time limits just to improve circulation.

So, in other words, kind of make it the same as all of the on-street parking in the downtown.

The two-hour limits would be imposed between eight and five, um, and then uh, but but not on the weekends and not on the on at the end of the day.

Install more recognizable and consistent parking signage for parking lots, install wayfinding signs, and then restrict additional stalls in the downtown area if you can find some.

Install more recognizable and consistent parking signage for parking lots, install wayfinding signs, and then restrict additional stalls in the downtown area if you can find some, and we'll get into all of these in a subsequent slides as well.

Next slide, please.

So, some influencers.

Um, and this is just a little bit of background that in addition to the study, there's other things that will influence um parking uh in this in the central central city area.

And we've identified or just kind of built upon four of them, and there's code enforcement signage wayfinding, and then street enclosures.

So next slide, please.

So parking citations in the past two years have declined.

Um, I will say that they've rebounded in 2026.

Um, and and so that trend is kind of reversing and going back up the other way.

Next slide, please.

Parking citations, the council doubled the parking citations in 2025 from 15 to 30.

So parking revenue is up for fiscal year 25 to 26.

This is through February.

Um it's expected to go up a fair amount by the end of the fiscal year.

Um, all the parking revenue is deposited into the general fund.

Next slide.

So a little bit about signage.

Parking lot signage is inconsistent.

However, all of the lots are signed, they're just signed a little bit inconsistently.

Um, we know at least one of these pictures, one of the signs is gone.

Um, but that being said, uh, we still need to take a more comprehensive approach to it.

So next slide.

So thanks to Greg and his team, they put this map together on relatively short notice.

This shows the signs that are wayfinding signs.

These are signs directing you to the parking lot, not the sign at the parking lot.

And there are some wayfinding signs.

What the study was really recommending was to broaden this out and have some additional wayfinding signs along some of the major arterials, such as Sunset, possibly Maine, but also along Pacific and 19th, directing you to those lots in advance, if that makes sense.

And then this was oh, it didn't transpose very well.

Sorry, as some of the numbers got sent down to another level.

But um, this map shows a number of different things.

There's kind of a lot here.

So uh if I can go through this, the red number is the number of days the street was closed for an event for six hours or more.

So if you look at this, Main Street was closed for 32 days last year between Pacific and 21st.

21st Avenue between college and Maine was closed 11 times, and then 21st Avenue between the alley and Main Street was closed eight times.

Collegeway was closed once.

The blue number is the number of storefronts.

So storefronts is different than small businesses.

Storefront can be any measure of storefront.

It could be a nonprofit, it could be American Legion, it could be Adelente, it could be Pacific University.

It's a storefront, it's not a small business.

But if you look at the number of storefronts, those are the corresponding number of storefronts for that section of street, and then the green is the number of small businesses that are located in that particular section of the street.

So as you can tell, and as I think everybody anecdotally knows, Main Street is busy.

So as I mentioned earlier, this was actually done back in 2019, just before COVID.

Um, but what it shows was an event that occurred at 6 p.m.

on Saturday.

It was during uncorked.

And in this particular case, Main Street was closed, as you can tell by the graph.

And and it was a pretty popular event, and at 6 p.m., that's what the parking looked like.

And so oftentimes when there's a big event in downtown, you kind of hear the the report that there's there's no parking in in downtown.

Well, this this map would indicate that certainly in that particular area.

If you wanted to find a spot for parking, you'd have to go a little bit beyond what the normal study area was to find a green spot to park because it does fill up a little bit more so in downtown.

Next slide.

So mayor, uh how about at this point before we get into potential solutions?

I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Uh, these are the potential solutions that we have a slide for each of these.

Uh we had provided we there's an opportunity for council to comment on each of these, but maybe before going into those potential solutions, Mayor, if there were any questions, Greg or I'd be happy to try and answer them.

Okay, Council President Valenzuela.

Yes.

Um, so it seems to me uh given the results that we don't have it, you know.

I think it just needs to be reorganized.

For example, I would really support the uh lot two being assigned to employees.

But really enforced.

No, that they get a tag, you know, or whatever in their card, they need to register.

It needs it would really need to be enforced.

And I think this uh the signs and everything, you know, just redoing that and making everything more visible.

We definitely help people uh to the other, you know, to the green uh parking spaces, like three, because I I think it just needs to be reorganized.

And yes, we have big events.

Um I would love to have a trolley.

So I'm gonna say when we have a big event, I would love to have it.

I've been bothering Jesse with this for about four years about having a trolley that you know picks up people and takes them right by right to the market, right to the farmers market, like they do for graduation at Pacific.

You have a shadow that picks you up and takes you, you know, to the venue.

So um, but I really, you know, for those recommendations, um those are my thoughts um about parking number two.

But I and I thank you, Counselor Valenzwela.

And I I think we're gonna go into each of these in some level of detail.

Um so we might be able to touch on the staffing part with the time two hour parking in lot one.

There are some concerns there, but we can address that more when we get to that slide if that's okay.

Sure, and just one more thing about the private park parking lots.

You've been in conversations, but uh from the presentation, uh since there hasn't been a very important thing.

Yeah, we'll talk we'll also talk a little bit about that.

Yeah, okay.

Well, you guys ask for questions.

Any other questions?

Comments.

Go ahead, Counselor Shimmel, and then I have a one or two.

I was curious since 2022, have have you uh are you aware of any known or emerging factors we should consider otherwise?

Since 2022 or well, um the things that we kind of talked about internally is the population has gone up approximately a thousand since 2022.

I actually might be a little bit less.

Um this is somewhat anecdotal.

The number of storefronts in the particular study area is approximately the same.

Um exactly the number of businesses, however, that were in business at the time in 2022 versus now.

Um I I'm not sure that I have a firm answer to that.

I think approximately probably this approximately the same, but I'm I'm not for sure on that.

We do know that at the university, Pacific University, um enrollment has either remained kind of steady or in some places gone down just a little bit.

Um and some of the programs, potentially in the graduate department, have moved to Hillsboro.

So that would indicate, you know, maybe potentially during the day at least, less demand for parking.

Uh the other influencer that wasn't mentioned was Pacific University has done a really good job of improving their parking.

Um this came up during the Pacific University Master Plan, and they've done a number of things to improve parking.

They developed a parking lot just to the east of, I believe not, um just to the east of Cedar.

I was thinking now, but I know that yeah, just to the east of Cedar.

Uh that I think has 20 some positions.

Uh they also made significant improvements to uh the cannery lot.

That was in cooperation with the city.

We helped them with some lighting.

There was some concern about safety regarding lighting from the cannery lot to the university, so it was not getting used very much.

We helped with some of the lighting.

Uh that has improved the utilization of the cannery lot and Pacific itself, also, I don't know whether they implemented it, but they also discussed some demand management techniques internally in in terms of issuing permits, having a cost for the permit, uh, etc.

So they've made quite a bit of improvements since the time of the study to try and take some of the parking off the street and into their parking lots.

So those are some of the larger influencers that we're aware of.

Um the central lot, what major uh maintenance has been done uh in the last four or five years.

The only thing that I'm aware of that's been done was a uh uh a fog seal, basically a seal coat type uh light shot, uh, so that we could restrict parking lot and get uh some additional parking efficiency in in the lot.

As a result, we added 11 different uh 11 additional spaces uh to the to that lot without really doing much of anything, just increasing the efficiency.

And now that we've acquired the property um uh where the theater is or used to be, uh there's opportunity for probably for another dozen parking stalls in the back, uh properly striped.

And now that we've acquired the property um uh where the theater is or used to be, uh there's opportunity for probably for another dozen parking stalls in the back, uh properly striped, and I think we could get a couple more in on either side of the the aisles because I left them a little um a little wide.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Um I just have you know, I want to stay on topic with parking, but and I don't know if we need to have maybe just consensus for a work session, but I'm interested in moving events, yeah.

Uh like you know, uncorked Oktoberfest off of Main Street and on to college.

And so just because if we're looking at parking spaces, when it's the and there's literally one storefront, and also when the events are taking place are usually weekends when university's not in session.

I just think that moves it, and it's only one block over, but then you know, and I've been listening to Jody even talk about the market and like getting a flow of traffic.

So right now when there is an event like when I've gone to Oktoberfest or uncorked, you go down Main Street and it tees, right?

We're using it like a T.

There's really not any sort of looping or route that you walk.

It's very clustered and kind of congested.

So if we moved those events on to college and then still use 21st, right?

You're creating like more of a route and you can expand.

But I also think you preserve parking spaces, you don't affect you you actually use the event to bring people downtown to shop and eat at those storefronts and those restaurants instead of blocking.

So, anyways, I don't know if that needs to happen.

I don't think we can really talk about it now, but I guess I'm just pointing out there.

Is there any sort of um desire from the council or consensus to talk about events and and I don't even know, can we say like, hey, not on Main Street?

Can we can we even do that as a council?

Say, hey, we don't want events closing our main street 32 days a year.

Yeah, I think you know, there's there's a place making conversation to be had uh mayors specifically regarding kind of where events are, um, what might be a template to kind of create associated with what type of event, um, and and really kind of what is that gathering space look like.

We do have a slide kind of toward the end of that is there's that has that kind of tie to the parking and how many spots it is, etc.

And so because one more thing too is that when I went to DC this last time and the last few times I went, we're asking for federal funding, and we're trying to make 21st be the festival street.

And then the natural, and you know, and I don't want to speak for Pacific, but they've been pretty welcoming the last few years about saying, hey, use our yard, use our grass.

Like so that's the the intersection of a plaza.

Like that's what we have been saying we're trying to do is create 21st, and I just think 21st to college makes a lot of sense.

But that's just my personal opinion.

So toward the end, we actually have a slide on festival streets.

So all the way, I guess.

I'd like you all to start thinking about that.

Maybe a work session.

Okay.

Cool.

Um, and then the one more question I wrote down.

Yeah.

Um with the signage, our branding, so you know, we also put some funding towards like this idea of branding.

And so I just, you know, I just want to make sure that we keep that in mind.

Like the branding, the signage should all happen at the same time.

Okay.

Okay, cool.

So next slide, please.

So this is just gonna kind of go through that whole list that we just looked at kind of one on one.

And the intent here was to kind of throw an idea or potential solution out there and then uh turn it over to the mayor and see if there's any comments from from the council.

So code enforcement, this is really already occurring.

Um enforcement generally leads to increased circulation of vehicles and time parking areas, which will increase stall availability.

So this one's already happening.

So any comments.

No, I guess my question or comment would be you know, because I think we tend to get most email, not most emails, but there's a good percentage of our emails about code enforcement.

So I'm just wondering if too if um the police department have done like inventory, you know, are we staffing correctly for code enforcement?

Do we need to reallocate some funds so there's more code enforcement and then like also accountability of how much of that person's time is on code and you know, how are we?

I guess what is the metric that we're using to make sure we're staying on track with code enforcement.

Kind of, you know, I'm not sure if I have a specific answer, but typically what we see in code enforcement is it's by complaint.

And so sometimes we get more complaints than we do at other times, and when those complaints come in, um, you know, the code enforcement officer goes and it tries to address that complaint.

Some of the complaints can be a little more complex than others, take a little bit more time, and that it sometimes may take away from some of the more I I would take say kind of um, you know, the the base duties, if you will, of the position, like in this case parking.

Um so time does get diverted away to some of these other code enforcement cases.

Um what we've seen recently, I think is uh going back to some of the parking areas, um looking at the position a little bit more closely.

Um, and uh, and then in some cases we're just not, you know, it what it leads to is an increase in the amount of time to respond to other code complaints depending upon how much parking you may do, if that makes sense.

So if you do if you dedicate 50% of a position to parking, then your response times on some of the other complaints may go up.

And so I guess at the end of the day it's it's a balancing act, and it's gonna depend on the number of complaints, the complexity of the complaints, and then of course how much time we have to dedicate to the complaints.

Is that into your question, Mayor?

So kind of.

Well, I yeah, yeah, no.

I mean, just I would just be interested in knowing like I mean, how does a supervisor manage that?

Like, is there a metric we're trying to hit or like I mean I think I'm just curious.

I don't know that there's a specific metric except for trying to get increasing compliance and trying to make sure we have our codes enforced um equally um and as applicably as as we can.

Um I think generally speaking, the strategy is if you do have some level of complexity in a code enforcement case to try to get it to a certain point where um it it can begin that you've made an inquiry that you've sent a letter, you're not going to be able to kind of solve it all at once, but you can oftentimes solve it in increments, if you will, or address it in increments.

Um parking is a little bit different.

Parking is something that you can just dedicate a certain amount of time to.

You can go out, you can do uh you can do spot checks, you can do random checks, you can do programmatic checks.

So you can vary it somewhat depending upon what your other workload is.

It still at the end is kind of a balancing act, though.

So next slide.

So signage and wayfinding.

Um Greg and Public Works have done, I think, a really good job of kind of sitting down and doing uh starting at least a comprehensive inventory as demonstrated by the map and some of the photos.

So we're really taking a broader look at this, not just an individual kind of if there's a complaint about this parking lot or that parking lot, we're really looking at this holistically and comprehensively.

I think the goal is to install some signage this summer.

It may result in a supplemental budget request.

Um, Mayor, to address some of your comments about the branding part of it, we do want to incorporate branding into signage.

There are certain parts of the wayfinding that may be more applicable to brands than others.

For example, there are some um wayfinding signs that are kind of universally recognized that may be more appropriate for some of the arterials and some of the um you know, the main streets, if you will, like Pacific and 19th, those are the the blue B's that you see with arrows.

When you get to the parking lot, however, that's often times where you may see a municipality do the branding as in the actual parking lot itself.

Um and those are kind of reminders about where you park, what lot you're parking at.

So those are generally more specific to the parking lot itself.

Does that make sense?

So to get there, it's kind of a common wayfinding, but when you're at that lot, you may you may have a name, you may have a brand, uh, that sort of thing.

Go ahead, counselor Falkner.

When I'm in a new city, um place I'm not very familiar, you know, I think it's I I recognize the you know, design, like I think branding can be really good and valuable and important for wayfinding.

But when I hear you say things like you know, the the typical, you know, what you what you what you tend to look for is like that sort of like blue public.

Yeah, I think that has to be replicated though, even on the branded signs, because you're looking when you're new to a city, you do this intuitively, probably don't even realize it.

You're looking for the match, you know, like, oh, I saw that blue P sign, and so I want to find where that blue P sign is.

And if I see a city sign, I'm not gonna think that I'm allowed to park there.

I'm gonna think that that city employee parking, even if it says public parking, I'm gonna think, oh, I'm only supposed to park there if I'm doing business with the city.

And so I think that like, you know, we can do a good job of mirroring, and even on those, you know, even on the 19th or you know, Pacific Ave, I think it's important, you know, we can even put our little logo on those, you know, but making sure that there's some connection between the two.

Yeah, full full agreement.

What I was maybe intending to say, and I may not have stated it very well is when you get kind of into the parking lot, a lot of times what you'll see is on certain rows or in the medians, etc.

That's where some of the branding may occur.

But to to get to it and to get into it, yeah, that's really common kind of wayfinding techniques that are used there.

Yeah, and if I may, um, you know, I think uh I'm you know, I think it's great.

I hope that you do come back with a supplemental budget request because when I look at these charts, what I see is that there's even for residents, I think there's probably a lack of like maybe recognition and understanding that there is so much parking available just one to two blocks away.

You know, I'm not I a lot of times, I mean, I think especially 19th Avenue, there's never parking on 19th Avenue, and you're essentially allowed to park on the entire length of it all the way to the you know where it forks.

Yeah, um, and you know, that's very close by parking to our downtown businesses, but no one's using it.

And so I think that those signs, depending on where you put them, and if you put them in enough of them, um, people will start to learn and to like understand, you know, that oh, there's you know, I'm allowed to park here, even though, and I think striping too, so not just wayfinding, but I think striping, you know, like we're like we do in the downtown area.

If we actually marked stalls on some of those streets where there's not as much parking as we might hope to see, um I would encourage that maybe as an option.

Yeah, well, we actually have a that's one of the next slides, counselor.

So next slide.

So city lot number two, as Greg mentioned, um, we've already added 11 additional parking stalls there.

So what we talked about here, and this gets to your point a little bit, Counselor Valenzuela, is perhaps putting up some employee-only signs to be candid, um, implementing a permit system, a registration system right now, and then trying to do compliance associated with that would be difficult with our with our existing code enforcement.

Um and so what we were recommending at least as an interim measure, and we can consider this as probably a future measure, but what we were recommending as an interim is it has been shown that if you put up employee parking only signs between eight and five per se Monday through Friday, that you do get some compliance associated with that.

Um, and that the next demand management strategy, if that becomes um, you know, well over 85% occupancy on a routine basis, then kind of the next demand management strategy would be to then do some type of registration system where you would be you'd have to register your employees.

Those can be pretty time intensive, um, especially if you want to manage those uh in a way that that is accurate um and that is enforceable because you're gonna have to connect kind of the permit with the vehicle with the person parking, um, who's the employee.

So those can be pretty time intensive.

But at this particular stage, what we were looking at was depending on council's comments, of course, was putting up some employee only parking signs, and then taking in combination with a lot of these other things, see what the results are, and then maybe consider the next demand management strategy being some type of potential permit system for the central city lot.

So go ahead, counselor Marshall.

Yep.

Yep.

Oh, they're doing private agreements, yeah.

That's pretty common.

Yeah.

In the central city lot or on on-street parking.

Yeah.

If you're looking at slowest days of the month, are going to be the days the streets are shut down and you're shutting on a business basically for 32 days a year, that's basically a whole month of bad business.

So I'm I'm with looking at a different location for these events.

Um, as far as employee parking, I don't know how that's going to be manageable just for the fact that myself, being a small business, has nine employees on a busy day.

I have all nine employees working.

That's that's a decent amount of that parking lot already gone just by a small business like mine.

Yeah, and I think bigger businesses, it's it doesn't necessarily it's putting five pounds of feet into a two-pound bag, it's not gonna work, you know what I mean.

And it's if you look at different locations, and why are we making people to want to come visit downtown park further away and stay in town for three or four hours or let the employees that are gonna be there all day get closer access.

I don't know.

I make my either my employees if they don't have parking lot because I have a private parking lot for them.

If they aren't there, they park down the street or they'd park further away.

So they have to walk in.

Because it doesn't make sense to have your customers park closer.

Yeah.

That's just my that's me as a business owner, that's what I would think.

So as far as business employee parking, I don't know that that would work.

Yeah, and I so this was something that I think the the study was saying that Central City lot was essentially being used as employee parking, whether the city would want to encourage that or or not encourage it.

I think it it's up it's up to the up to the city.

Um of the things there was a that they were kind of noting was to the extent that employees may park in the central city lot, and and I and I think counselor, what you're mentioning is that if they parked not on street in Main Street in 21st, not at the T on on street parking, and they didn't park in Central City lot, but they would park somewhere else.

Yeah, that would free up the central city lot for additional shoppers and additional patrons, etc.

The way the study noted that the parking was functioning right now, not you know, kind of absent additional demand management strategies was that the central city lot was essentially being used as an employee lot, and and that according to the study would essentially kind of free up potentially some on street parking.

That doesn't address the same scenario that you're referring to, though, which would be not necessarily allowing employees parking the central city lot and having them park at at a parking lot further away and encourage employee parking somewhere other than that.

If I understand your concern for me.

Um right there up 21st.

Uh the one that's uh lot that little tiny lot that's right across the street right there.

Yeah, something like that would be like a better location to me where it would open up and free up that many more spaces potentially at um lot B or lot two.

So lot one, yeah.

Yeah, so lot one is the one that that the consultant was recommending to do two-hour parking there to try and free that up for shoppers and diners, etc.

Because that is being used to a certain extent, not to the same extent that lot two is, but it is being used to a certain extent for employee parking during the day.

But I mean, for example, if you're looking at somebody wanting to go to urban canter, are they gonna want to park at one or park at two that's what I'm saying?

It's like that's a block and a half, two blocks to get there, or they can just walk around the corner.

And that's that's where I'm I I mean there's options for people to park.

But people don't want to walk.

The employees don't even want to walk that far, and that's I think there's a number of issues is where it's on my language, people are being lazy.

Walk a little bit further.

Like, I think that becomes part of the issue.

Where do you where does the city want to kind of do some demand management to encourage certain types of parking behaviors?

That's really what demand management is.

I mean, it would I mean I don't even know if it would benefit to do a two-hour parking in the or four-hour parking in the uh lot too.

The four-hour parking is kind of an in-between, you know, it it could you know potentially incentivize a little bit more turnover.

Um and in doing so, maybe allow for additional patrons at the same time.

What you oftentimes see in parking lots like that is you'll get turnover at four hours, but then you might get the same parker that kind of circulates and comes back.

So it just kind of depends on what you're trying to incentivize.

But if we could go, yeah.

Yeah, I think that counselor marshall brings up some good points with the central city lot.

I think that it's central, and I I don't know if I'm 100% on board of encouraging employee only.

I think I don't know how the rest of the group feels.

But is there what I guess because I was thinking was the fact that uh some business owners have complained that their employees park on 21st on Maine, and then I've every two hours they have to get up and and go and change the you know, move the car, right?

So okay, well, let's put them over there.

But what you're saying makes total sense.

Let's open that up for customers as well as to Main Street.

You know what I mean?

That would just um invite more people and you're also right that people do not want to walk.

But when I started working as a young girl, I remember being told that we as employees had to park on the very very last part of the you know parking lot of the grocery store.

We couldn't park nearby because the rest was for the customers.

Yeah.

And that's like you said, a behavior.

You know, how do you motivate uh you know those changes?

People to behave in a certain way.

Well, good comments.

Thank you for the feedback.

You have time for one more minute?

I think we have a couple more minutes.

No, no, we don't.

We're gonna call it here because it's 657, and I would like to the you know have a bio break.

The meeting starts at seven, right?

Yeah, it's three minutes.

So we're gonna do that.

Okay, so we left off at number central city lot two.

So we finished that.

Okay.

Thank you.

So let's take a few minutes to go to the bathroom.

Recording stopped.

Why can't that we're gonna finish our parking uh work session because according to the agenda, our UI URA meeting starts at nine.

So we don't want to start it really.

So we're gonna start.

I'm gonna call, I'm gonna reconvene the work session on the parking study.

Um no public comment will be taken and no formal action.

And we're gonna actually, I think we're done with city central city lot two.

Yeah, let's go to lot one.

Okay.

Okay, so the third potential solution, and also this came out of the parking study as well, was to do two-hour parking time limits on lot number one that's located at the northeast corner of 21st and A.

The study noted that this lot was ideally suited for shoppers and patrons.

It could benefit by installing two-hour parking time limits.

This would affirm the usage by shoppers and patrons and reduce employee parking that may be occurring there.

We have indications that there may be some employees parking there.

Um, but uh it's not um as full, if you will, as the central city lot.

Um if the council would like to look at installing two-hour parking there, this could become part of the code enforcement because we have two and four-hour parking directly adjacent to it.

Two hour and four hour parking is different than employee parking in terms of code enforcement.

It doesn't require a permit system, a registration system, etc.

So um we could incorporate this into the code enforcement duties if the council would like to do this.

So with that, I'll turn it over for discussion, Mayor I have a couple questions.

Yeah, how many parking spaces are there?

And are all the other public parking lots how many hours are those?

So if you could go back, Mariah to the slide.

I think it's like slide going eight or nine.

The all four.

I mean, are they all cons like are we consistent at the with the time keep going forward?

It's a table, keep going, keep going.

There it is.

Back that one.

So lot number one has 18 unregulated parking positions.

Um the other two parking lots that have some type of time parking or lots four and five, that's the parking lot right here at the community auditorium, and it's two-hour parking during the day on weekdays, and then the employee parking lot, which has in time parking for the public during working hours that are non-employee parking positions.

Does that answer your question, Mayor?

And I can see that.

So this would look at installing two-hour parking on lot number one.

That would be timed parking.

Uh the other 37 stalls that we have are two-hour time, but it's during the week and it's not during uh the evening or the weekend.

Can you go back to the thanks, Mariah?

Thank you.

Any questions or comments on lot one timed parking?

Is there any consensus to do that?

It's that's the one I think should be an employee parking.

Yeah, personally.

It's 18 spots, so I mean, that's 18 spots that we could have in the central location.

I know.

But I honestly what what's gonna happen is if you make that employee parking, you're gonna have 18 people park there, and then the rest of the other employees are gonna park at the central.

Yeah.

That's where we run into it's it's just taken up by employee parking.

Yeah.

And I'm not even saying it's for my own parking.

I have um I have parking in the back of my restaurant.

Um I'm not saying it's the benefit myself by any means.

My employees don't use it.

I just know that for a fact the majority of it is employees on those local businesses parking.

So okay, sorry.

That would be the thing is if we could figure out what business has the most people parking there.

Figure out that because that's what it is, is who's the ones parking there.

Um yeah, so um you explained that really well and it makes a lot of sense.

Um so perhaps at the central one, I mean that yeah, uh parking too.

Um you know the very end by the wall.

Perhaps we could have some of them be a timed parking, like two hours parking um in the central one.

Not all of them, just a few, you know, the ones by at the end.

I think that's confusing for patrons and code enforcement to you know what I mean, like if you go into a lot, like over here is timed.

I don't know, and I don't know if it's achieving I mean, I just want us like to come back to our goal, like what we're trying to achieve, right?

We're trying to I mean, I guess how do I want to put it?

The data shows that we don't really have a parking problem, right?

We have a wayfinding a signage problem, like telling people where to park.

Yes.

So that's what I think that's where I run into the issue is living it day to day.

Yeah, I don't know that that parking that that study was correct.

Like it would have to be more than one day on a random Tuesday showing that it would be correct.

They'd have to do a more feasible study would be doing it over a portion of time to see what it is.

And we can't go back.

I mean, that's so long ago, but I'm just this I agree and disagree because I I I agree and disagree with myself on this, but the the fact is is that on those on 21st and on Main Street, that's where the parking is the issue.

Right.

So people knew to park here.

The biggest thing is is the reason why the issue is parking on there is because that parking lot is full.

So that's where we run into the parking on the sidewalks that are issues.

And also these roles in February, correct?

Well, what I mean summertime would also be a good idea because people are more out and about.

Like I think we could figure this out without having to spend the money to have another study study.

Um we're just trying to figure out yeah, go ahead, counselor Falker, and then that one.

I I mean, I I really hesitate to make any of these lots employee parking.

Um here's the here's the big thing that we haven't talked about.

We're talking we don't have a current system for registering.

And we don't have that you're what that is a that that's a huge staff line to do that.

We don't have a big lift.

That's a really big lift.

And I think that we have smaller, like if we go back to the chart, you know, the DLCD's chart for like here's what you can, you know, here are the considerations.

I don't think we're there yet.

I think we if way yes, the parking, you know, the the study is a few years old.

Um maybe it has changed a little bit, but we haven't even tried educating people a little bit more on additional parking options that are currently available.

Like the lot that's down off of um the public one that's um was that yeah, the four through seven and 19th and ash area.

That doesn't get used.

Plus there's a lot of street parking parking.

There's a ton of street parking that is open and untimed.

It's just the biggest issue is that downtown 21st and main area.

Right.

And so if people nobody wants to walk well two blocks, they're gonna have to walk two blocks.

I thought that like I'm gonna like yeah, elevate what Angel said because you know, in the last 12 years I come downtown a lot and go to a lot of events, and I don't expect to park right where I'm gonna be.

I park in the city parking lot often, or I park here, like and I walk the I mean at the very most when I park in a parking lot, like down here to go up, it's like two to four blocks.

Yeah, which is not a it's nothing.

And so I think it's really about the signage, the wayfinding, like the educating of like, hey, you can park here.

These are all the places you can park, and maybe even like doing a social media blast right then like doing other things.

Just from what I've heard from the businesses up there, I think the it is a lot of like the kind of quick in and out businesses.

Like you have the restaurants, you have those type of ones that are like in and out, like even framers touch where they go to pick something up.

If there was a designated spot, it was like a 30-minute parking, a couple per block.

I think I I personally think that would be a huge like step in the right direction to ease that congestion in parking and just know that there's it.

Jesse's like that's one of our options.

Yeah, sorry.

That's kind of that's where I would go with it.

That's what I've been hearing.

So for lot one, we're not gonna do a a two-hour parking.

Do we want to do it?

So we don't want to make an employee only.

No employee, I'm hearing no employee only or recommended employee for parking lots.

Do we want it installed limits in the parking lot?

So we also have to go back to can our code enforcement keep up with that in to the other parts of their job.

So right now it's hard for them to come up and do downtown area.

Oh, it I would like to see that there be more priority placed on uh like that's like what I was trying to get out earlier.

Is if you start going down a rabbit hole of like there always has to be efficiency, right?

Like if you're going down and you're you know following this one code issue and you're going and going and going, like how much time and how much money is that classing taxpayers, and what do you get out of it?

And that's why, you know, and I wasn't trying to be like into personnel, but to me, like that's something that needs to be looked at.

It's a it's a base responsibility of the position to do parking enforcement.

And so I think some of the conversation is is a certain percentage of the job has to be dedicated to that, and it needs to be a certain percentage that would facilitate parking compliance.

Um, parking compliance can come through random inspections, it can come through sometimes frequent, sometimes less frequent, but there needs to be sufficient compliance done and sufficient monitoring done that you do achieve compliance.

If it's it's kind of like you know, the classic example is if you have a police officer on an overpass on a section of road and you see them maybe once a week or once every two weeks, you're probably gonna go less fast through that corridor every time you go through there because you don't know if they're going to be there.

Um, and so yeah, I I totally agree.

You go to the civic center in Hillsborough and you stay there a little bit too long, and you will have a ticket on your windshield.

And so we we are having conversations about assuring a certain percentage of that position is dedicated to parking to assure that we have compliance for parking.

Yeah, okay.

Council Martin.

So in the civic center, too, are we it they're you mostly using machines though, too, right?

To monitor vehicles or not.

I don't know.

So and what's it's been a few years since I did a ride-along uh with code enforcement, but it seemed to me, if I remember right, that the program or equipment or something they used or how they had to do it was cumbersome.

Is there a way to look at that and get something more efficient?

Right now it is uh it's a pretty manual system in terms of checking for timed parking.

There are some electronic time parking techniques that can be used, but they do require additional investment.

Um, whether it's things that you can put into the pavement, you know, like I think circles or something that can see how long it's occupied, those are very expensive.

Some can be meters, as you mentioned, but you don't have a charge for it, but it can show if it's been you know, if your time is up, it makes it potentially easier to enforce.

Um a lot of those require capital investment.

Um, and typically those capital investments are not in all cases, but in some cases funded by parking revenue.

Right, and I understand that.

How about something that the person using that's um evaluating parking?

Is there something we can look at we can look at the existing method that's being used, and if there's some type of efficiencies that we can find, we can we can visit with Carolina?

Because that would be a lot less expensive anyway.

There's something something there, we can do that.

Okay, so let's move on from the slide.

Or what are we what is our thoughts with the two?

Okay, yeah, I think there's probably five or six more.

Um next slide, please.

Well, we don't have any consensus on that.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I don't that I just don't think we're gonna do it right now.

There's not consensus to do it, so that's a no-go.

So this is the fast stop position.

Um just a little bit about fast stops.

Um we'll get into a little bit of the pros and cons in the next slide, but a little bit of background.

They range anywhere from five to 30 minutes.

The top example is used in Portland.

Uh the lower example is a very common sign that you'll find in many municipalities.

We actually have two 10-minute stalls, they're right by City Hall.

Those are still to facilitate paying bills.

So we have people that stop there, they come in, they pay their bill, they leave.

They are very high turnover positions, so those were installed intentionally there.

Um Portland Gene Corvallis Bend, they all utilize them in downtown.

Um typically they are limited to one per block, or in some cases, depending on the configuration of the block per block face.

They're located near businesses that experience a high volume of customer turnover, such as hotels, retail, food.

We did it was kind of interesting.

We did a kind of a case analysis of Portland.

They require the adjacent businesses to agree to the fast stop stall.

So if you have a fast stop stall in front of a business, they ask the neighboring two businesses if they agree with that being a fast stop stall.

We'll get into why they probably require that in the next slide.

We don't need to necessarily require that.

I'm just thought it was kind of interesting.

But next slide, please.

Some of the pros is it increases turnover and access.

Um it reduces double parking and very high parking areas.

It's for easy rapid access to business, it's good for picking up and dropping off.

It's pretty self-explanatory.

The cons are is it reduces the time parking used for dining and shopping.

So in essence, if you have a high turnover position, if you're not there doing something that's high turnover, you can't park there.

So it's a reduction of a position for somebody that wants to stay longer than 15 minutes.

Um you just kind of have to find the right spot.

It is kind of difficult to enforce.

Um, what we have heard from other places is that sometimes that it's it's the local businesses that kind of help enforce it.

Hey, you've been there too long, or hey, you shouldn't be parking there, or this is a 15 minute stall or something like that, because it's very difficult to do it on a very short frequency.

Uh it does require additional signage.

Um, but if we're looking at our overall comprehensive effort, that's why we wanted to address this now, because we could include that as part of a comprehensive signage effort.

Um, and then if the spot is full, it can lead to driver circulating until it's open.

In other words, if you have two fast parkers that want to park at the same time, the other fast parker is reluctant to find another position, they're gonna wait for the 15 minute to come open because it's less time.

So they're gonna keep circulating around until that position is open.

So those some pros and cons.

Next slide, please.

So uh this is certainly welcome council comments on this, but we did kind of take a look at where the downtown parking was.

Staff just identified one potential pilot project, fast stop location of 15 minutes.

Um, it's in an area that I'm sure everybody knows where that's at.

It's basically out in front of Pizza Smithsa.

It is in an area that is currently marked for no parking.

So installing a fast stop stall in that particular location would not take away any parking.

Uh, it would isn't an it's an opportunity parking position.

Um, if it wasn't limited to a 15-minute fast stall, but that's what staff was looking at was trying it out and trying it out on that corner.

The thought was it's good circulation, it's right there.

It's got access to both 21st and to Maine.

Um, but open to comments.

So and we would we're gonna get to more parking positions in the next slide, but we would restripe and re-sign this position, essentially commensurate with restriping and signing the other parking positions that you'll see in the next slide.

So it'd be all part of this kind of larger effort.

Comments, questions.

Yeah, I think it sounds good too, because that's a it's an extra spot, like you're not taking away.

So I don't think you need to get adjacent approval because you're creating a spot.

Correct.

15 minutes is long enough to walk.

Yeah, slow rise, or pizza meets our frame shop, the donut, whatever.

Yeah, that's principally why the 15 minutes was centered on it.

Was it would give you time to in theory walk down the commercial businesses and walk back and do your pickup or delivery and then walk back.

So another one of five minutes.

Another one that I was kind of wondering would be on Pacific Avenue, like that first, is that first interstate bank?

They don't use the drive-thru anymore, but there's like a yellow strip there.

Oh, that could that be created and be 15 minutes?

It could, and we're actually on the next slide, we're gonna propose that as additional parking.

If the council would like to make one of those spots of 15-minute fast stop, we could certainly look at that as well.

I think part of the thought was to try this as kind of a pilot project, see what kind of feedback we get, and then see if we would want to implement it somewhere else.

So okay, next slide, please.

Yes.

So this is additional parking.

So staff kind of took a deep dive, and really you'll see some opportunity on Pacific.

Some of these parking spots are a result of the four-way stop that was put in at 21st in Maine.

It opens up some site windows because now that you have a stop, so we can convert some of those spots.

Um, the other ones are along Pacific Avenue, and they are currently in most cases painted yellow.

In some cases, we knew why they were painted yellow.

In other cases, we don't know why they were painted yellow.

Um in some other cases, uh in some other cases, it just has um striping that wasn't necessarily planned out.

So, in other words, it might have been striped from one area and then it started in a different area, and so you have some odd striping.

So if we make it more consistent, we can find some additional parking.

Um I really want to give a shout out to Greg and Crystal at Public Works.

They're the ones that have kind of identified these spots, Greg, mostly.

Um, but it would result in 16 potential uh additional spots um uh in the in the downtown area, which is a pretty significant addition.

So when you add that to the 11 in the central city lot, that'd be 27 total over the last five years.

Um we can incorporate the striping what it requires to do this is there's both curved striping that is painted yellow, and then there's also in some cases uh striping on the pavement that is white, and in some cases we would have to do both, in other cases we would just have to do one.

Um we do have a striping contract.

We use the striping contract to do our streets in the summer, in some cases to repaint you know, curbs.

So we would just kind of add this to that contract.

I don't know if it would require a budget amendment because we don't have any cost estimates yet.

Um, but if it did, we would bring it back as part of the biennial budget.

Otherwise, if we can just incorporate it into the contract and there's enough in the biennial budget, uh, we could just do it.

So consensus on here question.

Since you show mood cafe, which is good mood cafe on there.

Can they stripe Pacific to the west of A Street?

There's there's a section there that isn't striped, and I've heard from the business or property owners there that that causes vehicles to be kind of elongate the parking there.

So we could take a look at that if I recall on the north side of Pacific west of A, I think there's a TriMet stop that's there.

Um that's not painted either.

So like it's it's not it's not, and I've brought this up to you like five times.

Well, the it's uh it's on the south the south side of Pacific.

I think the north side where the the trimet stop is there's their stripe on the south side, but they're it's it's signed.

Um it it doesn't have yellow curves, mayor, to your point.

Um and so what you do see is you see some incidental parking there when there's not a trim bus.

Then the people over in the bus can't get off, but he's saying on the other side of the street by where the dentist's office is and Beaton's office.

That's yeah, that's not striped.

Yeah, yeah, we can certainly take a look at it.

I don't know what striping is there, Councilor Schenble, but we'll take a look at it.

So there's yeah, well, I've seen there's no striping, but there's the business owners there request striping be added so that parking is more disciplined, so that more people can't park to frequent that cafe.

Because some people don't have park too.

Yeah, no, yeah.

Okay, cool.

This is great.

This is really good work.

Um, make sure to thank Crystal and Greg.

Okay.

Um, so private parking lots.

Uh, we actually touched on this a little bit earlier.

Uh we did try to, we have reached out to some private landowners in the downtown area about additional parking.

Um it has not we just haven't really connected in terms of potentially adding to the parking supply.

Um so what we're looking at at this point is is maybe postponing this option until these improvements are made.

Um, and maybe there's another parking study that's conducted in the future.

What we're really seeing is I think if we've pointed out tonight, is pretty heavy usage of the central city lot, a little bit less in the north lot on A and 21st, and then underutilization candily of the other parking lots that we have.

And I think there's five additional five other parking lots, and so none of what we do restricts any private employer from contracting to private owner for a separate use agreement.

And I understand, Counselor Marcia, you mentioned I think that's already occurring.

Yeah, private to private contracts.

Certainly that can still happen.

Um, in some of those cases, if it's with a private employer, that may reduce some of the on-street parking.

It may even reduce some of this central lot parking.

Um, depends on just what type of you know, what type of agreement it is between private parties.

So um, we have looked at that Wells Fargo North lot um that is not very much usage, it's very proximal to the city center.

Um and that's the one that we've made inquiries and just not been successful so far.

I was curious about Pacific University, and I want to give like a little example.

So last Friday, I went and or I guess just a few days ago, I went and saw the play, right?

Catch me if you can at Theater in the Grove.

There's a staff parking lot right across the street from the theater.

So there's no staff at 7 30.

So I'm just wondering if there's like a shared use.

Okay, right.

So that's an opportune place for someone to park on a Friday night.

Okay.

No pause.

Two weeks ago, I went to watch my nieces play softball at Pacific.

And there was a lacrosse game, tennis match, baseball game, and softball game.

So their parking is popping.

And our pool is closed and no one's going there.

So we have this lot that's empty, right?

So I'm wondering like if after hours when the pool is closed, right?

If we say to Pacific, you can use the pool, the aquatics parking lot on off hours because and then they say, like, here's this staff parking lot.

And after hours, people, it's public, you know what I mean?

Like, I would like to see something like that.

Because I'm gonna tell you the truth.

I parked in both those locations.

Yeah.

On both of those examples.

Public parking lot.

Well, because I'm like, listen, I know the pool's closed.

Like if I get a ticket, I'm gonna say really.

Like and then also the play, I'm like, that's right across the street.

So I'm just saying, like, I think there's an opportunity for some shared use.

I'm just putting it out there.

Those are my examples.

As it becomes more and more of a problem, there will be you know additional restrictions and opportunities to encourage that.

I mean, some cities, for example, are starting to impose impervious surface fees.

And eventually, as water runoff becomes more and more of a problem, that could be something that the city explores and one way of maybe you know incentivizing shared parking and making sure that your parking is actually like doing something on the you know, for the benefit of the community, is to enter into a shared parking agreement to avoid certain such feats in the future.

Yeah, place where we would have to impose that right now, but see a future where that might be something that we need to next slide.

So events and closures, uh there was a previous graphic that showed the number of closures on certain segments of the T in downtown, and then the number of businesses and also the number of storefronts in those same locations.

Um and what the use patterns really show, the current use patterns, is that the street closures occur most often on the streets with the most businesses.

Um if I recall the statistics correctly on Main Street, it was closed 32 times.

Um and when I say close close to parking, um, and that was the same street that if I recall correctly had uh 22 storefronts and 19 active commercial businesses, um, which is the most in the T.

Um, street closures can sometimes negate, you know, they can bring increased foot traffic, which can be good for business.

Um some street closures can also negatively impact businesses because of a lack of parking and shoppers going elsewhere.

In some cases, it depends on the kind of business, it depends on the time and the type of the closure.

Staff is actively evaluating placemaking options with the goal of meeting the objectives and the objectives in the 2040 plan and really what the objectives in the 2040 plan, there's a number of them that kind of address this, but really what they kind of center on is trying to create a central gathering place uh in a space, a space that's known, uh, that people are familiar with, um, that's kind of a kind of a go-to spot, if you will, um, for events, and so kind of has some longevity associated with it.

Um supporting small businesses, that was a big theme in 2040, and then of course, increasing events and also foot traffic associated with those events.

Um, and so that's uh and I think there was maybe mention about a potential work session with the council uh about this.

Um, if the council would like to do that, I think staff could facilitate that.

What we would look at is probably bringing some different types of options about you know, gathering spaces, usage patterns, traffic patterns, because there are certain traffic patterns in certain sections of streets that are more amenable to a closure than other patterns.

Um it just depends on the kind of configuration of the street and also what the traffic impacts are, what the uh you know, fire access is in the case of an emergency, you know, those types of things.

So with that, that's back to you, Mayor.

Wait, is there any interest in having staff bring back information on this for a work session?

Yeah, absolutely.

And if just uh only mentioned because it wasn't mentioned in presentation of terms of uh placemaking event locations or closures is considering the central lot as that place making or event spot and freeing up all the other parking creating uh space that is can be all purpose you know, parking during the week and being that place making yeah, counselor Falkner had mentioned a while ago too that this we I don't know what we call it right now, but site B or the old times letho lot, like right now we own that right, like right by drawler garage.

Like right by drawing garage, that could be the market plate, like placemaking event in that I don't know.

And then you keep the parking in Yeah, yeah, I I agree that there's multiple options that we can evaluate.

But like just figuring out, I mean, because the deal, like what I understand, and I could be incorrect, is like, yeah, you want to have events to bring people downtown, but it you have to bring them downtown and increase your capacity downtown, not go to right where the small businesses are and log it, right?

You want to like grow your downtown, and so there's more it's more vibrant, it's more walk, like you know what I mean?

So I'm I'm hearing consensus on it.

Okay, we'd be happy to bring back some characteristics of both those areas and also some kind of characteristics of the existing area and the existing using patterns from parking lot positions to square feet to access all of that.

So I think university is also something to explore.

Like if you want a road, if you want it like on a road going looping around, there was one storefront on university, right?

And then it loops around on a 21st.

And then 21st, like, I mean, I don't know.

So with this, I don't know, that's just another.

And if the tree, the city tree for the Christmas light is on the corner of 21st and university.

I can, you know, and we do ever get funding and can make 21st a festival street.

I mean, that was our whole vision of that.

So that's college way, right?

And 21st.

College, yeah, college, college way and 20 years.

What the way is between maybe I had the wrong road.

The trees.

Okay, sorry, yeah, my bad.

Yeah, the college way 21st.

Yeah, yeah.

What are the Christmas tweets?

Yeah, yeah.

I just one thing related to if if evaluating that central lot is uh cost estimate to resurface the lot.

Yeah, because you need some of its gravel.

You need you're gonna have to add asphalt anyway behind the theater.

Um, and I don't know if that would be part of your theater development, is resurfacing that lot, but it just seems like it needs to be re-leveled or ripped out, re-leveled, and resurfaced and make sure it's draining well.

One of the things that I mean, I'll just add real quick, since you're talking about you know, potentially a lot of money for that.

I I mean, I think the URA should have a conversation before I think before about what potentials lie, you know, the existing potential for that site and like the building that we now own, and not just the parking lot, but also the the big alley leading to that, because part of the conversation that we had with the historic preservation architect today when we were walking around, is that there's a lot of opportunity there, including for a festival street, um, and also for redevelopment of the backsides of those buildings because a lot of those missions were done, you know, long after the work.

And so I think that in my mind that there's that's a much bigger includes the property that we just bought.

And with that property, if we're looking at putting a hotel there with how many rooms in it, where's parking going to be for those extra 28 rooms that we just put in and we have 28 more cars coming in to park there?

We it it's um the only thing that stands out to me is more public parking is site B.

Like it's being used for parking right now for a lot of different things.

Like I hate to think we spent that much money on a parking lot.

No, it shouldn't be.

That is not my vote.

No, I'm just saying, like, that's what it's being used for right now for the most part.

And that's that's but the you can, you know, I think Ashland has Ashland has a boutique hotel in the downtown, and there's no designated parking for that hotel.

They actually have two, and one has a little bit of parking and one has none.

And I think you know, people figure it out.

A lot of people who would be using a boutique hotel like that would actually be not running a car and parking a car.

Okay.

Well, are we good with this?

No, you still have more.

This is the last slide.

Okay, we have five minutes and we have a URA meeting.

Okay, sorry.

So just as a reminder, uh, this also has related to parking.

Um but in 2022, there was a preferred alternative for a festival street that was adopted.

This is just kind of a reminder, but also it does uh point out to some of the potential impacts.

Um, if if this was ever constructed, it would reduce parking from 40 to 33 stalls.

Um, this was actually one of the things that precipitated finding the additional spots in the central city lot where we got 11 spots.

Um the city is still looking for federal funds.

Just as a friendly reminder about the project itself, um, it was two-way traffic.

There was an alternative for one-way traffic.

The one-way traffic had in some cases angled in parking, which provided more parking.

However, it was one way.

And so I think the option that was selected by council was to have two-way parking and what's called excuse me, two-way traffic in parallel parking.

Um the primary part, like if funding was available, if only limited funding was available was from college to Maine.

So that corridor, I think, mayor that you were referring to earlier, or that connection or nexus at least.

The secondary one was from Maine to A, and of that, the primary one was between the alley and Main Street.

And then so in a way, the third section was between the alley and A.

And just as terms of the characteristic of the overall kind of street, it's a curbless street.

It's a flat streetscape.

When you see a street like this, you'll recognize it in any downtown.

Um, it often has a stamped brick um out of concrete.

Sometimes it's actual brick.

Um, and there is no curb drop-off.

It could have a lot of amenities along it and so forth.

So the reason this was included was it did have a an effect, potential effect on parking, but also it's part of that placemaking conversation as well.

Um, in terms of what the council may or may not want to do, you know, looking far into the future.

So and this just shows the parking occupancy on 21st uh and A, just on 21st between college and A.

One was a Tuesday, one was a Saturday.

Um, and that was designed specifically for the project to try and find what the parking impact may be.

And I think that is the last slide.

Right.

Well, you have everything you need from us.

I do.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, council.

Thank you.

Oh since we had it.

No, we have another meeting.

I understand we have another meeting and they have to get done at 9:30.

Yeah, go ahead, counselor Shimmel.

So there's a series of public comments that we haven't spoken to.

But I just want to make sure Jesse had what information needed to respond to them.

I think some of the responses, you know, the public prior or the private partnership with other adjacent properties.

The other was the traversing from business to parking at night.

Uh one mentioned uh a designated hope spot for homeless overnight camping.

If we could evaluate other alternatives, they're overnight camping to make that as people feel safer if that's important.

Uh those are just a couple.

Okay.

We're gonna adjourn this work session.