The number of people living and working downtown is increasing, and that means more people are looking for places to park. The new 10-level parking tower at Fifth and Walnut is opening next month, and a garage next to the Regency Hotel at Broadway and Short Street is in the works. The city wants more drivers to park in garages rather than in metered street spaces but is finding it difficult to change old habits. To make the garages more attractive, downtown advocates say the city may have to make drivers pay more to park in prime street spots, improve signage leading to the garages and consider innovations such as a shuttle service.

Parking Garages: The History

Columbia constructed its first multi-level parking garage in 1986, at Eighth and Walnut streets, and built three more that opened downtown in 1995, ’98 and ’99.

A parking study by TranSystems Corp. in 2001 recommended that the city provide 300 additional parking spaces north of Broadway to meet projected future demand.

The report suggested that the parking garage between Walnut and Seventh and Eighth streets, known as the Parking Plaza, could be expanded to another level, adding 70 spaces. Given the limited amount of space available for surface parking, the consultants said a multi-level parking structure would still be needed.

The report that came out a decade ago concluded that the best city-owned site for a new parking garage was the block along Walnut between Fifth and Sixth streets, which ended up being the spot picked by the city in 2008.

Other sites in the running were the Armory parking lot across Walnut from the county government complex and a site bordered by Park Avenue and Eighth and Ash streets.

The Transystems study and subsequent studies by Sazaki Associates and H3 pointed out that surface parking is a poor use of scarce resources.

MU has seven parking garages, including two a few blocks from the edge of downtown, and about 24,000 parking spaces in the garages and surface lots.

Downtown Parking: The Demand

The number of government employees has increased in recent years, and the development of an arts district at the northeastern corner has brought more drivers downtown. There are more students at MU, Stephens and Columbia College, and Special Business District Director Carrie Gartner said she perceives a larger number of people driving downtown for shopping, dining and entertainment.

Later this year, Columbia College will open satellite offices and classrooms in the Federal Building vacated by the Youzeum. At peak use, there will be about 70 employees and 120 students in the building, which has a parking lot with about 35 spaces. That means more drivers looking for spaces in that part of downtown.

At a City Council work session Tuesday, City Manager Bill Watkins said they might move city-assigned spaces from the area around the Federal Building to make room for the college students. Another possibility raised would be charging lower rates at underused garages and higher rates at more popular garages to manage usage more efficiently.

The number of people living inside the District had been stuck around 300, but more office and warehouse space has been converted to apartments. Trittenbach Development finished an apartment building at 10th and Locust streets last August and wants to build another one just to the south and a much larger apartment building, with 100 units and four stories, on the corner of Walnut and College Avenue.

Also, the Tiger Hotel is expected to open as a boutique hotel in the near future and would be seeking an estimated 50 spaces in the parking garage across Eighth Street.

Watkins said there will be a reshuffling of city and county government workers with parking garage permits after the new garage opens, and the Water & Light Department will be using about 100 spaces after it moves into City Hall from a building just
outside downtown.

Mega-Garage: Is it too big?

The words that critics are using to characterize the new parking garage at Fifth and Walnut include: a monstrosity that mars the skyline and an albatross that will sit half empty for years and drain parking utility revenues to dangerous levels.

During a public hearing on the proposed parking garage in October 2008, then-Mayor Darwin Hindman expressed concern that the large number of drivers using the garage would cause traffic problems in the area. Initial plans presented by the city were for a maximum size of six levels. Elton Fay, who has a law office across from the site, said that a structure of three or four levels would be more aesthetically pleasing and fitting in the neighborhood.

The Special Business District endorsed the idea of having offices and retail space on the ground level, but the plan to have the city competing with private building owners for tenants later drew strong criticism.

The city originally wanted to build additional levels on the oldest parking garage at Eighth and Walnut, but Public Works Director John Glascock said building codes changed for earthquake standards and made that alternative too expensive. It would cost about $6 million to add two levels on the existing garage, he said; the 10-level garage will cost about $13 million.

The motion to proceed with the project was approved unanimously by voice vote.

City Manager Bill Watkins pointed out during a CBT lunch forum that it becomes relatively inexpensive to build additional levels on a parking garage. He also said the new garage will be up to two-thirds filled with permit-holding city employees when it opens.

The ground floor will be used by Regional Economic Development Inc., which plans to move from south Columbia, and possibly city service offices and a small business incubator, Watkins said.

Short Street Garage: The Case for Construction

The city is considering whether to buy the surface parking lot across Short Street from the Regency Hotel and build a multi-level parking garage, which would supply an expected increase in drivers looking for spaces in the area.

Last year, the city hired Walker Parking Consultants to analyze the demand and supply of parking in the area surrounding the Short Street surface parking lot, based on development projected in the downtown Charrette Report.

Their report in December concluded that there will be a deficit of 422 spaces within a two-block area surrounding the surface parking lot, or more specifically, a walking distance of up to 800 feet in any direction.

The study assumed the goal of having drivers filling 85 percent of the on-street spaces and 95 percent of the off-street parking. (Studies say higher percentages become ineffective because people become frustrated at trying to find rare spaces and give up.)

Developer Dave Parmley is seeking financing to demolish the Regency and build a 112-room Hotel Indigo, a franchise of InterContinental Hotels, a project that would cost an estimated
$17.5 million.

Assistant City Manager Tony St. Romaine said the city “thought it would be prudent” to talk with the hotel developer, Stephens College, residents of the northeast area of downtown and Trittenbach Development, which is proposing a 100-unit apartment building in the area, about the possibility of building a garage next to the
Regency site.

Romaine told the City Council on Tuesday that the city is negotiating a development agreement with Parmley as part of the Tax Increment Financing process. According to his presentation, that agreement “could also address parking as it relates to the hotel and surrounding properties’ needs.” Parmley, he said, would lease one-third of the spaces in a new parking garage if the city buys the surface parking lot.

The city would want to be fairly certain another garage would have a high subscription rate before it was built, St. Romaine said.

The Walker study also suggested that the city raise on-street parking meter rates to encourage turnover and discourage long-term use of the popular spaces and clearly sign and market parking garages to the public as convenient parking alternatives.