BY PHIL CUSTODIO
Clarkston News Editor
It’s back to the drawing board for the Clarkston Parking Committee.
“We’re still at step one,” said committee member Rick Detkowski at the June 7 meeting. “I’m worried we’re on the wrong track.”
Committee member Jennifer Radcliff said they need professional help.
“I think we need to see where the danger spots are. We obviously haven’t thought of them all – something is always coming up,” said Radcliff, who invited David Rich, project development director from Rich and Associates/Parking Consultants, to the meeting. “We don’t have the answers – the indecision is killing us.”
Parking is a contentious issue for all their clients, said Rich, who attended the meeting without charge.
“It’s one of those necessary evils,” he said. “There needs to be a well-thought-out plan, with consensus behind it.”
“The devil’s in the details,” Radcliff said. “We haven’t worked them out yet. We have to have a whole lot of answers to a whole lot of scenarios.”
After three years of discussion and a parking study by the Traffic Improvement Association, City Council approved a motion that part of the parking issue “will be solved by paid parking revenue – the Parking Committee will put together a detailed proposal then bring it back to the council,” according to approved minutes for the April 10 meeting.
That will not be complete in time to install a paid-parking kiosk in the Main Street parking lot at Washington this month, as previously proposed.
“Paid parking is not going to happen until fall,” said committee member Kay Pearson. “Mistakes have been made. We jumped to removing parking, period, on a whole street without knowing the clear ramifications.”
“We still need to take steps, full comprehensive steps, not just jump to meters,” said committee member Jason Kneisc.
City Manager Jonathan Smith said his initial proposal to charge for parking in the city lots while keeping Main Street parking free may be incorrect.
“The expertise I’ve been hearing over and over says the spaces closest to business are premier spots, and charge for them first,” Smith said. “Kiosks and Main Street staying free – I don’t think that’s the right approach anymore.”
Rich recommended a new parking study, to include where people park and how long they park there.
“How long people are actually staying in those spaces – that’s critical information,” he said.
Interns could be used to survey parking every couple hours, and his company could crunch the numbers, he said.
The city joined the TIA last year in order to have them conduct a parking study. That information lacked information across time, he said.
Lack of turnover is an issue, Smith said.
“People aren’t leaving,” the city manager said. “I hate to say it, but some of the worse offenders are business owners – they park out front and stay there eight hours.”
City Council voted on May 8 to prohibit parking on Church Street east of Buffalo. The committee is also looking into “no parking” on Buffalo Street.
“People think we have no choice because of what we did on Church,” said committee member Erich Lines.
Smith said the city could set a parking policy – no parking if the street has curbs and gutter, but parking allowed if there are none.
“The city owns the space between the sidewalk and the roadway on any street in the city,” the city manager said. “But curb-and-gutters are different. We don’t ask drivers to jump the curb and park on the grass.”
Doug Roeser, speaking as a Church Street resident, said the no-parking rule means family and friends have nowhere to park.
“They took my parking – my whole family can’t come to my house for Christmas,” Roeser said. “Do I have to move? We’ve lived in that house for 47 years.”
Committee member Cara Catallo said they need to focus on creating more parking.
“We’re relying so much on revenue, and still not bringing spaces to the table,” Catallo said. “That is why I feel strongly about looking around to find more parking, rather than take away parking.”
“There’s a lot of work ahead of us,” Detkowski said.
Rich will put together an outline of what services they provide and a budgetary range for a more comprehensive parking study, he said.
The parking committee’s public forum planned for June 20 has been postponed. Detkowski said their next steps are to bring up the issues to city council, step up enforcement of existing parking regulations, and work on the study.