BY PHIL CUSTODIO
Clarkston News Editor
An official study of parking in Clarkston shows the city will exceed capacity once two new restaurants open.
The city is projected to be short 26 parking spaces when the Union Joints’ Honchos restaurant and the eatery in the former Clarkston State Bank open for business, said Dave Allen of the TIA, the Traffic Improvement Association of Michigan.
Allen and Pat Cauley of TIA presented their parking-study report to city parking committee members Sharron Catallo and Jennifer Radcliff, Sept. 13.
TIA conducted its parking count in June. Since then, owners of a private parking lot across the street from Depot Park installed a gate and plan to limit public parking, Allen said.
“Roughly 74 percent of spaces are occupied at any one time,” Cauley said. “If the lot (Clarkston Mills on Depot Road) is gated off, it gets to the mid 80s as far as available parking. If you add in the additional parking demand when the restaurants come online, you get to the tipping point.”
City Council granted parking waivers to the restaurants when they were approved last year, under ordinance Section 20.02U, General Requirements, Parking Space Deferment.
Excemptions are granted “if the applicant can demonstrate and the Planning Commission finds that adequate public parking is provided within a reasonable walking distance from the subject site.”
The Parking Space Deferment District includes downtown Main Street from just north of Washington Street to Waldon Road, including the Clarkston Mills on W. Washington Street.
“In my opinion, there is reasonable parking within walking distance to the site,” said Council member Mike Sabol last October, when recommending approval of the restaurant in the former bank.
Sabol, who also serves on the city Planning Commission, also said at a commission meeting in July he thought there was enough parking, “even with the two restaurants.”
“People will always find a place to park,” he said at the July meeting.
According to the TIA report, “when both restaurants open, there will be insufficient parking available without the availability of the three parking locations that prohibit parking other than by their patrons, plus an additional 26 parking spaces.”
TIA recommendations include creating new parking spaces, working with private lot owners for more access, offsite parking, using shuttle or valet service, and further study once changes are made.
“This gives us a starting point to determine what we are going to do,” Catallo said. “At least this gave us direction. We needed a starting point.”
A parking inventory earlier this year counted 394 parking spaces in public and private lots available for use by the public at least after normal business hours, not including those on East Washington Street and East Church Street.
They counted vehicles in the parking lots on June 30, at approximately 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. During the first count, they found 269 vehicles parked, taking up 74.3 percent of available spaces. The second count showed 255 vehicles, 69.9 percent.
Three lots, Health Quest, Creekside Salon, and the lot across Depot Road from City Hall, do not allow public usage after their normal business hours. With the gated closing of one parking lot, 56 spaces, on Depot Street after June 30, it is calculated that between 82.7 and 87.9 percent of the spaces are used.
The two new restaurants will require an additional 192 parking spaces, pushing usage over 100 percent.
“We waited for nice weather to get a good picture of what’s going on on a nice summer day,” Cauley said. “We tried to pick a time downtown restaurant activity would be highest to get an idea of how many spaces are currently filled.”
Allen said they specifically avoided the Friday night Concerts in the Park.
“We didn’t want to influence the year round affect of the restaurants,” he said. “We figured Thursday was going to be relatively busy – a pretty heavy time for restaurant usage.”
Thursday may not have been a great day for the study, said Steve Percival, observing the meeting as a member of the public.
“Fridays are typically jampacked,” Percival said.
Since then, the parking lot on the north side of Depot Road across from City Hall was closed off with a gate.
“This removes 56 parking spaces from public use, reducing the total number of available spaces from 362 to 306, according to the study.
Bob Roth, one of the owners of the Depot Road parking lot, asked why the study took so long.
Cauley said they are a small office and needed time for a parking inventory, and to wait for good summer weather.
Radcliff said Clarkston ordinance requirements are stricter than those in surrounding areas.
“It does not behoove us to pay too much attention to what the Clarkston ordinance says,” she said.
“You don’t enforce the ordinance anyway,” said Ed Adler, also an owner of the Depot Road lot.
“We aren’t getting into that,” Radcliff responded. “A lot of ordinances are not enforced – we’d be better off if we focus on what our needs are and how close we can get to it.”
Catallo said, even if the city collected money for parking deferment as required by ordinance, there are no projects to put it towards.
“It’s not a fair way to do that,” she said. “We’re never going to have $2 million to build a garage.”
The city could have had the revenue if it had charged developers for parking and put it in escrow, Adler said.
Percival called for the city to move forward with the information.
“We have to do whatever we can do to get out of this situation right now, not continue to debate what we could have or should have done with parking deferment,” he said.
The new Union Joints restaurant includes seating for 95 patrons inside and 20 outside. The estimated parking requirement is for 69 vehicles, based on the ordinance requirement of 0.6 spaces per seat ratio. The site plan shows six proposed on-street parking spaces on Church and Main streets.
The restaurant plan in the former bank includes seating for 114 on the main floor, 71 on the lower level, and 20 outside. Estimated parking requirement is 123 vehicles, using 0.6 spaces per seat.
Based on the city code requirements, the two restaurants require 192 parking spaces, total.
Royal Oak requires one space per 65 square feet, or 15 per 1,000 square feet. Ann Arbor requires one space per 750 square feet for restaurant not in retail center. The Institute of Transportation Engineers recommends 10.6 spaces per 1,000 square feet.
Audience members requested copies of the parking study, but committee members declined, saying it should be presented to City Council first.
“There are some things I want to change,” Radcliff said.
An effort by The Clarkston News to record the report photographically was interupted before completion.
The Michigan Freedom of Information Act says public records includes all writing prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained by a public body in the performance of an official function from the time it is created. FOIA exemptions do not apply to an outside consultant’s report to a public body.
“It’s a matter of public record – when it’s distributed at a meeting, you’re entitled to a copy,” said Robin Luce Herrmann, general council for the Michigan Press Association.

  parking