6:30 Introductions
6:35 Review of Agenda - anything to add?
6:40 Review and Discuss Program Document
7:00 Design Questionnaire
7:30 Distribution of Questionnaire
7:45 Next Meeting?
7:50 Adjourn
Self-introductions around room, in attendance were:
Mark Abbott, Tower Grove South
Emily Andrews - The first item on the agenda is to review/discuss the Program Document.
Mark O'Bryan - The intent of this document is to lay out the existing parking conditions, to summarize the information from the recent focus groups, to outline the problems and issues that have been discussed so far. It is not meant to analyze the parking situation. To start out, let's look at the spreadsheet entitled South Grand Commercial Property. This lays out the study area and gives the amount of lot, street and metered parking by block.
Brian Marston - There are some parking spaces missing from block 1460 (behind Commerce Bank). Can this be corrected?
The group discussed the parking on block 1460 and agreed that the count of lot parking spaces will be updated.
Dave McCreery - It's important to note that the apartment building on the southwest corner of Grand & Connecticut is half in and half out of the business district and has no designated parking. This affects the parking situation.
Mark Abbott - Does the spreadsheet include garages and parking pads for the houses in the first block off Grand?
Mark O'Bryan - Not yet.
Craig Solberg - Block 2099 (between Connecticut & Wyoming west of Grand) has 62 lot spaces? Is that the church lot? Customers and employees of the business district don't have access that lot. So the spreadsheet includes surface lot parking spaces regardless of their access?
Mark O'Bryan - That church lot could be a potential solution. That's why I included it in the count. I have also included "casual" parking counts in this spreadsheet - places where business owners or employees are "stacking" cars & blocking each other in, or parking on sidewalk or alleys adjacent to businesses.
Susan Anderson - I have approached the church about using this lot. They are hesitant because they often hold daytime meetings there, but they might be willing to allow the district to use a handful of spaces. Even that will make a difference.
Mark O'Bryan - I still don't have Commerce Bank's plans for reconstruction. Those will be very helpful when generating solutions.
Paul Stefanski - It seems like this study is going to give us a snap shot of the district's parking situation. We'll need to be flexible with the results since things can always change in the district.
Mark O'Bryan - Exactly - if you look at the vacant square footage and the potential of the district that's very important. For example, the Dickmann building is not full. Tim Boyle tells me that many potential tenants won't locate there because of the lack of adjacent parking.
Brian - Could another option for the Dickmann building be residential lofts? That wouldn't generate as much parking.
Michelle Maple - They've looked into that, but it's not feasible cost-wise. It would be very very expensive. Also, when the Dickmann building was full, it brought a much better lunch business to the district.
Paul - Are there limits to only including half the block west of Grand in the study rather than the full block? Initially we decided to include the entire block in the study, right? Is it out of the question to walk that far?
Michelle - When we chose the entire block as part of the study it was before we hired our consulting team. We said we'd go ahead and include the whole block and allow the consultants to decide whether it was practical to include it all in the study.
Dick Zerega - The east block is much shorter. And it seems that many people will turn east from Grand and look for parking there because of that.
Paul - We should also include potential residential garage parking spaces in the study.
Michelle - Then we'll need to determine whether or not the garages are being used.
Brian - If we consider residents to have a parking demand on the district, then we should include garages in the count.
Mark Abbott - Will be we doing an absorption study?
Mark O'Bryan - We don't have one planned, but we will look at the general tendencies of parking in the district to determine the needs and solutions.
Dave - We also need to consider lighting and safety in the district. This is very important to parking.
Patrick Moore - We also need customer input & feedback.
Craig - And our surface lots need to be enclosed and made safe.
Mark O'Bryan - Remember, we're looking at the general tendencies & patterns.
Mark Abbott - We can see where the tensions are - but how many spaces do we need to make it work?
Dick - And we can assume the residents are taking care of themselves in terms of parking. Unless we can see a problem, like the apartment building on the corner of Grand & Connecticut.
Paul - Is there a way to measure shared parking?
Mark O'Bryan - We can some of that information from our questionnaires.
Mark O'Bryan - Did the Grand Visions study (north of Arsenal) include parking counts or was it just a traffic study?
Patrick - It included both - but just along Grand and it was primarily a traffic study. That project will include curb bump-outs, which will increase metered parking spaces.
Michelle - I will get you the maps for that project.
The group discussed the questionnaires that will be distributed to business district customers. Everyone had great suggestions for the questions to be included.
Sheryl - There will be three questionnaires: one for customers, one for residents and one for property & business owners and employees. We have a good idea from the focus groups on what to ask on the residential & business questionnaires. And your suggestions on the customer questionnaire will be really helpful.
The group also discussed the distribution of the questionnaires:
Emily - Is it feasible to include some data collection on parking space turnover? Mark, can you put something together about this for the steering committee?
Mark O'Bryan - I can look into this. And I think access to parking violations will be helpful also.
Emily - Sheryl, can you give us an idea of the questionnaire time-line?
Sheryl -
There are currently no meetings scheduled. Look for information about questionnaires soon!
Questions?
Minutes
June 20, 2002
June 20, 2002
Submitted by Emily Andrews
Susan Anderson, S. Grand Community Improvement District
Emily Andrews, SLACO
Sheryl Foster-Gadkari, Strategic Impact Inc.
Michelle Maple, Commercial District Manager
Dave McCreery, S. Grand Business District
Brian Marston, Tower Grove South
Patrick Moore, Tower Grove East
Mark O'Bryan, Art & Architecture, Inc.
Craig Solberg, S. Grand Business District
Paul Stefanski, Tower Grove South
Dick Zerega, St. Louis Planning & Urban Design Agency
- Draft ready by the end of June (6/28). Emily & Dick can distribute to steering committee
- Review it & get comments back to me by July 12.
- Test pilot - should take one or two days.
- Distribute it from the middle of July to the end of July - a two-week period is best.
Contact Emily Andrews @ SLACO
314-533-9104 x 205
emlandrews@hotmail.com.