Downtown Parking Task Force Gives Community An Update

Group Defines Its Goals

Hannah Heineman
Mirror staff writer

   Santa Monica’s Downtown Parking Task Force hosted a community workshop on Saturday, April 7, to inform the community about its work to date.
   The primary objective of the Task Force is “to determine whether to increase the amount of public parking serving the downtown area and, if it is determined that additional parking is needed, to determine how and where to add capacity,” according to a staff report. “It is hoped that the parking strategy the Task Force develops will enhance the livability, the identity and the prosperity of Downtown by balancing the key elements in the design of its right-of-ways with those of the city blocks surrounding them.”
   The Task Force is developing plans based on the assumption that the “Park Once-Pedestrian First” system of shared parking and pedestrian circulation which is in place now will be continued into the future. 
   It has identified three rings on which it will frame its plans: 1) the dowtown core — bounded by Colorado Avenue, Wilshire Boulevard, (including City lots and structures north of Wilshire) Seventh Street and Ocean Avenue; the middle ring consisting of areas immediately beyond downtown, particularly the Civic Center to the south and 11th Street to the east; the outer ring which includes the rest of the City as well as the beach and Pier parking lots.
   The Task Force will attempt to resolve issues based upon typical parking conditions, as well as attempting to identify current and future problems and their solutions. 
   Its final plans will incorporate urban design, transportation policy, parking districts, traffic management, architectural enhancements and implementation approaches.
   In addition to describing their work to this point, City staff and Task Force members gave community members an overview of the existing conditions in the structures, the seismic retrofit issues, the type of revenue control equipment the City will be installing in July in the City parking structures and at the beach parking lots, and the current City iteration of its “Park Once - Pedestrian First” system and possible adjustments to that system.
   The next meeting of the Task Force is scheduled for April 25 at 6:30 P.M. at the Ken Edwards Center.