GLENDALE : Study Finds Parking Spaces to Be Ample

While motorists might think parking spaces are eternally hard to find, a new study of downtown Glendale shows that despite the recent opening of the Alex Theater and other businesses, the area has ample parking--it just isn’t being put to its best use.

The study, conducted for the Glendale Redevelopment Agency by a private consultant, covered the entire downtown from the Ventura Freeway to Colorado Street.

It concluded that plans for a new municipal parking structure, for which officials have eyed several locations, can be put off if the city erects signs to direct shoppers and night-life patrons to under-used parking lots on side streets.

“The parking supply on the whole for the (downtown) retail area is adequate to accommodate the demand even during peak Christmas shopping season,” said Pat Gibson of Kaku Associates, which performed the study.

In the downtown area there are about 16,000 parking spaces in privately owned garages and another 1,800 spaces in off-street city lots.

But some lots not immediately adjacent to the Glendale Galleria mall or downtown shops are only half full during the holiday shopping season. And on an average business day, the public parking lots in the core downtown area are only about 40% full, according to the report.

“The low percentages during midday conditions cannot justify a new parking garage for the area at this time. Instead, better management of the existing parking spaces in the evenings is needed,” Gibson said.

The parking survey was commissioned by the redevelopment agency last year to help devise a “parking strategy” for the downtown area. Agency officials said they were concerned that a lack of parking spaces in the area was preventing or discouraging new businesses from moving in and shoppers from patronizing the area.

Among the many short-term solutions recommended in the report is an ordinance allowing restaurants to move into buildings formerly occupied by stores without having to meet the tougher parking demands required of restaurants. The city planning commission will consider such an ordinance next month.

Other recommendations include installing parking meters on free curbside spaces and converting a number of meters with 10-hour limits that are “within reasonable walking distance” of downtown with new two-hour meters, and extending meter operations for both on- and off-street city lots until 9 or 10 p.m.

The changes, officials said, would discourage people who work downtown from parking in public spaces, leaving more room for shoppers and visitors.

“The city can begin moving toward a parking system that encourages customer and visitor parking and, at the same time, provides (adequate) employee parking,” said Gibson.