Background On Downtown Parking Plan

Article Source: City of San Bruno CA

San Bruno City Council Agenda Item

DATE: January 22, 2019

TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council

FROM: Jovan D. Grogan, City Manager

PREPARED BY: Darcy Smith, Community Development Director

SUBJECT: Accept Downtown San Bruno Parking Study - Parking Management

Plan

BACKGROUND:

In 2016, the City initiated the preparation of a comprehensive Downtown parking study in the form of a prepared Downtown Parking Management Plan (“Plan”) for Downtown San Bruno. This Plan served to implement the City’s General Plan (2009) and Transit

Corridors Plan (2013) and to support the City Council’s on-going efforts and interests in development and revitalization of San Bruno’s Downtown while respecting the existing residential neighborhoods and parking demand in the City. It is anticipated that significant changes in parking demand and needs will occur over time resulting from new development allowed in the Transit Corridors Plan. This comprehensive Plan serves to:

• analyze the existing parking supply and usage,
• project future parking demand,
• recommend parking management strategies,
• analyze potential options for future new parking supply, and
• examine the potential costs and revenues of implementing the Plan.
• On-street parking on San Mateo Avenue is heavily used during the weekday midday, but other areas are well below capacity at this time. On the weekend, midday parking occupancy is heavier and is sustained throughout the afternoon along both San Mateo Avenue and nearby side streets.
• Off-street parking supply experiences extended periods of occupancies above the 85 percent practical capacity level on both the weekdays and weekends.
• In the evening on both weekdays and weekends, including the overnight count, off-street parking in residential areas is near or over capacity, implying that there is very high demand for residential parking.
• Public off-street facilities are less well-used during the day, when primarily employees and short-term visitors are in the area. On the weekend, they are well used by visitors who are staying for longer durations or are possibly less familiar with parking options in the area.
• Vehicles on San Mateo Avenue tend to stay for longer durations on weekends than on weekdays, with many vehicles exceeding the 2-hour time limits on the weekend.
• Adjust time restrictions, primarily to convert 5-hour spaces to 10-hour spaces for employee use
• Install improved signage to help drivers locate available parking
• Improve parking lot maintenance and security
• Explore temporary use of the Sylvan Avenue Caltrain Station as additional public parking
• Explore converting parallel parking on San Mateo Avenue to diagonal parking to increase capacity
• Install parking meters on San Mateo Avenue to encourage short-term parking and direct long-term parkers into lots
• Formalize overnight parking arrangements in public lots to increase supply available to residents
• Begin process of planning and securing funds for a parking garage These strategies will be further analyzed as they are reviewed in more detail when they are proposed for implementation in the future. They are identified as recommendations, with no decisions made with Plan acceptance.

Concern over parking issues in downtown San Bruno has intensified over recent years and outreach efforts related to the Plan found that residents generally find the current conditions unacceptable. Population and job growth and housing costs have resulted in increased occupancy in the housing and car ownership in surrounding neighborhoods, resulting in demand for parking that exceeds the existing supply. Spillover parking by downtown employees may have some effects in adjacent neighborhoods during the busiest hours, but this was not found to be a major cause of high parking occupancy.

The City of San Bruno received a $1 10,000 grant in 2016 to prepare the Plan from the City/County Association of Governments (C/CAG), funded through the Priority

Development Area Parking Policy Technical Assistance Program. This grant application was approved by the City Council on June 14, 2016. Many of the City’s long range plans including the General Plan and the Transit Corridors Plan (TCP) aligned with the objectives of the Parking Policy Technical Assistance Program to implement parking management strategies in areas with transit-focused development to ensure efficient utilization of parking, including existing city-owned parking facilities, and an adequate supply of parking to meet anticipated future demand. These policy documents include policies to manage parking and to make better use of existing city parking facilities. Both the General Plan and TCP include policies to evaluate the need for a centrally located parking structure to serve merchants and shoppers in Downtown, including identifying potential sites, and assembling parcels.

CDM Smith was hired by C/CAG to prepare the plan starting in 2016. Key community engagement items consisted of a community meeting on November 29, 2017 that was attended by approximately 35 community members and staff, and stakeholder interviews of business and community members in May 2018. The existing conditions memorandum was provided to the City Council for their meeting on May 8, 2018. This 22-page memorandum is now incorporated into the final Plan which is being presented to the City Council for review and acceptance.

DISCUSSION:

Plan Objective

The Plan identifies appropriate supply, distribution and management of parking within the Downtown to meet current and future parking demands and minimize spillover into residential areas. The Plan projects future parking demand based on build out projections of the TCP, which anticipated that the increased densities allowed by the TCP will result in changing parking needs. It identifies parking strategies to meet parking needs in the near-term, medium-term and long-term timeframes, and recommends priorities based on the input of decision makers, stakeholders, and City staff.

The study area for the Plan includes the portion of San Bruno from San Mateo Avenue between Walnut Street to the north and El Camino Real and Taylor Avenue to the south, including two to three blocks to the east and west of this corridor.

Plan Summary

The report contains three key components, as follows:

Existing Conditions

The existing conditions analysis included an occupancy and duration survey of parked vehicles within the study area, to establish a baseline understanding of current parking conditions. Overall, the study finds that parking facilities near San Mateo Avenue are well used during the day on both weekdays and weekends, while the residential street blocks are more heavily used in the evenings and overnight, with total overnight parking occupancy close to capacity. In certain instances, individual blocks were observed to be exceeding the capacity of spaces on those blocks. A detailed analysis of occupancy and duration by time of day and location, along with the methodology for data collection, are described in the Plan.

Specifically, the Plan finds:

Parking Demand

While the current parking deficiency is primarily caused by an increase in the area population, future planned development in the area may exacerbate the issues by generating new demand for office and retail uses. A parking demand analysis was developed to project the future parking demand expected to be created by new development, so that the needs of these developments may be addressed by new parking facilities and improved parking management -preventing additional neighborhood impacts. The future parking demand analysis involved developing a parking demand model calibrated to the existing conditions data, and then projecting future demand that may occur as the result of new development in the area. The City provided phased growth projections that were developed as part of the Transit Corridors Specific Plan for residential, office, and retail developments in the downtown area. The demand analysis found that up to 76 additional parking spaces may be needed to meet parking demand in 2030, an additional 109 spaces would need to be added in 2040 (for a total of 185 new parking spaces), and an additional 248 spaces may be needed by 2050, resulting in a total of 433 additional spaces required across all phases to meet projected demand. These projections are based on existing parking demand patterns and projected growth, and thus may be altered as conditions, planned development, and behavior change. The details of the analysis are described in Chapter 2 of the Plan.

Parking Management Recommendations

A set of phased parking management recommendations were developed to manage the high afternoon and evening parking demand, help users find and use available parking, improve parking availability for residents, and potentially increase the parking supply. Specifically, this Plan recommends that the City:

 Adjust enforcement hours to better manage the heavy-use evening period

Other Plan Components

The Plan also included an analysis of site factors to consider in the future analysis of downtown parking garage sites. A garage is anticipated to be needed to increase the parking supply to meet the additional demand projected by the parking demand analysis. However, along with the analysis of site factors, the Plan also includes a financial analysis of garage and the future. The Plan provides ballpark cost and revenue estimates for the Plan and a potential city parking garage. The estimates provide a professional opinion of likely costs based on experience with previous parking programs and information from parking equipment and service providers, to be used for planning purposes.

There are many variables affecting the cost to construct a parking garage, resulting in a wide range of possible costs even within the Bay Area. Cost estimates for parking garages range from $25,000 per space to $52,000 per space, depending on land costs, site conditions, project complexity, and other factors. Based on the conditions at the potential garage sites, it is estimated that a garage in San Bruno may cost between $35,000 and $45,000 per space.

At $40,000 per space, a 450-space garage would cost approximately $18 million. The City would need to find a way to finance such a large capital project. This could be done through meter revenue (though this is likely to be insufficient), a parking assessment district, in-lieu parking fees, or public-private partnerships.

It is estimated that the parking management program would require approximately $230,000 in capital costs, including meters, enforcement technology, and signage. Labor costs, which include enforcement, administration, maintenance and collections could cost between $500,000 and $550,000 annually. Depending on the details of the technology selected, additional software and integration costs may be required. Program revenue would primarily be collected from the 186 parking meters recommended for the short-term on-street spaces. Revenue could be collected 10 hours a day, between 8 AM and 6 PM, 5 days a week. Based on the recommended pricing, hours, and existing demand for these spaces, the expected daily revenue per space is $13.80 and the total annual revenue for all metered spaces is estimated to be $640,000. The actual projected costs of meter installation and enforcement, and the revenues, will require a more detailed study in the future to refine these estimates. There may be additional revenue from a parking permit program, but this is likely to be a small proportion of total revenues.

Council Action on the Plan

The proposed City Council action would accept the Plan. It would not include any action related to actual implementation, funding, or physical construction. When actual implementation or construction is proposed in the future as part of a City-initiated project, more detailed analysis, funding identification, and environmental review will be conducted at that time.

FISCAL IMPACT:

The City of San Bruno received a $110,000 grant in 2016 from the City/County Association of Governments (C/CAG), funded through the Priority Development Area (PDA) Parking Policy Technical Assistance Program. A local matching grant was not required. As part of the future budget process, specific implementation projects and items will be studied and proposals presented for Council action. Additional funding will be needed for implementation of the various recommendations within the Parking Management Plan. However, at this time, staff is not seeking an appropriation of funds for implementation action, such request will be presented to Council as the recommendations are further analyzed and resources are needed.

ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARANCE:

The project meets criteria set forth in State California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guideline Section 15262 “Planning and Feasibility Studies” which can be used for projects or actions involving only feasibility or planning studies for possible future actions which the agency has not approved, adopted or funded and does not require preparation of an EIR, but does require consideration of environmental factors; and where the exceptions listed in CEQA Guidelines Section 15003.2 would not apply. The City Council is taking action to accept the Plan which qualifies as a “planning and feasibility study,” as no actual implementation or construction will occur as a result of the plan acceptance. When actual implementation or construction is proposed in the future as part of a project subject to CEQA, environmental review will be conducted at that time.

Therefore, the project qualifies for a Categorical Exemption pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15262 “Planning and Feasibility Studies,” and none of the potential exceptions to the use of this Categorical Exemption apply to this project. The project has no potential to cause a significant effect on the environment and therefore also qualifies for a Categorical Exemption pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15061 (b) (3) “Review for Exemption.”

ALTERNATIVES:

• No action. Staff does not recommend this alternative as it does not allow for the Plan to be accepted and implementation of the Plan strategies.
• Direct staff to work with the consultant to revise the Plan.
• RECOMMENDATION: Accept the Downtown San Bruno Parking Study- Parking Management Plan.

=

Robert Riechel

Send your articles and photos to:

E=Mail: SanBrunoPatch.Robert@Yahoo.com

WEB: http://SanBrunoPatch.com

Photo Credit: San Bruno CA Patch Archives

Source Credit: City of San Bruno CA

Web Site: https://sanbruno.ca.gov/

CLICK on link below to Subscribe to News Alerts and a Daily Email Newsletter for San Bruno Patch

http://link.patch.com/join/3-0-subscribe?list=US_CA_SANBRUNO_282

#SanBrunoPatch