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June 2021

Parking garage

VyStar Credit Union Calls for Construction of $ 21 Million Downtown Parking Garage | Jax Daily Record | Jacksonville Daily Record

by Deena S. Hawkins on

The city is considering a permit application for VyStar Credit Union to construct a proposed parking garage at 28 W. Forsyth St. Downtown at a cost of $ 21 million.

The seven-storey, 807-space structure is planned for 1.04 acres behind Regions Bank. It includes shell tenant spaces.

Danis Builders LLC is listed as the contractor. Dasher Hurst Architects is the architect.

Atlantic Engineering Services is the structural engineer and Almond Engineering is the civil engineer.

Dasher Hurst Architects is the architect of the parking lot.

A spokesperson for a credit union previously said that 250 parking spaces will be leased to the city.

VyStar President and CEO Brian Wolfburg said in March that the downtown-based credit union will innovate within the next six to 12 weeks on the garage.

VyStar increased the retail space on the ground floor in the garage design to 19,516 square feet after taking over the project in September 2019 from Laura Street Trio developer SouthEast Development Group LLC.

Wolfburg said in March that five to six tenants were interested in the garage retail space facing Laura and Main streets.

Coffee vendors, breweries and a doggy day care center have contacted VyStar but no contracts have been signed, he said.

New VyStar parking is planned at 28 W. Forsyth St. Downtown.

“We have over a year on this build. So once we get the shovel in the ground I think we’ll turn our in-house facilities team to that, ”Wolfburg said.

VyStar agreed to build the garage after developers at Laura Street Trio missed their construction start deadline under a city redevelopment deal.

The garage will support the 1,000 employees that VyStar relocates to the campus from its downtown headquarters.

VyStar has contracted with Regions Bank to purchase 0.26 acre parking at 54 W. Forsyth St. for the parking garage design expansion.

The credit union purchased the 23-story VyStar Tower at 76 S. Laura Street in July 2018 for $ 59 million. It has acquired an adjacent parking garage and is renovating a neighboring seven-story building at 100 W. Bay St.

City Council has approved an agreement to sell 0.77 acre municipal land to VyStar for the parking garage. VyStar has contracted with Regions Bank to purchase 0.26 acre parking at 54 W. Forsyth St. for the parking garage design expansion.

Editor-in-Chief Mike Mendenhall contributed to this report.

The garage will support the 1,000 employees that VyStar relocates to the campus from its downtown headquarters.

VyStar included 19,516 square feet of downstairs retail space in the design, but no tenants were announced.

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Parking spaces

Better hours could free up campus parking spaces – study

by Deena S. Hawkins on

Despite the move towards green transport on many college campuses, driving every day while struggling to find a parking spot can still be a daily reality at many institutions, especially those located in rural areas or in more dependent countries. of the car.

But fortunately, some academics in the United States have come up with a model that optimizes parking spaces for staff and students by setting class times to make the most of the available space.

Using the University of Louisville in the US state of Kentucky as a case study – a campus where more than 70% of staff and students normally drive, according to a 2018 survey – the researchers set out to compare class schedules current with the availability of spaces.

They found that parking demand could be predicted by looking at class schedules, especially when taking into account the average time staff and students could spend on campus before and after class.

Using this data, the researchers then built a model that produced the optimal schedule to make the most of parking facilities, finding that the current supply of 3,441 spaces could be reduced by 30% if classes were scheduled differently.

The paperpublished in the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Educationsays the results show that the lesson schedule can be used as a way to ensure that parking space is used in a more sustainable way, with the model able to be adapted to changes such as a shift to more online learning during the pandemic.

“Almost all parking supplies on UofL’s campus are asphalt parking lots,” says the article by Sumei Zhang, associate professor in the Louisville Department of Urban and Public Affairs, and Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah, assistant professor of planning. Urban and Regional at the University at Buffalo. .

“This type of parking lot requires a large area, increases impermeable surfaces on campus, and contaminates surface runoff due to the chemicals…contained in the coal tar emulsion sealing layer used in asphalt parking lots. .”

The paper adds that by minimizing parking supply, cost savings can be invested in other strategies “such as on-campus bicycling programs, transit programs (free bus rides), and increased incentives for those participating in shared mobility schemes”.

One catch might be that the optimization model for Louisville suggested that many classes should be rescheduled to 7am or late afternoon, with Fridays being used much more than before, which might not be welcomed by all staff and students.

Dr Frimpong Boamah said the model could be adapted to take into account ‘potential pushback’ among students and staff on suggested class times as well as ‘other political factors’.

However, he added, while this is possible, the challenge was “whether campuses are ready to have a more open and transparent dialogue about how parking and other transportation decisions are made to ensure a more sustainable campus environment.

“Perhaps parking should be part of our conversations about how we envision our post-Covid college campuses.”

[email protected]

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Parking garage

Does Klyde Warren Park Really Need Parking?

by Deena S. Hawkins on

Update: While previous reports referred to part of the new structure planned for the Klyde Warren Park expansion as a “parking garage,” a spokesperson for the park said there would be far fewer parking spaces than what is expected. was originally reported. And VisitDallas said this week that it currently has no plans to rent the new building, a change from announcing the extension for the first time. You can read more here.

For the July issue of D Magazine, on newsstands now, I’ve written about the park building boom that downtown Dallas has experienced over the past decade. There is Main Street Garden, Civic Garden (formerly Belo Garden), Pacific Plaza, and West End Square. Carpenter Park and Harwood Park are on their way. There’s of course Klyde Warren Park, the 5.2-acre bridge park built on Woodall Rodgers and opened in 2012.

Generally people love parks and people really love Klyde Warren Park. Kids love fountains and playgrounds, adults love food trucks and public spaces and yoga classes. Pedestrians downtown appreciate the way it connects, over a freeway, the Arts District and Uptown. The city and the developers love the way this increases the value of neighboring properties. Thursday afternoon, I left the office and headed out to the park to sit at a shaded table, eat a cookie, and watch the world go by. It was the best 30 minutes of my week.

So why isn’t everyone liking Klyde Warren’s upcoming 1.7 acre expansion, which again made headlines this week after Dallas City Council approved the finances from him? of the market ? (Much of the money for the $ 100 million expansion comes from TxDOT, private donors, and maybe federal grants.) More park can’t be a bad thing, can it. ?

Note the relative success of each of the newer downtown parks individually, and you’ll find a few nits to choose from. But overall, the construction of parks is a potential boon for the city center because it gives the city center something it badly needs: greenery, pedestrian public spaces and a break from the monotony of the city. car traffic on one-way streets. Many of these parks have literally supplanted parking lots, as clear a symbol as one might ask of Dallas shifting away from the self-centered mindset that has often kept downtown from being what it should be. They are shared and open spaces where everyone is welcome.

Maybe that’s why Klyde Warren Park’s expansion makes it look like Dallas could ruin the good thing we have. Expansion plans highlight a parking lot and a new building that will house, among other things, a center for VisitDallas, the city’s recently besieged visitors’ office. (Update, 1:30 p.m.: While previous reports on this have characterized the structure as a “parking garage,” a spokesperson for Klyde Warren Park said the new extension building will only include about 15 parking spaces exclusively. for people working in the structure. Read more here.)

That’s a lot of enclosed space, although plans call for new green space in the form of Jacobs Lawn. The expansion would expand the children’s park while adding an ice rink that would be used in the winter. Better road links to the Perot Museum are also part of the deal. (All of this would complement the equally controversial “super fountain” that’s in the park’s future.)

Still parking? Visiting Dallas?

“Klyde Warren Park has shown that Dallas residents want more places to meet and an urban core that improves walkability,” the Dallas Morning News’ Mark Lamster wrote in 2018. “But this new expansion offers the opposite: it’s a garage with private event space, and public amenities are an afterthought. Specifically, there is almost no park in this park – the additional space that there would be is cut off from the rest of the park by the new structure.

Boosters said the parking garage is needed and the rental of the enclosed lodge included in the new construction will help fund park operations. The park is owned by the city, but is managed by a private foundation which pays for its maintenance. Renderings make expansion a great place for your company’s next corporate retreat. But does Dallas need its parks?

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Parking spaces

Boston gave up hundreds of parking spots to sit outside. Good riddance.

by Deena S. Hawkins on

In all neighborhoods, cars were driven out for lounging and eating. Good riddance.

North End Terrace photo by Erin Clark/The boston globe via Getty Images

A friend of mine moved to Philadelphia early last year, so he hadn’t seen the New North End – what it looks like in 2021, completely covered in parklets and curbside patios, with hundreds of cheerful diners huddled together where there were once rows of idle cars. “Holy shit,” he said, as we drove through the neighborhood on a recent hot Sunday evening. “Is it always like this?”

We have all become so accustomed to the total renovation of the streets of Boston over the last year and a half, as we have sacrificed street parking spaces for outdoor dining and shopping, that this drastic change in the use of public space is no longer really noticeable. This is always like that now, and it was not the case before.

We’re going to keep it that way for at least a little longer. Even though the state of emergency was lifted earlier this month, that particular pandemic benefit lives on, extended by state law as part of a host of other COVID-era novelties that people have grown to love, including expanded mail-in voting and cocktails to-go. Major improvements to Boston life, all of them, and we should do everything we can to carry that fervor for patio seating into the future. Boston will be a better, more beautiful and more welcoming place if we do.

It’s hard to say exactly how many parking spots in Boston have been converted in this way. The city does not track this particular data point, a Department of Transportation spokeswoman tells me. The city also did not ask stores and restaurants to specify exactly how many parking spaces each would claim for their curbside patio space in license applications created under the Licensing Commission. Outdoor dining pilot program.

What we do know is this: so far, the city has granted 556 restaurants permits to host outdoor dining. Of these, 205 use off-street spaces like wide sidewalks, public rest areas, or private property like tarmacs and parking lots. The other 351 planted their patios directly on the road, nudging cars in the process. These new patios vary a lot in terms of size. A review of the city’s new policies on this matter shows that the main limitation to the number of parking spaces a restaurant can gobble up is its length. With few exceptions, anything “adjoining” the property is up for grabs.

Amazing how good things bloom when the city makes it a point to make it easy and doesn’t let bureaucratic roadblocks get in its way. Hundreds, if not more, of street parking spaces have been sacrificed for this cause, without causing headaches for restaurateurs. We are undeniably better at it.

There are strong economic reasons to maintain these good times. Some restaurants have not only been able to match their pre-pandemic headcount despite capacity restrictions, but to augment the number of customers they could serve in one night – a much-needed revenue boost after a year of mandatory closures. Imagine the ground they could make up for if they were allowed to keep street patios open indefinitely.

Outdoor dining has also led to the spread of a new DIY art form, as restaurant staff have dressed up their small street seating plots with flowers and lights, building wooden structures and by draping them with artificial ivy. Parklets, as these spaces are often called, have been popular for years in cities like Montreal, and now they’ve finally had their big breakout moment in Boston.

They have now made their way to every neighborhood in Boston. Foodie destinations like the North and South Ends, Fenway and Back Bay, naturally, have plenty of them. Plenty of curbside seating can also be found in Mattapan and Hyde Park, places where previous efforts to boost the food scene had been less successful. By simply letting diners spill out into the open air, people have new reasons to patronize local small businesses and enjoy the relaxing Vaccine Summer parties that linger longer than ever in the midst of these neighborhoods.

That before all this these beautiful places could be occupied by a mere car, in a prime location outside a bustling restaurant, for hours at a time, and for the owner’s pocket change, now seems absurd. . This is absurd.

How we deal with parking in the future is important. The traffic is, terrifying, back to 2019 levels already, and most white-collar workers aren’t even back to work in their offices yet.

Before COVID, the city was talking about dipping its toes into the debate over ban cars from city centers. If and when we get serious about the concept, think of it this way: imagine if all of our beloved new patios weren’t limited to space the size of an eight-and-a-half-foot parking spot. from the sidewalk. What if the whole street was up for grabs, in the warmer months and in winter? What if the streets were not only dotted with dining tables, but also with parks, handcarts, pop-up shops, public art or even stages for artists?

Generally speaking, Boston would be better off with less street parking. Parking spaces are often what stand in the way of buses and protected cycle paths that would make getting around easier and reduce traffic jams. Parking requirements may also add unnecessary speed bumps housing development for underprivileged Bostonians. Generally, a space used for parking would be more useful, to more people, than just about anything else. Outdoor dining reminds us that every plot of land wasted on giving cars space to park has the potential to be something much better, something beautiful, something useful. Continuing down a path that sees us removing parking spaces and replacing them with outdoor seating, we’ll get rid of something bad and replace it with something good, like scraping off the lead paint and applying a fresh coat. In the years to come, we should keep this in mind.

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For Sale: 450 Parking Spaces On Clearwater Beach For At Least $ 12 Million | Clear water

by Deena S. Hawkins on

CLEARWATER – At certain times of the year, finding a single parking spot in Clearwater Beach can be a challenge.

But, for $ 12 million, someone can now buy 450 in a popular business district just off Mandalay Avenue.

In 2014, when the city approved construction of the North Beach seven-level parking lot, officials said a study predicted the city’s 450 spaces at this facility would be profitable.

It didn’t, so on June 17, city council voted to declare its share of the garage surplus and invited bidders to bid, starting at $ 12 million.

The garage was built as part of a public-private partnership with Paradise Group LLC of Safety Harbor, who built the garage on approximately 1 acre of land at 490 Poinsettia St. adjacent to Pelican Walk Plaza. In 2016, the city agreed to buy 450 of the approximately 700 garage spaces for about $ 11.3 million, or about $ 25,000 per space.

These spaces, however, are on levels 3-7 and have not generated the benefits the city hoped for.

“Of course the majority of people when they park they park on the first two floors, so they (Paradise) receive constant income,” parking manager Jeremy Alleshouse told council members in a session. working June 14. “We get sporadic income. “

The pandemic has exacerbated this problem, as revenues did not cover expenses and were in deficit last year.

City staff recommended that the minimum bid required be $ 11.58 million, the city’s total investment in the property.

The city also received two appraisals on its part of the garage, one valuing it at $ 11.16 million and the other at $ 13.24 million.

Therefore, Deputy Mayor Hoyt Hamilton said he would be more comfortable if the minimum bid fell somewhere in between.

“I think we should be able to get $ 12 million without a problem,” he said.

Mayor Frank Hibbard said he did not believe the deal with Paradise was in the city’s best interest and supported either the sale of the spaces or the purchase of the entire structure, which includes around 18,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.

It might not even be an option, however.

Hamilton said Paradise already has a buyer in place for the rest of the site for around $ 20 million.

“Do we want to spend $ 20 million and own the whole shooting game?” I wouldn’t recommend this, ”he said.

“If we agree to sell ours for $ 12 million, we won’t lose any parking on the beach, but we have $ 12 million in our parking fund which gives us the ability to eventually meet future parking needs.”

Hibbard agreed that the extra money in the city’s parking fund could be used more productively.

Employee parking

There are downsides to selling the spaces, Alleshouse said.

“The big downside to the garage sale is that we sell a lot of monthly beach employee passes which is way below the market,” he said.

In fact, the city sold 436 passes, each for just $ 40 a month.

Hibbard said parking for beach employees was important, but felt the reduced rate was too generous and one reason the city was losing money.

“If you work 160 hours a month and pay a quarter of an hour, I think that’s a little ridiculous,” he said. “I think we are subsidizing too much, but that’s my personal opinion.

He said beach business owners had expressed concerns about the loss of affordable parking for their employees, but Hibbard said he was assured the structure would remain a parking lot and the new owner would continue. to provide parking for employees.

Hamilton, whose family owns the Palm Pavilion, said he understood the concerns and that his establishment was paying $ 20 out of $ 40 for employee parking passes.

“Without employees, you don’t have a business. Without businesses, you have no destinations. So there is a balance here that we have to try to find, ”he said.

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Town of Normal loses revenue on parking structures due to pandemic

by Deena S. Hawkins on

NORMAL, Ill. (WMBD) – Parking structures were the subject of a debate on Monday evening at the Normal City Council meeting.

Council member Stan Nord questioned the fees and said the city was constantly losing money to reimburse the management company for the management fees.

In Uptown Normal parking structures, parking is free for the first hour and any additional hour costs $ 1 per hour. However, for the past year, the Town of Normal has experienced a loss of revenue for the town specifically at this structure.

On Monday night at the council meeting and on social media Tuesday, administrator Stan Nord said the city should reconsider charging parking fees at city-owned garages after the city paid more than $ 8. $ 000 in lost revenue refunds to Heartland Parking Inc.

“The total is $ 56,000 which we lost due to the collection of parking fees. So if it costs us more to collect, we have to look at that because it’s an overall net loss, ”said Nord.

The city reimburses Heartland Parking, which manages the collection of fees. But the money used to pay is not made on the structures. Nord said the parking fee should cost taxpayers nothing.

“Taxpayers lose. All this money is coming out of taxpayers’ pockets. All the money that we don’t get because of parking, taxpayers pay to cover it, ”said Nord. “If we cut spending anyway, then it’s a net gain all around, but we have to think about it. We need to have this conversation.

Normal City communications director Cathy Oloffson said fees exist for the interview and deter students from filling bridges, avoiding fees elsewhere.

“These are costs that are fixed costs. They are not leaving. We want to make sure the bridges are clean, safe and well lit and the fees we collect help offset those operational costs, ”said Oloffson.

Oloffson said COVID-19 primarily caused a loss of people using Uptown parking and in the non-COVID years the city broke even, preventing taxpayer dollars from reimbursing Heartland Parking.

“We are starting to see traffic picking up from Uptown station. For many months at the start of the year, Amtrak did not have a full train schedule, so these numbers are reflected in what has been shared so far, ”said Oloffson.

Oloffson also said the city does not operate the parking lots as a revenue generator, but only as a place where residents and visitors can park their cars and “dine, shop and play” in Uptown.

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Parking garage

Vancouver plans to sell parking garage back to developer

by Deena S. Hawkins on

Vancouver City Council plans to sell a parking garage back to its developer for $ 3.44 million, more than 20 years after the city initially bought the structure to boost the downtown economy.

Councilors heard from Director of Community and Economic Development Chad Eiken during their remote meeting Monday night about the proposed sale of the parking lot next to Columbia Bank at 500 Broadway. The structure would fall to Broadway Investors LLC, its initial developer.

“The garage was bought by the city to catalyze the redevelopment of the lower downtown area. It was in 1999, ”said Eiken.

The purchase of the garage “was one of the city’s many major investments to spur development” in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he added.

According to Eiken, a key part of the 1999 deal was a guarantee that Broadway Investors would retain the exclusive right to buy back the property, depending on the timing and pricing conditions. The business leaders submitted their official request to buy the structure from the city on May 19.

“The garage was not purchased as a district parking asset for the surrounding areas,” Eiken said. “It was always meant to be sold back to the developer.”

While the ivy-covered garage has 233 parking spaces, only 27 are used for short-term public parking. The rest of the spaces are occupied by employees who work in the two buildings adjacent to the structure – Columbia Bank and The Hudson, a three-story office and retail building.

As a condition of the sale, city staff are asking Broadway Investors to maintain 25 parking spaces for short-term customer parking.

Currently, Vancouver operates the parking structure at a loss. Between operation, maintenance, and debt payment, it costs $ 291,000 per year to operate, while it averages $ 258,000 in revenue per year in daily fees and parking passes, for a loss of about $ 33,000 per year. The city is also still paying an outstanding balance related to the original purchase of $ 1.35 million.

Proceeds from the sale – about $ 2.3 million, after Vancouver paid off its remaining debt on the structure – would be donated to the City Parking Fund and used for other parking related projects around Vancouver, Eiken said.

The first garage purchase was a product of the Esther Short Sub-Zone Redevelopment Plan of 1997, which saw the city pour millions of dollars into projects that invigorated the downtown area and would attract employers to the area.

This same plan was the catalyst for Vancouver’s purchase of the Vancouvercenter garage in 2004; sweeping improvements to Esther Short Park; and investments in nearby streets, sidewalks, lighting and utility infrastructure.

Eiken said the then city council achieved what it set out to buy the garage more than two decades ago: he estimates the purchase directly resulted in a private investment of $ 30 million. dollars, because it enabled the construction and staffing of Columbia Bank. and the Hudson.

“This added office workers, residents, retail sales, property taxes – and finally, the garage will be added to the tax roll once it is sold,” Eiken said.

Advisors are expected to vote on the sale at their next meeting on June 28.

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PHOTOS: Temperature checks, distance markers removed from Disneyland Resort parking structures and plaza

by Deena S. Hawkins on

This week, COVID-19 security measures were relaxed at Disneyland Resort, and now we’re starting to see what things look like in this return to normal.

At the Mickey & Friends car park, the temperature control stations have been removed. Guests were no longer required to be screened as of Tuesday, June 15.

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As the metal detectors approached, physical distancing markers were put up, allowing guests to line up as they did before the pandemic.

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There are also no markers leading to the tram.

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Fully immunized guests are no longer required to wear a face covering, and we’ve seen many benefit from the rule change.

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Markers were also removed outside the entrance to Disneyland, although they left footprints on the sidewalk.

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You can still see the contours even on the commemorative paving stones.

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With no distancing requirement, guests lined up near the doors.

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Across the plaza, guests could be seen doing the same at the entrance to Disney California Adventure.

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These outlines are one of the few reminders of one of the strangest periods in Disneyland Resort history.

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For more Disneyland Resort news and information, follow Disneyland News Today on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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Parking garage

Most of Binghamton’s new $ 10 million parking garage closed ‘for repairs’

by Deena S. Hawkins on

The upper four levels of the recently opened city-owned car park in Binghamton town center have been closed to users while repairs are underway.

The six-story, $ 10 million garage on Hawley Street and Washington Street has been in business for about five months.

A sign at the entrance informs users that parking is not available above the second level due to “repairs”.

Adjustments were made to the drainage system for the new Hawley Street parking garage. (Photo: Bob Joseph / WNBF News)

Workers were busy fixing drainage issues and targeting the relatively small cracks that developed in the poured concrete. There are apparently no structural issues reported in the new 304-space garage, which opened on January 11.

The repair operations seem not to bother the users of the parking lot. Most of the Binghamton University students who live in the city center during the school year have returned home for the summer.

Construction on the garage just west of Town Hall began in the spring of last year. William H. Lane Incorporated was the general contractor for the project.

A barricade prevented vehicles from using the upper section of the Hawley Street garage on June 14, 2021. (Photo: Bob Joseph / WNBF News)

Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: [email protected] or (607) 772-8400 ext 233.

For the latest news and updates on story development, follow @BinghamtonNow on Twitter.

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Parking spaces

Copenhagen cuts parking spaces in city-center trial

by Deena S. Hawkins on

June 14, 2021

by Christophe Carey

Copenhagen pedestrians and cyclists will have priority over cars on five historic downtown streets, as part of a pilot project to transform the medieval district of the Danish capital.

The parking spaces will be replaced by trees and benches during the experiments, which will run until the end of September.

The projects stem from a number of recommendations that a citizens’ assembly presented to city council in 2019 and which the mayor of technology and environment, Ninna Hedeager Olsen, also supported.

“It has long been a great wish for me and many residents of Copenhagen to keep as many cars as possible away from the streets of the medieval city, where the narrow streets and comfortable squares are not suitable for cars.

“By reducing car traffic to what is strictly necessary, we can create a much more attractive neighborhood. With the experiences, this will become concrete, and I look forward to becoming wiser about how we can make life and travel in the medieval city more pleasant.

Parking removed

A total of 66 parking spaces will be removed during the trial period, with motorists encouraged to use the surrounding car parks.

Throughout the project, the municipality will collect data and work with residents, businesses and visitors to the area to learn how to incorporate the results into future planning.

The five projects will explore different outcomes based on the characteristics of each street, with roads marked to indicate pedestrian priority.

  • Vestergade: This essay focuses on nightlife and behavior. It will study how the design of urban space can help prevent and limit noise from nightlife and cars in collaboration with the police, the Culture and Leisure Administration and local pubs. Up to 13 parking spaces will be closed during the trial period.
  • Skindergade: Examines how to balance pedestrians, bicycles and cars with commercial and non-commercial use of urban space, with 13 parking spaces to close.
  • Dyrkûb: Investigate the possibility of using trees and temporary benches to create a sense of tranquility in Cathedral Square, with 19 closed parking spaces during the trial period.
  • Klosterstrde – Hyskenstrde: Examines how to manage the space between pedestrians, cyclists and goods delivery vehicles in a very narrow urban space while engaging with residents on the creation of a temporary green space. Twelve parking spaces will be closed during the trial.
  • Lille Kongensgade – Kirkestræde store. Tests the operation of a priority pedestrian street with limited driving, with biking and car use by authorized residents as well as transporting goods at certain times. Nine parking spaces will be closed during the trial period.

“I hope that many will engage in the dialogue and provide their perspective on what works and what does not. The experiments are aimed precisely at making us aware of how car traffic and the number of parking spaces can be reduced in order to create good development for the medieval town, ”said Hedeager Olsen.

Hans Permana (Flickr)

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San Antonio Zoo President in awe of parking lot structure

by Deena S. Hawkins on

The San Antonio Zoo installed the zoo’s second lime green sign on the side of its parking lot visible from US 281 on Wednesday.

Additional artwork will be installed to complement the structure’s design in the coming weeks, said Tim Morrow, president and CEO of the zoo.

“We talked about wanting this to be an iconic building in San Antonio, and being able to make an iconic building out of a parking lot is a job well done by the architects, designers and team at the zoo, who all worked on it. “, did he declare.

There are currently three large giraffes on the structure, and next to being installed are a large tiger and several monarch butterflies, Morrow said. He said tests were also underway for the nighttime lighting. The panels will be backlit and the giraffes will be illuminated by ground lighting.

“It is perhaps the most beautiful parking lot on the planet!” he tweeted.

Looking natural and beautiful was the goal when designing the five-level garage, the zoo said. There is a lot of greenery and trees surrounding and growing on the structure.

The zoo unveiled the exterior design of the parking lot around the same time last year, but began installing the artwork last month. The delays were due to the manufacturing process of the large panels and animals.

“They stalled a bit because of all the rain we had in May, and now we have seen [construction] start to resume, ”he said.

On Expressnews.com: Dolittle ‘- San Antonio Zoo unveils plaque honoring’ Elephant Man ‘

The animals selected on the structure represent conservation efforts around the world, Morrow said. Giraffes will represent efforts across Africa, the tiger will represent efforts in Asia, and butterflies will highlight efforts in San Antonio and the rest of North America.

Those who visit the San Antonio Zoo, Brackenridge Park, or any of the surrounding sites can park in the garage for free as city funds were used to build it. Inside the garage, visitors will find colorful artwork and animal facts on every parking level.

“We try to make it fun and educational, inside and out,” Morrow said.

[email protected]

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Downtown Memphis parking lot, mall gets approval

by Deena S. Hawkins on

Plans to build a huge parking lot and a downtown shopping center were boosted on Thursday.

The Memphis and Shelby County Land Use Control Commission unanimously approved a special use permit for the Memphis Downtown Field Commission $ 40 million Mobility Center above ground at the corner of Beale and Main streets. Plans call for a 960-space parking garage with space for storing bicycles, showers, lockers, electric scooter stands and retail space on the ground floor.

The existing 1.3 acre lot, across from Beale Street and the Orpheum Theater, is city-owned. The DMC said the garage will serve as a transit hub for the city, providing a convenient place for people to park in the city center and then walk, cycle, scooter or take the tram to nearby attractions. like the FedEx Forum, Beale Street, AutoZone Park and downtown shops, restaurants and bars.

Previously:A proposed $ 40 million parking garage, a plan to connect assets in downtown Memphis

Related:‘People are downtown’: Memphis’ increase in parking revenues indicates economic recovery

Jason Weeks of LRK Architects said the parking lot was part of the project, but combined multiple modes of transportation being on the tram line and providing bicycle and scooter storage and providing retail and dining space. additional in one of the busiest areas of the city center.

“I think the big problem is it’s not a parking garage. Parking is one of them, but we call it a mobility hub because of all the key aspects that we have in this project, ”he said.

A member of the public, Charles Belenky, spoke out against the garage, saying there was no need for parking and that the structure would be incongruous with its surroundings.

According to a report by staff of the Land Use Control Commission, the parking lot will be “hidden from public view” and the structure will have “a facade complementary to the surrounding buildings.”

Weeks rebuffed the idea that there was no need for parking, saying businesses around the proposed mobility hub had told the DMC they needed more parking.

The mobility hub is part of the DMC’s larger plans to change the way people move around downtown Memphis and better connect the city’s assets to each other.

The project will still have to undergo an administrative review and approval by the Town Planning and Development Division.

Corinne S Kennedy covers economic development, football and the impact of COVID-19 on hospitals for the commercial appeal. She can be reached by email at [email protected] or 901-297-3245.

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The municipal council votes to stop the construction of a car park | local government

by Deena S. Hawkins on

The Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously to halt plans to build a garage on East Market Street.

The garage was originally proposed in a parking agreement with Albemarle County as part of a joint court complex project. As part of the agreement, the county is to have 90 parking spaces reserved exclusively for county use.

However, county officials said a whole new parking structure isn’t necessary as long as the city can provide spaces in an existing garage or lot.

At a public hearing on May 25, many members of the public had urged council not to build a parking structure and to consider using the existing Market Street and Water Street garages, as well as the land existing.

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Residents were also concerned that the proposed garage could lead to the demolition of two local businesses – a Lucky 7 convenience store and a Guadalajara restaurant.

The vote on the garage was part of the adoption of the consent agenda at Monday night’s council meeting.

Belmont BridgeAlso at its Monday meeting, council voted unanimously to allocate more than $4.2 million to the Belmont Bridge replacement project. The money comes from state coffers.

Jeanette Janiczek, Urban Construction Initiative program manager for the city, said at the May 17 council meeting that the need for additional funding became apparent after initial meetings with bidders interested in working on the project.

“Not only were material costs much more expensive, and we think that’s related to the pandemic, whether it’s supply chain production or just inflation, that we’re seeing an increase material costs, but we’re also seeing an increase in labor costs as well,” Janiczek said.

Relief fundThe city has received about half of the funds earmarked for the U.S. bailout, City Manager Chip Boyles told councilors Monday.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 is a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in March.

The city received about $9.8 million of the projected total of $19.6 million, Boyles said. He said the city does not expect to receive the second half of the funds until 2022.

Boyles said the funding will first be used to replace city revenue that has been lost due to the pandemic, as well as additional COVID-19 safety improvements.

“Then we will very soon be rolling out for our non-profit actors in the community a program where they can apply [for funding],” he said.

There are federal stipulations that funds must be earmarked for COVID-19 relief measures.

Boyles said there have been discussions in Congress about using leftover US bailout funds to help fund Biden’s infrastructure bill.

“We’re sure it’s not going anywhere, but it’s still a discussion,” Boyles said. “So we are very cautious about the type of commitments we will make until we know for sure that the second tranche of bonds is coming.”

The city has already considered using some of the money to fund a partnership with the Legal Aid Justice Center that would provide attorneys to tenants facing eviction at no cost to the tenant.

The city council also discussed allocating some of the money to the United Way of Greater Charlottesville’s Pathways Fund, which provides rental assistance to those financially impacted by the pandemic.

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Some Albemarle Officials Say Parking Not Necessary To Keep Courts Agreement Intact | Local government

by Deena S. Hawkins on

Supervisor Liz Palmer, who has always supported keeping the courts downtown, said she understands city council wants to wait and see parking needs after COVID.

“We were very careful to come up with alternatives because, quite frankly, we didn’t know what the city would look like in the future,” she said. “Today’s board cannot require a future board to do something specific, just like with the supervisory board.”

Palmer said she was concerned about the age of the Market Street Garage and its long-term viability.

“I want more information on the state of the Market Street Garage, what its future is, in order to give preference to alternatives… we need to investigate,” she said.

Almost $ 500,000 was spent by the city in fiscal 2016 to refurbish components of the Market Street garage, including repointing mortar, some brick replacements, ADA upgrades and gasket replacements. vertical expansion.

Supervisors Donna Price and Bea LaPisto-Kirtley both said they were confident that even if the parking garage was not built, the county would still have the parking spaces needed under the deal.

“If the garage is not to be built, before I say whether I prefer door number two or door number three, I want to get advice from county staff who would help me feel better knowing what the circumstances are and the terms today, not what they were when we made the deal in the past, ”Price said.

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Parking spaces

Growth required more parking spaces in suburban malls and downtown stores

by Deena S. Hawkins on

Getting the perfect parking spot is always a satisfying victory, but we often take for granted what that parking spot, parking lot or garage means to our city and our history. These photographs of the cars parked around the old City Market building and Ellis Square show how the need to park has changed our urban environment.

Automobiles have revolutionized nearly every facet of American culture, providing unprecedented convenience and accessibility, but perhaps with them too much has come. Historic cities like Savannah were not originally designed with the automobile in mind, so the need for a place to store them forced creative solutions at best, and destruction of sites and sites at worst. of historical monuments.

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Parking Park & ​​Shop in Ellis Square surrounded by on-street and above-ground parking, August 1970. MPC Historic Preservation Photo Collection, item 8126-006_01-4-0119.

Downtown businesses at risk of losing customers to suburban malls have argued for more and more parking. Unused lots were converted to surface parking lots, and multi-level parking garages were eventually deemed necessary to house the glut of vehicles that flooded downtown streets.

When it was built in the 1870s, shoppers used to tour the city’s old market building on foot, horseback, and wagon or streetcar. In the 1950s, vehicles were piling up around him on the street. When the market was demolished in the 1950s, it was replaced by the Park & ​​Shop multi-level garage. While the increased parking density offered by Park & ​​Shop has surely made life more convenient for downtown shoppers, Savannah has lost one of its most important landmarks.

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Cars parked around the old City Market building on Ellis Square, undated. MPC Historical Preservation Photograph Collection, item 8126-006_01-4-0124.

Another proposal in the 1960s suggested that River Street be turned into an additional parking lot for Broughton Street shoppers. Lucky for us today, architects Eric Meyerhoff and Robert Gunn instead envisioned a pedestrian plaza that transformed the waterfront from a neglected and abandoned harbor into an international destination thanks to the Riverfront Urban Renewal Project.

When the Park & ​​Shop lease expired in 2004, the garage was demolished and, through an extensive public-private partnership, Ellis Square was renovated into a vibrant public gathering place with parking moved to a large underground lot. opened to the public in 2007.

City of Savannah Municipal Archives, [email protected], Discover the Archives: savannahga.gov/MunicipalArchives.

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Kingston, Ont. planners propose to reduce parking spaces in new developments – Kingston

by Deena S. Hawkins on

Kingston has a parking problem.

It’s been a familiar complaint among downtown shopkeepers, customers and employees over the years, especially during pre-pandemic times.

Read more:

COVID-19: Some frontline hospital workers say parking remains an issue in Kingston

But a new report suggests the real problem lies in the ‘excessive’ oversupply of privately built vehicle space, particularly around large residential buildings, offices and shopping malls, and that zoning rules municipal should be amended to limit it in the future.

“We have way too many parking lots in the city,” says Brent Toderian, a Vancouver-based urban design consultant.

The City of Kingston’s planning department worked with Toderian to produce a ‘call to action’, a sweeping overhaul of the number of future parking spaces that should be created.

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In short, much less.

A planning report suggests developers have much more flexibility in deciding how many parking spaces to build to help the city meet its goals of promoting public transit and responding to a climate emergency.


CKWS-TV


Their solution, which may prove controversial when presented to the public and local politicians, is to move away from car-driven development.

The report acknowledges that the city has been its own biggest enemy in the past by requiring developers to provide more parking spaces than necessary.

City planners pointed to this aerial view of the Kingston Center shopping mall as an example of a parking oversupply.


City of Kingston


The key solution touted by planners is to change city rules and give developers the flexibility to drastically reduce the number of parking spaces they want to provide to owners, customers or tenants, while ensuring they don’t not provide an oversupply of spaces for new apartments and condominiums.

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Currently, the city requires a minimum number of building spaces for new commercial and residential projects.


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Kingston healthcare workers push for parking assistance at height of COVID-19 pandemic
Kingston healthcare workers push for parking assistance at height of COVID-19 pandemic – April 19, 2021

The general rule is that a builder must construct one parking space for each unit of an apartment or condominium, unless concessions are negotiated and approved by the city council, such as providing payment instead of parking.

But in the new working paper, titled “The Power of Parking – A New Parking Paradigm for Kingston? city ​​planners are proposing to sharply reduce minimum parking supply standards, and even impose new maximum standards to avoid too much paved space around or under multi-unit residential buildings.

The policy would also eliminate any parking requirements for all new affordable and heritage housing developments.

Community Services Commissioner Paige Agnew calls it one of the most “exciting and transformative” strategies ever produced by planning staff.

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“It takes things to a whole new level.”

She acknowledges that overturning the longstanding status quo of giving priority to cars could be a tough sell among drivers in a city where the car is still the preferred mode of transport for at least two-thirds of regular commuters. It is not uncommon to see two, three or four vehicles parked in the driveways of suburban homes.

Asked if the proposed guidelines would encourage developers to reduce on-site parking to the point where an overflow of vehicles could occur onto nearby streets, she says this could be managed through law enforcement on the parking.

Kingston’s Community Services Commissioner says any overflow of street parking can be handled by law enforcement.


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Although the discussion paper makes no formal recommendations, Agnew says their hope is to turn some, if not all, of these proposals into a comprehensive new citywide zoning bylaw.

City planners say they are also looking at the new bylaw, guiding future development rules, to make other major changes in terms of allowing commercial uses in churches, creating more small homes and shipping containers shipping, and additional green ribbon environmental protections.

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Parking is the last part of the by-law to be put under the microscope.

“We dramatically underestimated the complex costs and consequences of how we deal with parking,” says Agnew.

As the zoning regulator of private parking lot developments, Agnew says it’s time for the city to deregulate a bit and let developers decide how much parking is right for their sites.

She says the past drive to create more parking has actually made it much harder for Kingston to achieve some of its stated public goals, such as improving affordability and mitigating climate change.

According to the 152-page Agnew-Toderian report, reducing parking requirements will demonstrate leadership in climate action, support housing affordability, promote active transportation and transit, ensure urban health and equity social and streamline the often confusing parking construction requirements.

The parking flexibility suggested to developers could also encourage them to create more short- and long-term bicycle storage and electric vehicle charging stations, planners said.

Toderian, who was hired by the city to help rethink its planning policies, says the more parking lots you build, the more people are tempted to drive and buy vehicles, which goes against the city’s own city’s climate emergency declaration.

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Read more:

Kingston becomes the first city in Ontario to declare a climate emergency

He suggested that requiring developers to build a pre-defined minimum number of parking spaces drove up urban housing costs by 12.5% ​​to 25%, in part because of the large amounts of concrete materials or required for parking lots and structures, and in the building design process itself.

The report estimates that the cost of constructing a parking space ranges from $6,000 for a paved surface to $45,000 for an underground space, and given Kingston’s geographic nature as a “limestone” city, developers tend to build parking structures above ground which can make it even more expensive.

Toderian says the hidden costs of parking oversupply not only translate into higher development costs, but also trickle down to higher rents, lower wages and more gas emissions. greenhouse for parking structure materials.

He estimates that 36% of Kingston’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector.

A discussion paper on parking indicates that Kingston’s transportation sector is responsible for 36% of greenhouse gas emissions.


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“It’s more than just money when it comes to costs and consequences.”

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Planners stressed that the drive to reduce vehicle parking requirements in certain types of new developments will not impact current or future accessible parking supply, nor override previous zoning approvals that allowed large-scale parking lots, such as those around businesses and retail. shopping centers.

Planners say they want the public to comment on the working document before any changes are written into the new zoning bylaw.

“We don’t make recommendations and our decisions aren’t made,” explains Laura Flaherty, project manager in the planning department.

The discussion paper will be the subject of a virtual public meeting of the planning committee on June 23.

The revamped, harmonized and simplified Kingston-wide zoning by-law is expected to be completed and ready for council approval early next year.


Click to play video: “Kingston hosts third annual climate change symposium, first after declaring climate emergency”







Kingston hosts third annual climate change symposium, first after declaring climate emergency
Kingston hosts third annual climate change symposium, first after declaring a climate emergency – 16 January 2020

© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Collapsed parking garage in downtown Lexington to be redone

by Deena S. Hawkins on

A downtown Lexington parking lot that partially collapsed in a winter storm earlier this year will be demolished, the building’s owners said Thursday.

The Lexington Opportunity Fund LLC, owners of the BB&T Bank building and garage, said in a written statement that they plan to “immediately demolish” the parking lot and replace it with a new structure.

The upper level of the parking garage at the corner of West High and South Mill streets collapsed in February, sending the upper garage deck to the lower floors of the structure. No one was injured and this section of the garage was not in use at the time of the collapse.

A structural beam under the parking lot’s upper deck had failed, the building’s owners said at the time.

Some work on the site took place immediately after the collapse.

A new $ 8 million parking lot will be built to replace the aging garage complex. The new parking lot will be completed in the summer of 2022, according to the press release.

Lexington Opportunity Fund LLC is a joint venture between the Webb and Greer companies. The two have also developed the nearby downtown area and other properties.

This story was originally published 3 June 2021 3:45 p.m.

Beth Musgrave covered government and politics for the Herald-Leader for over a decade. A graduate of Northwestern University, she worked as a reporter in Kentucky, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois and Washington DC

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Parking spaces

For Philly, it’s time to put people before parking spaces

by Deena S. Hawkins on

In 1961, when Mayor Richardson Dilworth tried to play with the parking lot, some South Philadelphia residents pelted it with stones. It’s not our best time, but it’s how seriously some drivers take the question of where to put their cars. But that’s 60 years later, and despite major downtown developments – and growing environmental concerns – Philly’s parking wars persist.

Although Mayor Kenney’s budget provides $ 62 million for street sweeping, a positive move, the Philly Parking Warriors have managed to delay his campaign pledge until 2021 because they don’t want to move their cars once a month. This underscores the reluctance of the town hall to move forward on car-related movements. Further evidence: the city council wants to reduce the parking tax, an aid to wealthy parking garage tycoons that incites traffic and congestion. And the streeteries, one of the city’s best innovations during the pandemic, run the risk of being dismantled if the town hall returns to the cumbersome process of the past.

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The benefits of planning around people rather than cars are clear: a cleaner, more sustainable city, better able to tackle climate change. A stronger public transit system and more residents who feel valued. And as the streeteries show, there are advantages to the trade as well.

Many fear that removing parking spaces will further increase traffic, or that without plentiful parking, visitors will no longer come to the city center. These concerns are understandable, but they have not materialized in the cities that have reallocated spaces. New York’s 14th Street Busway, for example, did not create traffic jams in nearby streets. In Philadelphia, local parking occupancy rates are dropping, despite the downtown area becoming more vibrant and in greater demand than ever.

Cities around the world have shown the benefits of human-centered design. In Seoul, an old two-level highway has been returned to nature, stimulating development and leisure. In Bogotá, Ciclovía closes 120 kilometers of streets to motorized traffic once a week, which the city attributes to creating a more peaceful and egalitarian urban environment. In Paris, the iconic Champs-Élysées, inspiration for our Parkway, will be reoriented to serve pedestrians, rather than traffic. These changes haven’t produced the traffic apocalypse critics fear. Instead, they freed cities to tackle long-term issues like air quality, the urban heat island effect, and flooding. They have boosted the use of public transport and made more residents feel valued.

READ MORE: Philadelphia must deal with return of car as pandemic eases | Inga Safran

Philadelphia should follow in the footsteps of these cities.

City council should reject the parking tax cut and if passed, the mayor should veto it. While the mayor’s decision to finally fund the street cleanup he promised in 2015 is admirable, the Kenney administration should be clear on the timeline for the start of it. Additionally, City Hall is expected to advance other projects that parking issues have hampered in the past, such as adding new downtown bus lanes, building the Philadelphia Protected Bicycle Network, and expanding. of the new, streamlined street permit system.

These movements will not be without opposition from the Philadelphians who appreciate their parking spaces. But our rock-throwing days should be over as we move towards a future that puts people first over parking.

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