Parking issues ramp up
Helmut Schmidt, The Forum
Published Monday, August 25, 2008
Building more parking ramp space in downtown Fargo is an idea that has stalled – for now.
The latest plan to add parking in the central and northern parts of downtown would add a deck to the Radisson Hotel ramp.
Senior Planner Bob Stein said the $3 million project would create 120 spaces. But that price tag recently gained little traction with the city’s Finance Committee, he said.
Stein is now studying ramp costs in the region and has been asked to seek estimates to determine if the $25,000 per stall cost is accurate. The typical national cost per parking ramp stall is $15,000 to $20,000, city officials said.
Another option considered over the years is to replace the US Bank parking ramp.
The central traffic helix in the 1960s vintage ramp is not used because of safety concerns, Stein said. Demolition and rebuilding could cost $6.2 million, officials have said.
Officials want a development plan that would encompass the old ramp and the surface parking to the west that abuts Broadway and the U.S. Bank plaza.
“That came first and we have to see how that plays out,” City Administrator Pat Zavoral said.
Ramps usually need public financing, tax assessments or public-private partnerships to be built, Zavoral said. The city can’t afford to build one on its own.
“The city’s general fund doesn’t have the money to put to that,” Zavoral said.
City Commissioner Mike Williams wants to see updated estimates on the Radisson ramp expansion before that idea is abandoned.
“That would be a benefit no matter what comes forward,” Williams said.
Other questions factor into the downtown parking debate.
- Does the city have enough parking downtown in the public and private lots?
- Is the parking in the right spot?
- Is the parking “problem” really a perception brought on by an unwillingness to walk?
In 2003, downtown Fargo had 6,619 public and private parking spots, Stein said. Of those, 1,329 were on-street parking and 5,290 were off-street.
Those numbers have fluctuated, but recent projects have included underground or surface parking in their designs, Stein said. Switching to diagonal parking also added 132 spots, he said.
Location, location
Parking Commission figures show several city parking areas are underused, while others are jammed.
For example, the GTC Garage, with its 200 spots, saw just 39 percent usage in July. The Civic Center lot had 33 percent usage, while the Island Park ramp had 49 percent usage.
Meanwhile, the Radisson ramp had 88 percent usage and the U.S. Bank ramp had 100 percent usage.
Cost made a difference. The Second Avenue North lot with parking for $47 a month had 127 percent usage. Just across the street, the Second Avenue South lot with a $62 a month charge had 5 percent usage.
Overall, the 11 city-owned parking facilities had 67 percent usage in July.
“Parking in downtown is generally pretty plentiful, if everyone doesn’t expect to have a parking space on every block,” said Dave Anderson, president of the Downtown Community Partnership.
A city graphic shows a five-minute walking radius for the downtown area and for the West Acres shopping mall.
The downtown walking radius encompasses all of the city’s main public parking facilities. The West Acres radius would take a shopper to the Herberger’s store on the west end of the mall. But it doesn’t extend to the theater complex to the south.
“If you can see it in the West Acres parking lot, you’ll walk a half a mile,” Zavoral said. “It’s location, location, location. The convenience factor.”
Squeeze up north
Greg Danz, owner of Zandbroz Variety on Broadway, said the northern part of downtown is now seeing a parking squeeze.
He’d put ramps behind Old Broadway, and farther north behind Boerth’s Gallery and Dempsey’s Irish Pub.
“To me, those are the natural spots,” Danz said.
Anderson said retail and residential pressures will create the need for 500 to 600 more parking spots downtown in two to five years.
The expanding North Dakota State University downtown presence – next fall the School of Business will open – will also exacerbate parking problems, Anderson and Danz say.
“Time is getting shorter for us,” Anderson said, noting that it takes about 18 months to build a ramp.
“The north end of downtown is becoming pretty tight given the construction of the Kilbourne Group (300 Broadway complex)” in the former Fargo Theatre lot.
Williams said one solution is to pump up public transit. He said NDSU students have shown they’re willing to take the bus.
“One bus full of people is four blocks of cars,” Williams said.
Adding four bus lines costs $500,000 a year, but it also avoids high construction costs, he said.
Offering shuttle buses and shifting price structures could also help maximize ramp use, Zavoral and Williams say.
Williams said there are parking lots to the north of the interim downtown library on Roberts Street that could be a potential ramp site.
Zavoral said a ramp in the City Hall lot could be possible, if it were built as part of a floodwall.
Everyone agreed the issue will eventually have to be addressed.
“How we deal with that is going to be very important to how future growth continues,” Stein said. “We don’t want to lose momentum due to inadequate parking.”
Readers can reach Forum reporter Helmut Schmidt at (701) 241-5583
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