Meeting Friday will discuss new Cedar Rapids downtown parking options

Downtown doesn't need more parking spaces, but it might need to move some of them, said the man who's spent three months studying the situation.

“I think we do have excess parking downtown,” said Dennis Burns. “But is it in the right place?”

Burns is a vice president of the Tempe, Ariz.-based Carl Walker parking management and consulting firm that researched and wrote the proposed strategic parking plan for the city and Cedar Rapids Downtown District. The public gets its first look at the proposal at a discussion meeting from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons ballroom, 350 First Ave. SE.

Residents attending the discussion won't have to worry about parking: Organizers will validate receipts for the hotel's parking ramp.

Burns and Downtown District organizers didn't release advance details at a news conference Thursday morning, but they said it includes new ways to manage both on-street and ramp parking spaces to encourage downtown visitors and business growth.

“Cedar Rapids actually has a very strong base to work from,” said Burns. “You've managed to get to the point where you got multiple parking facilities that are paid for.”

Burns said the proposal includes changes in the way spaces in the parking ramps are managed - moving short-term spaces nearer the ramps' entrances - new ways to pay for both metered and monthly parking, and better signs to direct visitors to available parking.

“This is really about, not another study, but implementing the recommendations of these studies,” he said.

“We have heard from citizens throughout the community and from workers downtown that we need to do some work on our parking,” said City Council Member Kris Gulick. “We have the opportunity to use parking as an economic development tool.”

Burns' team will use comments from today's meeting to help write a draft to be presented to the City Council in early March, with a final plan due a month later. Vanessa Solesbee, Downtown District's operations director, said some recommendations could be implemented as early as this summer.

“If we do a great job, people won't notice,” said Gulick. “If we do a lousy job, people will notice.”