Cedar Rapids hopes new plan can pump the brakes on downtown parking woes

CEDAR RAPIDS — Nearly every driver knows the frustration of circling the streets of downtown on a busy Friday night and finding nearly every parking spot filled.

Now, Cedar Rapids city leaders are wondering if there is a way to measure that experience and if there’s anything they can do to help.

The city this winter began drafting its Strategic Parking Plan to better understand and address residents' parking needs. The plan covers a swath of downtown Cedar Rapids in hopes of improving the customer experience, expanding downtown mobility, and enhancing economic development.

“Our consultants use the phrase that parking should be convenient and accessible and take the ‘experience’ out of parking,” City Planner Jeff Wozencraft said at a recent City Council Development Committee meeting. “That’s what we’re hoping to do with this plan.”

Background

The city began its strategic planning process in January with an analysis of the existing parking conditions in four main districts: the downtown core, Kingston Village, New Bohemia and Czech Village.

Effectively, the goal is to leverage a mix of quantitative data around parking patterns and usage rates with qualitative resident feedback to address parking problems when and where they’re most prevalent.

“The pandemic changed our downtown dynamic with higher office vacancies changing how we work,” Wozencraft said. “We’ve also had a dramatic population shift … in the last 10 years” that is changing the way we view and use downtown.

The city hired consulting firm Kimley-Horn to assist in its analysis, and city council members were presented with a preliminary update this spring. Per that report, Kimley-Horn identified 2,010 on-street parking spots within the study area and more than a dozen off-street parking ramps.

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The popularity of on-street parking far outpaced that of off-street parking, particularly in the downtown core. Across all four districts, peak parking hours fell outside the times where parking is enforced through meters and/or fines.

Even during the highest times of recorded demand — around 7 p.m. on a Friday — just over half of all on-street spots were full across those four districts. Still, uneven demand distribution led to acute parking availability in certain areas, particularly in the downtown core.

“Those areas are where it’s tough to find a parking spot and you might feel a little frustrated while driving around,” Wozencraft said.

What’s happened since?

In June, the city launched a citizen survey to pair preliminary findings with resident feedback. Just over 1,400 respondents participated, and additional feedback was collected through stakeholder interviews with downtown businesses, tourism groups, Park CR staff and more.

The majority of respondents — 75 percent — reported their most common mode of transportation was driving alone. However, at least 33 percent reported carpooling to or around the downtown area more than one a month.

The downtown core between First and Fifth streets dominated respondents’ common parking areas, with smaller pockets in the remaining three districts — matching findings from the Kimley-Horn analysis.

The most common concerns from respondents were around parking availability, cost of parking and means of payment. Smaller portions provided feedback on accessibility concerns, business impact and safety.

“The big themes are that people want affordable, convenient parking (and) they also want it to be easy to pay and as quick as possible,” Wozencraft said.

That mirrored findings from stakeholder interviews, where a lack of overall availability and confusion over payment methods ranked highly on challenges facing those visiting the downtown area. However, nearly one-third of stakeholders reported having no parking challenges at all.

Potential improvements identified through resident and stakeholder feedback include increasing access and affordability, improving signage and wayfinding and refining the policy and enforcement process around parking.

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Now what?

The city now is at the “recommendations” phase of its strategic planning process.

Staff will use data around existing usage and compare it against resident feedback to create a complete picture of the downtown parking scene and identify potential improvements.

They also will consider feedback from city officials, including comments from city council members at the recent development meeting.

For example, city council member Ashley Vanorny recommended pairing survey findings against parking ticket data to identify locations where additional signage could be useful, and council member Ann Poe pushed for more public art at downtown parking structures or lots.

A draft plan will be prepared this fall, and there will be at least one additional round of public outreach on those recommendations. Once fine-tuned, the final draft will be presented to the Cedar Rapids City Council for potential plan adoption.

The final draft is expected to be ready for review by the end of the year.

Comments: grace.nieland@thegazette.com