HomeMy WebLinkAboutID-3242
City of Palo Alto (ID # 3242)
City Council Staff Report
Report Type: Action ItemsMeeting Date: 11/5/2012
Summary Title: Parking Program Update
Title: Update of Parking Program and Review and Direction on Parking Policy
Strategies
From: City Manager
Lead Department: Planning and Community Environment
Recommendation
Staff recommends that Council review this Parking Program Update and provide direction to
staff on the Parking Policy Strategies outlined, focused on parking supply options, technology
and residential improvements.
Executive Summary
In the spring of 2011, the City began extensively monitoring downtown parking utilization in
response to resident concerns that downtown parking structures were underutilized and on-
street parking was intruding into adjacent residential neighborhoods. Extensive parking data
collection efforts began immediately in both the Downtown and California Avenue Business
Districts so that parking utilization baselines and strategies could be developed for Council
consideration along with input from business and residential interests.
On July 16, 2012, the City Council discussed a range of proposed work efforts by staff, but
focused on potential residential permit parking program (RPPP) for the Professorville
neighborhood. The Council directed staff to not proceed with the RPPP at this time and instead
to focus on several other parking and zoning efforts. The Council asked for more specifics and
an update of the efforts prior to the end of the year.
This update provides a summary of parking strategies implemented-to-date within the
Background section and outlines policy strategies for enhanced parking supply, technology
solutions, and residential improvements in the Discussion section for consideration of the
Council. Staff will be making substantive progress on these items over the coming 3-6 months
subsequent to Council direction.
Background
The Council directed at the July 16, 2012 meeting that staff would not move forward with the
trial Residential Permit Parking program for Professorville at this time, but would proceed with
additional studies and actions related to parking in downtown, including but not limited to:
a. Study of potential new public parking garage sites, capacities and costs;
b. Methods to increase capacity in existing garages, such as attendant parking and
adjustments to the permit/public distribution of spaces;
c. Technology enhancements, such as gate controls, parking space identification systems,
and parking permit processing improvements, etc.;
d. Zoning studies and revisions, including study of the downtown cap on nonresidential
space, the use of bonuses and transfer rights, variable parking ratios for office uses, and
how to treat non-conforming parking sites; and
e. Evaluation of paid parking options.
Amendments to the main motion further directed that staff should evaluate:
a. Parking exemptions;
b. A Transportation Demand Management Program for downtown;
c. Underutilized private parking garages;
d. Funding options for new public parking garage sites;
e. Zoning disincentives to having two car garages;
f. Selective parking for those homes without a driveway or garage; and
g. The use of the $250,000 from the Lytton Gateway Project earmarked for neighborhood
parking preservation.
Council asked that Staff to return to Council in three months with check in and return with an
update before the end of the year. The Council’s July 16 Action Minutes are included as
Attachment D and the full minutes are included as Attachment E.
The remainder of this Background section recounts efforts to date and the Discussion section
outlines the programmatic effort to address parking in the next 3-6 months.
Parking Assessment Districts
Both the Downtown and California Avenue Business Districts include parking assessment
districts that provide parking for the respective areas. The parking assessment districts include
fees paid by property owners/merchants to help repay city bonds issued to cover the cost of
parking garage construction and permit fees that are used to cover the operations and
maintenance costs of the parking programs including staff costs for the distribution of permits
and parking enforcement. In the downtown, fees from parking permits also help to pay for
police enforcement. Table 1 provides the current fee structure program for the Downtown and
California Avenue Business Districts – Parking Assessment Programs. The table also provides a
brief comparison of parking permit fees to those from Redwood City, San Jose, and San
Francisco for Council reference.
Table 1
Downtown and California Avenue Business Districts
Parking Assessment Fee Program
Parking Fee
Palo Alto Local Agency Comparisons
Downtown
District
California Ave
District Redwood City San Jose San Francisco
Assessment
Fee $1.11/SQ FT * - - -
Permit
(Monthly) $45.00 $14.33 $30 to $60 $100 $215 to $395
Permit
(Annual) $420.00 $123.00 $330 to $660 $1,200 $2,580 to
$4,740
Day Permit $16.00 $7.00 None None None
* Cal Av Assessment Fee varies by Parcel.
Local employees working within the Districts are allowed to purchase parking permits to park in
garages or on surface lots pending permit availability. Employees working outside of the
assessment districts, however, are not allowed to purchase parking permits, but can purchase
Day Passes to park within the facilities.
When the two assessment districts were formed, the assessment districts allowed the City to
issue bonds for the construction of parking structures and provided a guaranteed revenue
mechanism through the assessment fee to pay the bonds back. Assessment districts are not
common for jurisdictions, as many more typically opt to fund parking garage construction on
their own and then recover the cost of construction strictly through monthly permit sales.
Parking Permits
In 2011 the City began evaluating changes in the parking permit distribution process in order to
better allocate permits to employees within the districts, to fill up underutilized parking garage
space, and to reduce parking intrusion to adjacent residential neighborhoods. The following
parking permit program changes were implemented:
Establish Monthly Parking Permits Distribution Thresholds
Permits were previously distributed on a quarterly basis based on parking occupancy
counts counted by the City’s parking enforcement unit. The amount of permits available
at each lot varied per quarter depending on the results of the parking occupancy counts.
Using historical data, the City established a maximum number of permits that should be
released at any given time and the City continues to monitor parking occupancy to
determine whether the threshold should be increased or decreased. The maximum
number of permits released at any given time and the percentage of permits over
supply by parking facility is provided in Table 2. Permit sales in the Downtown were up
9% in 2011 compared to 2010 and up 13% in 2012-to-date compared to 2010. In the
California Avenue Business District permit sales have remained consistent with prior
years.
Permit Wait List Management
Previously, anyone wishing to obtain a permit within a district could sign up for as many
sites as they wanted in efforts to obtain a permit as quickly as possible. This resulted in
unusually high wait list numbers at each facility or district in the case of the California
Avenue Business District where a parking permit allows a permit holder to park at any
parking garage or surface lot. The City now only allows a person getting on the wait list
for a parking permit to do so once, and for only one site. In addition, the City charges a
$10.00 fee to get onto a wait list, which is credited towards the ultimate first purchase
of a parking permit. The number of persons waiting for a parking permit within the two
assessment districts is provided in Table 3; the changes in permit wait list management
are beginning to have a positive impact with shorter wait lists now than in previous
years.
California Avenue District – Permit Distribution
Previously, because there was no limit on the number of permits or types of permits
that a person could obtain within a district, it was not uncommon for someone in the
California Avenue District to be on the wait list multiple times. Signing up on the wait
list multiple times was a common practice of start-up owners trying to get permits for
future employees.
With the policy change to only distribute one permit per person, people who are on the
wait list multiple times are contacted for permit availability, but only allowed for one
permit to be registered to them. For the additional permits that the person may have
been waiting for, the permits are allowed to be distributed to members of the same
company but the permits are registered to the other individuals directly. This practice
does allow for “hopping” of the wait list but there were only a few individuals who were
on the wait list multiple times and staff anticipates that this condition will be phased out
over the next six months.
Unlike Downtown, previously distributed permits in the California Avenue Business
District did not require permit holder validation at the time of renewal. People leaving
the district simply passed their permits to other people, thereby delaying permit
availability for people legitimately on the wait list. This resulted in unusually long permit
wait times, sometimes in excess of one year. The City now requires a person renewing a
parking permit to prove that they are a valid permit holder to whom the permit was
originally distributed. If the person cannot show proof that they are the original permit
holder, they are only being allowed a one-time renewal warning and then are required
to get on the wait list as the permit will be cancelled at the end of the permit term.
Online Permit Management System
In the spring of 2012 the City awarded a contract to Progressive Solutions to develop
and implement an online permit management system for the City. Using the maximum
permit thresholds established by the City, the City can now release permits weekly
(instead of quarterly) as they become available. The system also allows for monthly
permit renewal versus the traditionally available quarterly or annual renewal options;
the monthly permits costs shown in Table 1 reflect the current quarterly fee divided by
three. Implementation of the system was delayed through the fall while the online wait
list form was being developed. The City also just finalized hosting details for the system
server. The wait list module is scheduled to be completed in October and the system
should be launched in November. Persons are still required to return to City Hall to
obtain their first permit and to validate proof of employment within their business
district; the requirement to return to Revenue Collections may eventually be phased out
and permits distributed by mail as additional technology enhancements are made.
Table 2
Parking Permit Distribution Thresholds
Lot Name # Hourly
Spaces
# Permit
Spaces
Total #
Spaces
Max #
Permits
% Permits
to Supply
Downtown - Parking Garages
Q Alma/High (North) - 134 134 205 153%
R Alma/High (South) 77 134 211 200 149%
S/L Bryant St 381 307 688 575 187%
WC Cowper/Webster 201 388 589 630 162%
CC City Hall 187 519 706 820 158%
B Ramona/University 63 - 63 - -
800 High Street 10 53 63 85 160%
Downtown – Surface Parking Lots
O Emerson/High 78 - 78 - -
A Emerson/Lytton 68 - 68 - -
C Ramona/Lytton 50 - 50 - -
F Florence/Lytton 46 - 46 - -
H Cowper/Waverly 90 - 90 - -
D Hamilton/Waverly 86 - 86 -
E/G Gilman St - 87 87 130 149%
P High/Hamilton 51 - 51 - -
KT Lytton/Kipling-Waverly 40 67 107 96 143%
N Emerson/Ramona 48 - 48 - -
X Sheridan Hotel - 36 36 55 153%
California Avenue Business District
California Avenue* 915 30 945 710 75%
* Parking permits valid for any garage or lot.
Table 3
Parking Permit Wait List as of October 18, 2012
Lot Wait List Lot Wait List
CC 99 R 93
CW 152** S 70
EG 41 X 11
KT 4
Q 27 CAL AVE 333
** Permit distribution temporarily suspended due to active construction at lot.
Day Permits
The Bryant Street (Lot S/L) and Cowper/Webster (Lot C/W) garages have permit machines that
allow drivers to purchase daylong parking permits. Use of the machines has been extremely
successful with each unit averaging $8,000 in sales per month each. Each of the downtown
parking garages offer three (3) hours of free hourly parking, but requires rigorous enforcement
to identify and cite violators.
Day Permits may also be purchased at Revenue Collections in City Hall at a cost of $16.00 per
day for Downtown and $7.00 per day for California Avenue. The City has also switched to
“scratcher” day permits in 2012 in both districts to curb violators who were photocopying the
previous paper permit formats.
Parking Way-Finding Signage
The City deployed 49 parking banners throughout the Downtown in January 2012 to help better
guide motorists to surface parking lots and garages. The banners were reviewed and approved
by the Architectural Review Board prior to implementation. The City also fabricated signs that
matched the banners. However, the signs were ineffective due to the architectural color tones
used and sign implementation stopped. There are 125 existing guide signs to parking facilities
throughout the Downtown and 40 around the California Avenue Business District.
The same parking banners used in Downtown will be presented later this fall to the California
Avenue merchants as part of the California Avenue – Transit Hub Corridor Streetscape Project
for input so that deployment in that district can occur before next Spring; the City estimates 40
up to 20 banners can be deployed around the existing California Avenue area parking structures
and surface lots. The City is continuing its research on effective parking guide signs as discussed
further in this report.
Neighborhood Parking Preservation
Staff spent the first half of the year trying to develop draft policies and pilot projects for a
Professorville Residential Permit Parking (RPP) program. The general community consensus on
a Professorville RPP pilot program showed that such a program was not supported by the
broader neighborhood and Council directed that staff should focus on identifying a range of
parking solutions within the Downtown core area and to identify appropriate technologies and
strategies to advance as part of a comprehensive parking program for the City.
The remainder of this report focuses on proposed parking strategies and policies for Council
consideration to help improve the efficiency of parking operations and conditions in residential
neighborhoods as a comprehensive parking program is further developed and implemented.
The recommendations in the Discussion section are priotized in a time line provided in
Attachment A.
Discussion
The modifications to the City’s permit management program are showing a positive change in
the City’s ability to more quickly distribute permits. The impact has been more profound in the
Downtown Business District where permits are managed by lot, rather than the California
Avenue Business District, where permits can be used at any surface lot or garage and where
changes in permit distribution will have a gradual effect over the next year. Permit
management has also been the focus of the City’s efforts to get vehicle users to obtain and use
permits. Permit management will be ongoing for efficiency purposes but new strategies beyond
permit management are now required to enhance the parking program in both districts. It
should be noted that in the Downtown District, the Cowper-Webster Garage (Lot C/W) is
currently undergoing facade improvements that have resulted in the temporary loss of permit
parking through the construction period. Persons with permits for the Cowper-Webster Garage
are being temporarily allowed to park at the Bryant Street Garage (Lot S), further slowing down
permit distribution at that garage as well. Construction at the Cowper-Webster Garage should
be complete before the start of the Holiday shopping season.
Several other key efforts are underway to enhance parking supply, more efficiently use
available supply, reduce parking demand, and address the impacts of new development.
Downtown Parking Garage and Attendant Parking Study
The City completed a Request for Proposals (RFP) solicitation in October and will be awarding a
contract this fall to complete a feasibility study for an additional parking structure(s) in the
Downtown. The study will focus on five surface parking lot sites including:
Lot D Hamilton Avenue & Waverley Street
Lot EG Gilman Street
Lot P High Street between University Avenue & Hamilton Avenue
Lot O High Street between University Avenue & Lytton Avenue
Caltrain Lot Urban Lane between University Avenue and PAMF
For each of the sites the feasibility study will identify potential Parking Garage Footprints,
Parking Space Counts, 3D Modeling of Parking Structure Massing, Constructability Factors, and
Engineer’s Estimates. Staff will also evaluate potential funding options in its report-out to
Council.
The Constructability Factors will include elements to determine which sites provide the best
value for parking versus construction constraints, such as: parking space count; private property
impacts (during and post-construction); construction staging impacts; number of
driveway/pedestrian access points for convenience measure; cost; adjacent land uses to
determine whether a preferred long-term land use opportunity would be lost if garage
construction were pursued; and utility relocation impacts.
The study will also include an Attendant Parking Study to determine whether the deployment
of a parking attendant program may be a viable option to temporarily or permanently
supplement the City’s parking permit program needs. The Attendant Parking Study will
determine the number of additional parking spaces that can be gained at each of the existing
parking garages in Downtown and provide program outlines to implement them on a trial basis
including key-return stations. Two options for attendant programs are typically used: a) where
a motorists parks the vehicle themselves, guided by an attendant, and the keys are then
handed over to the attendant in case the vehicles needs to be moved; or b) a motorists leaves
the vehicle with the attendant who then parks the vehicle. In other cases, a motorist may be
issued a valet card to confirm car release later and the vehicles are typically parked behind
other parked cars. The study will also focus on likely hours of operation to maximize benefit
and minimize cost.
The Palo Alto Downtown (PAD) Business and Professional Association – Parking Committee,
which is responsible for helping the City provide oversight on the Downtown Parking
Assessment District, has indicated a preference towards immediately implementing an
attendant pilot project, focused on permit parking. Staff believes such a trial for permit spaces
should proceed, however, only after the work on the Cowper-Webster garage is complete and
all spaces are then available, and probably after the Holiday season, to avoid any confusion for
shoppers. Funding for the trial would come from the Downtown Permit Fee program.
The study will take up to 6 months to complete and the results presented to the City Council in
the spring. The study is funded substantially by a community benefit contribution from the
Lytton Gateway Project, which provided $60,000 to complete the study. The study will cost
$100,000 and the gap is being funded by the City through the Capital Improvement Program
(CIP), PL-12000 (Transportation & Parking Improvements).
The results of the study will be used to determine whether the City should pursue construction
of a new parking structure using its own local funding, enterprise funding to build a parking
structure in conjunction with additional office facilities, or to pursue a private partnership with
land developers to help build a parking facility. The City currently has approximately $2.6
million in the Downtown In-Lieu Parking Fee program (once the building permit is issued for
Lytton Gateway, expected prior to the end of the year).
During the July 2012 discussion on parking the Council expressed interest in also pursuing
opportunities to make available private structure parking for public parking. Staff surveyed the
existing private lots around downtown and found them either fully parked or inaccessible due
to security procedures.
Recommendation No. 1: Direct staff to implement a trial Parking Attendant Valet Parking
Program for permit parking in at least one garage, beginning
shortly after the first of the year in 2013. The study should
monitor operations, estimate costs, and identify
benefits/challenges with implementation.
Downtown Cap Study
Staff is currently developing a Request for Proposals to study the land use types, densities, and
recent and projected development around the Downtown to determine future land use and
parking needs/strategies to support land use changes. The study is a requirement of the City’s
Zoning and Comprehensive Plan, which establishes a Downtown Cap of 350,000 square foot net
increase since the adoption of the 1986 Downtown Plan. The Zoning Ordinance requires a re-
evaluation of the cap when a 235,000 square foot “study threshold” is met. That threshold is
nearly met with the approval of the Lytton Gateway project approved earlier this year and will
be exceeded if the 135 Hamilton Avenue and 636 Waverley projects are approved. While the 27
University project is not within the bounds of the Downtown zone prescribed in the 1986 study,
staff will be reviewing ways to appropriately consider it in the Downtown study and specific
impacts would be considered in that project’s Environmental Impact Report .
Staff expects that the Downtown Cap Study will cost approximately $100,000-$150,000 and will
take approximately 6 months to complete. The budget does not currently include funding for
the study, but staff proposes that at least some of the funding come from the Lytton Gateway
“Neighborhood Parking Preservation” benefit (of a total $250,000) and perhaps be
supplemented by other development project contributions.
Recommendation No. 2: Direct staff to pursue the RFP for the Downtown Cap study, and
report back to Council in six months regarding results and
recommendations.
Zoning/Parking Revisions and Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Program
Staff will, simultaneous with the Downtown Cap study, review a variety of zoning provisions
related to parking, particularly in Downtown. Staff has recently proposed and Council has
enacted a moratorium on one such zoning provision that exempted up to 1.0 floor-area ratio
from parking requirements for certain properties. Staff expects to also evaluate:
a. Other exemptions from parking requirements, including but not limited to transfer of
development rights (TDR);
b. Parking reductions for transit proximity, mixed use, transportation demand
management (TDM) measures, and for affordable and senior housing;
c. Appropriate ratios of parking, particularly for office development, more reflective of
recent employee densities, and possible parking incentives for retail over office uses;
d. How conversions of existing uses to more intense office uses are treated/managed in
the zoning requirements; and
e. The relationship between required/covered parking and floor area, particularly for
homes (e.g., to avoid discouraging garages, though respective of historic issues where
applicable)
Planning and Transportation staff also will work with on-call transportation consultants to
initiate a Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Program for the City and its employees
to demonstrate exemplary means of reducing work and non-work trips. This effort will be a
precursor to facilitating a downtown-wide TDM program, coordinated with the Palo Alto
Downtown and area businesses to take advantage of programs that can benefit the Downtown
as a whole.
Recommendation No. 3: Direct staff to develop zoning ordinance revisions to address
parking impacts from development, including: a) parking ratios, b)
parking exemptions, c) requirements for both TDM programs for
new development; and to work with the Downtown businesses to
develop a coordinated downtown area TDM effort.
Technology Enhancement: Garage Parking Access and Revenue Control Equipment
The City’s new Permit Management System will allow the City to more easily distribute permits
but when used in combination with garage parking access controls (gates) the City will also be
able to track parking permit usage to further manage the permit program. For example, the City
currently does not have any data that shows how regularly people use their parking permits.
Later this fiscal year, the City will release its first ever transportation survey that aims to
measure transportation mode use by region of the City. The high percentage of permits sold
over supply (Table 2) shows that within the Downtown, people are likely regularly using
another form of transportation to get to work such as Caltrain or are choosing to park
elsewhere when it’s more convenient, even though they have a permit.
Garage Parking Access control is another step the City can take in the long-term management
of its parking infrastructure by helping to reduce operations costs for enforcement. The access
controls regulate entry and exit from a garage and allow visitors to continue to enjoy the
current three hours of free parking to support downtown business activities, but include
Revenue Control equipment that allow visitors to stay parked beyond the free 3-hour period at
a fee up to the $16.00 day permit fee.
Staff has a prepared a Draft Request for Proposals (RFP) so that cost estimates can be
determined and to “bring the best of the technology” to the city for review with participation
from the Downtown Parking Committee. The Draft RFP proposes conversion of the Bryant
Street Garage (Lot S/L) to gate control with revenue collection elements but identifies the Alma
Street/High Street Garage (Lot R) as an alternative site for inclusion depending on bid results.
The City estimates the cost of installing Garage Parking Access and Revenue Control Equipment
at each garage at approximately $250,000. The RFP proposes unique technology development
through the use of QR Codes in combination with apps for processing of payments as a
convenience alternative to motorists. The same technology would allow businesses to establish
convenient validation alternatives for visitors, patron and employee parking needs. The RFP
was shared with the Palo Alto Downtown (PAD) Parking Committee during its September and
October 2012 meetings. Concerns have been expressed about the controls being the first step
to imposing “paid” parking on downtown, but staff believes that this technology actually
provides flexibility for a wider range of parking options, with no increase in parking costs for
those visitors staying less than 3 hours. Revenue realized from the metering beyond the free 3-
hour period could be partially dedicated towards the Parking In-Lieu Fee program to help fund
construction of future parking facilities, consistent with the setup of typical assessment district
programs. Funding for a trial garage parking access and revenue control equipment project is
available within the existing CIP but, if interested, funding through the current Parking
Assessment or Parking In-Lieu fee program are viable alternatives.
Recommendation No. 4: Direct staff to release an RFP for Garage Parking Access and
Revenue Control Equipment for near-term deployment, and to
involve the Downtown Parking Committee in the operations and
design process.
Technology Enhancement: Parking Occupancy Tracking and Dynamic Way-Finding
Directing motorists immediately to available parking helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
enhances the customer experience in the downtown, improves the economic vitality of the
downtown, and improves safety for bicyclists and pedestrians. The City currently does not have
any mechanism in place to monitor parking occupancy “real-time,” so deployment of dynamic
way-finding with accurate information is not feasible, nor is pushing parking availability
information online feasible either.
The City has outreached to three vendors over the past year to help develop new technology to
monitor parking occupancy and tabulate information that can be made available to the public
online, through apps, and to Parking Guidance Systems that offer dynamic way-finding
technology. Unfortunately, no viable option has yet been identified. The City was approached
by Streetline Networks in partnership with Cisco Systems over the summer to deploy their
technology to monitor and push parking occupancy information online but that was not
desirable due to the high on-going annual operations cost. The Streetline Networks/Cisco
System solution included one free year of service and included maintenance of field equipment,
but the solution though would cost the City over $350,000 per year. Solutions such as that of
Streetline Networks only make sense at locations where metering is utilized to offset the cost of
the technology, as is the case in the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Staff is not
recommending metering on-street parking spaces at this time, but does want to identify
parking monitoring solutions that can be City-owned solutions versus leased to reduce long-
term operations costs. Effective monitoring of parking occupancy also introduces the ability to
consider congestion-pricing parking on-street if the Council wants to consider that type of
technology in the future. Being immediately adjacent to the second largest Caltrain Station
along the Peninsula supports that type of activity by making alternative modes of
transportation more attractive to people over driving.
The City will continue to try and outreach to technology firms to develop new market solutions
for the City. The Gate Parking Access and Revenue Control Equipment would allow for dynamic
way-finding to be deployed, highlighting parking availability at parking structures. Alternative
solutions may include establishing detection technology only now, that may be used later by
future Garage Parking Access technology, to estimate garage occupancy.
In the meantime, the City will continue its seasonal parking occupancy data collection of the
Downtown and California Avenue Business Districts, that includes counting each vehicle parking
space on-street and within each parking facility by time-of-day to track changes in parking
patterns. The City collected parking occupancy data in the Spring/Fall/Winter 2011 and is
scheduled to collect data gain in early November. Data collection includes monitoring parking
occupancy between 12AM-2AM, 8AM-10AM, 12PM-2PM, and 7PM to 9PM on a weekday and
12PM-2PM on a Saturday.
Recommendation No. 5: Direct staff to continue research of technology-based parking
solutions to monitor parking occupancy.
Electric Vehicle Parking
The City currently has 7 electric vehicle charging stations available in the Downtown at the Civic
Center Parking Garage (Lot CC – Level A, 3 chargers), Bryant Street Garage (Lot S/L – Level 2, 3
chargers), and the Alma/High North (Lot R – Level 2, 1 charger). The charging stations are
extremely popular and realize regular occupancy usage throughout a typical week.
There are no charging stations available in the California Avenue Business District. The City has
considered the development of a Request for Proposals for the development of a privately-
owned network of electric vehicle charging stations network. The Stanford Shopping Center
currently has 3 charging stations including Northern California’s only Rapid Charging (Level 3)
Charger. The Stanford Shopping Center chargers are privately owned and require a fee-per-use
to charge. Development of a private network of chargers in Palo Alto would operate under the
same model and convert the existing charging stations into the private network to avoid
competition with the private network given the high cost to install the network.
To meet the immediate demand for electric vehicle charging in the City, staff recommends
conversion of at least five (5) parking spaces in the California Avenue Business District to
electric vehicle charging spaces and an additional six (6) parking spaces in the Downtown. Staff
recommends additional Level 2 Chargers similar to those currently deployed that can charge a
vehicle in as fast as 2 hours. The Downtown Library, which was renovated last year, includes
infrastructure for providing electric vehicle charging stations in its parking lot; this could be a
location for some of the additional Downtown spaces.
The City has 6 electric charging stations included as part of development conditions of approval
for the 101 Lytton Gateway Project (4 chargers) and the Edgewood Plaza (2 Chargers) shopping
center. These stations will not be available until next year when construction at each site is
complete.
Recommendation No. 6: Direct staff to pursue the installation of 6 additional electric
vehicle charging stations in Downtown and up to 5 electric vehicle
charging stations around California Avenue.
Bicycle Parking and Bicycle Share Programs
The City has approximately 150 bicycle racks (250 bicycle capacity) in the Downtown. This
includes 6 recently deployed bicycle corrals deployed around Downtown which offer up to ten
bicycle parking spaces in lieu of one on-street parking space. Downtown has an additional
three bicycle corrals planned for installation this calendar year as part of the New Apple Store
construction at University Avenue & Florence Street (2 bicycle corrals) and one at Lyfe Kitchen,
which requested installation by the City this fall. The City offers free installation of bicycle
corrals upon submittal of an application (Attachment B) and investigation by the City, including
outreach to adjacent businesses to validate support for installation of the facility.
In the California Avenue Business District, the City has 24 existing bicycle racks (77 bicycle
capacity). The City has a dozen additional bicycle parking facilities identified for the California
Avenue Business District for a future bicycle parking capacity of up to 130 bicycles as part of the
active California Avenue Transit Hub Corridor Streetscape project including 6 bicycle corrals.
Business owners may request free installation of bicycle racks within the public right-of-way
following an engineering investigation by staff. Where installation of bicycle racks within the
public right-of-way is not feasible for convenient, the City offers free bicycle racks to business
and property owners for their installation on their private property; persons interested in free
bicycle racks may simply contact the city via email at transportation@cityofpaloalto.org.
The Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Bicycle Share Program will be providing 100 bicycle
share bicycles to Palo Alto as part of its partnership program with the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission (MTC) to deploy a program along the Peninsula. The program was
delayed due to technology development but should return to the City with a deployment
schedule by the end of the year. The sites reviewed by the Architectural Review Board include:
University Avenue & Emerson Street (adjacent to Lytton Plaza in an on-street Parklet), King
Plaza at City Hall, University Avenue & Cowper Street, the University Avenue Caltrain Station,
and the California Avenue/Park Boulevard Park Plaza. Additional facilities will be provided
around the Stanford Campus as part of the program. As part of the bicycle share investigation,
staff identified dozens of additional potential bicycle share sites including the Stanford
Research Park, libraries and community centers, senior facilities, and Midtown but during this
initial deployment both MTC and the VTA request to keep the deployment focused along the
Caltrian stations. As bicycle share deployment continues, staff will outreach to existing
business parks to solicit and encourage participation in the program.
Recommendation No. 7: Direct staff to pursue additional bicycle parking stations around
both the Downtown and California Avenue Business Districts.
Residential Parking Policies
During the discussion of the Professorville trial Residential Permit Parking (RPP) program in July,
the Council requested that staff consider options to allow designated on-street parking spaces
for historic homes within the Professorville neighborhood that do not have on-site parking
(driveways and/or garages), since consideration for RPP programs is being deferred until a
broader parking program is put in place. In response to the Council request, staff has developed
two policy approaches focused more collectively to the entire neighborhood concerns:
1) On-Street “Disabled Accessible” Parking Spaces
The City does not currently have a policy to allow for the installation of on-street
parking spaces for the disabled within residential neighborhoods. Staff recommends
Council consider a policy allowing for residents to apply the consideration of on-street
accessible parking spaces in front of their homes for convenience and quality of life
benefits.
If the Council is supportive of this concept, staff will return with a draft policy and
application for the Council’s review to define the criteria and investigation that staff
would be required to complete to ensure consistent distribution of accessible parking
spaces. The policy would address factors including costs of installation and maintenance
of the accessible parking, proof of “accessibility” need, and compliance and
misuse/removal procedures if abused. The accessible spaces would not be designated
spaces for the applicant but by providing the space immediately in front of one’s
residence increases the likelihood of having the space available for use by the resident.
As an accessible space, however, the parking could be used by any motorist displaying a
valid accessible placard issued by the State of California.
2) Neighborhood Short-Term and Commercial Loading Zones
One of the frequent concerns from residents adjacent to business districts includes the
lack of parking for service vehicles such as landscapers, plumbers, etc., who are trying to
provide basic services to residents but cannot do so at times depending on parking
availability. Professorville residents who do not have any on-site parking facilities feel an
even greater impact.
Staff recommends consideration of the deployment of Neighborhood Short-Term and
Commercial Loading Zone spaces around the Professorville and Downtown North
neighborhoods, at least one per block and spaced a maximum of 500-FT apart to allow
for parking availability to accommodate basic service vehicles and short-term parking
needs. The spaces can be either a short-term parking restriction (30-minutes) or
commercial/service vehicle use (2-hours) to support residents. This solution provides an
equitable solution for all residents regardless of whether the homes are historic or not.
If the Council is supportive of this concept, staff will provide outreach to neighborhood
groups to identify the appropriate on-street parking spaces to support these activities
and then will return to the Council following input from the Planning & Transportation
Commission for implementation of a demonstration project in the Spring.
3) On-Street Parking Spaces in the Professorville Area
During the July 2012 parking discussion, the Council requested that staff consider
options to help alleviate parking impacts to homes around the Professorville area
without garages, driveways, or other on-site parking. Staff has identified eleven homes
around that Professorville area without on-site parking (see Attachment C), additional
sites may exist.
The proposed Neighborhood Short-Term/Commercial Loading Zone spaces would offer
solutions equitably to the community, but may not be enough for residents of these
particular homes. If the Council is supportive of such a solution staff will initiate
outreach with affected residents and return with a policy for adoption. Staff expects
that any related implementation would be on a trial basis.
Recommendation No. 8: Direct staff to return to the City Council for consideration of an
On-Street Accessible Parking Space Policy.
Recommendation No. 9: Direct staff to initiate outreach to residents in Professorville and
Downtown North to develop short-term parking space strategies.
Recommendation No. 10: Discuss and provide direction for On-Street Parking Permits for
homes in the Professorville area without parking or driveways.
Parking Permit Management
Regular parking permit management and recent enhancements have proven effective to date
to more quickly get permits to vehicle users and should be continued. Permit management has
benefited the Downtown Business District more quickly than the California Avenue Business
District due to the permits being designated to individual facilities. The California Avenue
Business District has two parking garages, each of which realize high occupancy during peak
noon periods on top floors, but much lesser use at other times. The availability of new parking
permits in the California Avenue Business District that can be used only at top floors of each
garage may be helpful in more quickly distributing permits to motorists and help to fill
underutilized portions of the garages and allow for premium first floor parking to be retained
for visitors until after the noon peak hour.
Recommendation No. 11: Direct staff to begin discussions with California Avenue merchants
focused around the development of new parking permit
strategies.
Timeline
This report recommends several project and policy considerations for the Council focused
around further developing parking strategies to develop a comprehensive Parking Program for
the City. Staff will return to the Council within three months with a more defined schedule for
the implementation of solutions the Council identifies as appropriate for further consideration
or immediate implementation.
Resource Impact
Two new contracts are being pursued as part of the Parking Program, including a $100,000
contract for a Downtown Parking Garage and Attedant Valet Study and $100,000-$150,000 for
the Downtown Cap/TDM Study. Each contract will be submitted separately to Council for
approval, along with any necessary Budget Amendment Ordinances. This staff report includes
recommendations for helping to develop a Parking Program Master Plan. After Council
provides feedback on which recommendations to pursue, staff will return to the Council within
3 months with a more refined cost program.
Environmental Review
This report requests direction from Council on parking strategies that it would like staff to
pursue, but at this time no specific projects affecting the environment ar being approved. Each
project within the Parking Program may require additional environmental review for
compliance with CEQA requirements and will be evaluated prior to implementation.
Attachments:
Attachment A: Summary of Parking Work Program (PDF)
Attachment B: Bicycle Corral Application (PDF)
Attachment C: Professorville Homes w/No Driveways - Oct 2012 (PDF)
Attachment D: City Council Action Minutes of July 16, 2012 (PDF)
Attachment E: City Council Full Minutes of July 16, 2012 (PDF)
Attachment F: Public Comments (PDF)
Prepared By: Jaime Rodriguez, Chief Transportation Official
Department Head: Curtis Williams, Director
City Manager Approval: ____________________________________
James Keene, City Manager
1
Nov ‘11 Dec Jan ‘12 Feb Mar Apr May Jun FY2014
Tasks
Permit Management
Garage Study
- Garage Analysis
- Valet Analysis
Pilot Valet Study
Downtown Cap Study
Neighborhood
Programs
- ADA On-Street
- Short Term
Alternatives/Homes
with No Off-Site
Parking
Technology Solutions
Cal Ave Parking Program
Parking Program Task Timeline
Pending Council Input
On‐Street Bicycle Corral
Application
Bicycle Corrals are enhanced bicycle parking facilities installed on‐street within a traditional vehicle
parking space or appropriate on‐street location. The bicycle corral includes a green textured pavement
treatment to help designate the space from adjacent vehicle parking spaces with a 10‐bike, bicycle rack.
Yellow parking blocks are installed on each end of the bicycle corral to prevent vehicle parking intrusion.
The City of Palo Alto installs bicycle corrals to help promote bicycling activity and to help provide visible
and secured bicycle parking in high‐use bicycle areas. The bicycle corral installations are a partnership
between the City of Palo Alto and the adjacent property owners/businesses through a maintenance
agreement (attached). The City provides installation of the bicycle corrals while the property
owners/businesses take on maintenance around the bicycle corrals.
For a bicycle corral to be considered in front of your business or property, please complete the
application below and return to the City of Palo Alto – Transportation Division.
Business Owner Property Owner – (Optional)
Company Name:
Contact Person:
Address:
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Day Phone:
Email:
Signature/Date:
1. Preferred Bicycle Corral
Location
2. Estimated amount of
bicycle activity on weekday
and weekends
Note: After submission of the application, Transportation staff will contact the applicant to
discuss location feasibility and determine if bicycle parking demand exists.
Submit to: City of Palo Alto – Transportation Division Staff Review:
250 Hamilton Avenue Date:
Palo Alto, CA 94301
O: (650) 329‐2441 F: (650) 329‐2154 Recommend Install: Yes
transportation@cityofpaloalto.org No
Director Approval:
Professorville Historic Neighborhood
Homes without accessible Off-Street Parking
October 23, 2012