CRESTVIEW — Limiting how long someone can park downtown during peak midday hours could be a solution to alleviating a perceived parking crunch.
At a Monday evening meeting of the Community Redevelopment Agency board, Growth Management Director Teresa Gaillard presented the results of a daylong downtown parking study conducted March 31.
“We have uncovered a couple problem areas,” Gaillard said. “To no surprise, it was the Woodruff Avenue and Main Street area near FAMU and Desi’s.”
Gaillard said the other busy area is at the north end of Main Street near the Okaloosa County Courthouse and Badcock and More.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Gaillard’s report made some recommendations to address tight parking, including implementing a two-hour parking limit during lunch hours, “and better signage so people know where they can park and for how long,” Gaillard said.
“Education of the public will be key in our parking solutions,” she said.
Another suggestion would be to work with business owners to make some private parking lots available to businesses that rely on on-street parking.
For example, Tom Gordon, owner of Gordon Martial Arts, has offered his parking lot to daytime parkers because most of his academy’s students attend evening classes.
UNDERUSED LOT
Gaillard also reported the downtown parking lot erected next to the railroad tracks on Wilson Street, about a five-minute walk from Desi’s, is underused except for parking county buses.
Gaillard said the study found some parking spots were occupied throughout the day, usually by employees of downtown businesses, while the average was two vehicles per spot per day.
“There is interchange at least twice for most parking spaces out there,” she said. “Some change as much as every 30 minutes.”
She cautioned that implementing time constraints “is an iffy prospect,” especially because of enforcement issues.
“If you are going to limit someone to two hours or four hours or whatever it is going to be, you may want to run parking meters again, or have citations,” she told the CRA board members.
Parking meters were removed from Main Street in November 1963 to stimulate downtown shopping, the “Crestview: The Forkland” history states.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Limiting downtown Crestview parking to 2 hours could alleviate crunch