Study finds lots of parking but too few signs

The supply of downtown parking spaces exceeds the peak demand, study says.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- There's no shortage of parking spaces in the city's downtown, but visitors need help finding them and getting access to them, a consultant said here Thursday.
"We really don't have a parking supply problem in Warren," said Jeffrey A. Colvin, an Indianapolis-based parking consultant with Walker Parking Consultants.
"You have a parking perception problem in this area. You have people that perceive that parking is a problem" because they don't look beyond parking spaces on the streets, he added.
The downtown area has 3,212 on- and off-street parking spaces, but the peak demand is for only 1,319 spaces, the Walker Parking report says.
Five years from now, the projected peak demand will rise to just 1,473 spaces, the report adds.
The Warren Redevelopment and Planning Corp. hired Walker to do the downtown parking study, which cost just under $25,000 and covered a 14-block area bounded by Main Avenue, High Street, Chestnut Avenue and South Street.
Colvin presented the study's findings at a public meeting attended by city officials, downtown businesspeople and city residents.
Walker Parking concluded that more signs are needed to direct visitors to available parking, that a walkway should link the city-owned, 400-space Franklin Street parking deck to Market Street, and that Franklin Street should become a two-way street to facilitate access to the deck.
The study also recommended $143,000 worth of repairs to the deck over the next two years.
Angling a change
The consultants recommended changing from parallel to angle parking on both sides of High Street between Park Avenue and Elm Road at an estimated cost of $29,000, if city engineering studies show it to be feasible.
This would reduce High Street from four to two lanes of traffic. The cost would be for things such as painting stripes and installing signs.
Also recommended by Walker is a switch from parallel to angle parking on the west side of Park Avenue along Courthouse Square with the curb line extended westward at an estimated cost of $36,000.
Walker did not recommend converting to angle parking on Market Street, however, because it said that the required utility relocations would be costly and that diverting its heavy traffic volume to other streets would adversely affect downtown businesses.
Jim Cicchillo, owner of 169 W. Market St., which houses a real estate office and two apartments, said he favors angle parking on Market Street at Courthouse Square because it would give customers convenient access to the majority of retailers.
Even when Market Street is closed for several days for the annual Italian Festival, people find a way to get around, he added.
Customers find angle parking more convenient than parallel parking, he said.
"If we can prove that it can be done safely, then I'm all for it," Mayor Michael O'Brien said of angle parking. Users of angled spaces need to be able to see approaching traffic clearly and avoid collisions when backing out of a parking space, he noted.
The city's engineering department is working on parking plans for North Park Avenue and High and Market streets, the mayor said.
"Hopefully, we'll have some resolution to this very quickly. We want to have parking, but at the same time we want to make it safe, not just for the residents who park their cars, but for the residents that traverse through the city," O'Brien added.
milliken@vindy.com