AdvanceChristiansburg

Great ways to get input from citizens on what the issues are. I look forward to hearing your results. When is the next committee meeting? I would love to attend and learn more about the processes used in decision making.

I'm not opposed to parking meters downtown. Especially since C'burg meters were cheap compared to VT or B'burg. But what about the street project? One of the consultant recommendations from the downtown revitalization study in 1998 or so, was diagonal parking instead of parallel parking. It not only accomodates more cars, but makes things a little easier for drivers, plus helps slow down the traffic on Main street. Is it too late to repaint the spaces for diagonal parking?

I think Mr. Bass has hit on a great idea. Watching some people try to parallel park should be a spectator sport. Parallel parking is done so seldom these days that there may actually be tourists who have never had to park this way. How many more parking spaces would be obtained if diagonal parking was used instead?

It appears downtown has about a 65/35 split on government & professional / other businesses, with the former only operating during traditional business hours. Since downtown traffic and parking is only very recently no longer disrupted due to town's project (and there are still some traffic cones in sight), is this truly a critical or growing problem or simply one that has carried over -- that being court house visitors parking where they want rather than using county lots? Without signs pointing to public parking and no concern about repurcussions (hefty fines and constant police patroling), it's no wonder this issue continues to be a burden to doing business in downtown Christiansburg which has inadequate on street or private parking lots.

Great dialogue. I'll be on vacation thru Fri 27 June and will be reading but probably not posting ... thx, Brad

I think that it is probably too late to re-design the parking spaces on the street to accomodate the angled spaces suggested above. And even though it does take some people a couple of tries to parallel park, having people backing out of the angled spaces into the street would almost certainly cause as many if not more problems than does parallel parking.

Speaking strictly from my own personal observations, it would appear that the only true problem ares is directly in the square and on Franklin St. between Main and First. I believe time limit signs would be the most cost effective solution. It is my understanding that the Town did not keep the old meters when they were removed, but instead sold or traded them to another jurisdiction. I am not certain about that, but if that is the case, it just doesn't seem necessary to go to the considerable expense of purchasing and installing new meters yet again when signs can accomplish the same task. Given that I have never seen a time when all of the spaces along mainstreet were full, I would suggest that only the spaces in the square and immediately adjacent to the Courthouse would need time limits.
I believe a limit of 2 hours would allow sufficient time for shoppers, etc., but would still be short enough to prevent people from tying up a space all day.

An issue that hasn't been addressed here is the need for stiffer fines to discourage people from overtime parking. Even in the days of the meters, people weren't really deterred because the fine was initially only 25 cents. Then after much debate it was raised to $2. Neither was sufficient to prevent some attorneys and other frequent courthouse visitors from parking all day. Even if they received two or three tickets in a day, they still preferred to just pay $6 for the convenience of parking close to the courthouse. A fine of between $10 and $25 per ticket would be more effective at deterring the undesired behavior. Maybe $10 for the first violation and $25 for every two hours thereafter.

The Town might also want to consider a parking enforcement officer to handle this problem on a full-time basis. Parking enforcement has always been a source of numerous complaints with about half of the people complaining that there is not enough enforcement and the other half complaining that it isn't necessary and that the officers should make better use of their time. A single day-time employee, who would not necessarily need to be a sworn police officer, could be dedicated solely to parking enforcement. Many localities use this approach for parking.

The parking enforcement officials, or people who were in days past called "meter-maids" would be given a radio with which to contact the police dispatch center if a problem arose, but would otherwise work independently and be authorized only to issue parking tickets but not to make arrests or respond to other calls.

If the Town does go with time limit signs, the only effective way to enforce this is to have someone constantly marking tires and checking to make sure cars don't exceed the time limit. If this job is tasked to a patrol officer, you run the risk that call volume and other duties would prevent constant enforcement.

A final consideration is the construction of the new courthouse. If that plan is actually carried out, the lay of the land around the courthouse will change dramatically. I believe the plans include a parking structure. This might prove to be a better solution in the long term than would any amount of enforcement.

Good stuff. On Saturday I interviewed several downtown business owners; the input was equally insightful and supports much of your suggestion. I've also received several e-mails on this. I believe the next Street Committee Meeting will be Tue 01 Jul 08, 7:00p in the Town Manager's office. If necessary the meeting can be moved to a larger room nearby. Look forward to more input/dialogue - all are welcome. Thx, Brad

ps I really liked the suggestions about diagonal, or "herringbone", parking. Upon closer inspection Saturday, it appears there is inadequate width to accommodate this - even on one side - if we maintain the comfortable sidewalk width (and corresponding landscaping/traffic calming benefits). I've not confirmed this with the project designers, but am comfortable in noting this.

Brad, what businesses are open downtown on Saturday? Antique stores, a couple of hair dressers, a restaurant or two? What else? Many downtown businesses are not open on Saturday nor after 5 pm on weekdays and any problems seem to be related to government offices. Do you know how many businesses are licensed in the downtown area and the percent who are open on weekend day (when parking is generally not a problem except for West Main on Sunday mornings?). For businesses you spoke with how many are renters versus property owners? How many have off street parking and how many rely on only on street parking for their customers? Is there a downtown group or town committee that should be invovled in this dialog and decision making process?

I fully intended on blogging my opinions related to the parking issue before a decision was made. I suppose the busyness of life (and running a business) caught up with me because I didn't know a decision had been made until I saw it in the paper.

The article in the News Messenger left out many details. Brad, would you be willing to post the exact decision. Firstly, which spaces will have a time limit? Only those around the courthouse and square, or all downtown spaces? The spaces on Hickok have not had meters for several years...will these be included in the time limit? Secondly, what days and times will apply? Mon-Fri 8-5? Or everyday?

The answers to these questions directly impact my business.

Linda - The plan is to implement a 2-hr time limit from 8a - 5p on weekdays only, and only along Main and Franklin Streets. This will begin on 01 Sept 08. Our goal is to help downtown business, so please let me know if you feel this is not the case. The Street Committee (Councilman Canada and I) are further considering this matter and will likely have other suggestions before implementation. Thanks for taking time to share your thoughts.

Brad- Thanks for your prompt response. Being weekdays only is a huge relief for me. We often have weekend and evening events that would take longer than 2 hrs. So this policy will have little impact on most of our customers.

My concern is for me personally and for our staff. We are located on the First Street side of Main, where there is little off street parking. In fact our property owner and landlord, The Christmas Store, has very few spaces. In addition, to park there we'd have to walk all the way around our building and the Medical Arts Building to get to work.

While this may not seem unreasonable on the surface, there are 2 main obstacles to this:
1. I rely heavily on part-time staff, often coming directly from other jobs with little time to spare and/or working in small blocks of time (only slightly in excess of 2 hrs), making it impractical to walk that far every time.
2. I am personally juggling motherhood with business ownership (that has odd hours) so I frequently have loads of stuff, including the little one to carry to and from the studio.

I would encourage staff to use the spaces on Hickok when possible, but knowing that closer parking is almost always abundant at our end of Main (yet), it would be nice to know that our staff would not be penalized for staying longer than 2 hrs.

Thanks Linda; I'll keep you posted.