Old Orchard Business District Advisory Commission

Old Orchard Special Business District Advisory Commission MEETING MINUTES APPROVED MEETING DATE: Thursday, October 6, 2016 LOCATION: City Hall CALLED TO ORDER: 8:05 AM MEETING ADJOURNED: 9:00 AM NAME PRESENT ABSENT Joe Fichter, Chair X Angel Venegoni X Claire Winkler X Mary Jane Armstrong X Steve Scheipeter X Holland Saltsman X Robert Weber X John Barr X Vacancy Frank Janoski, Council Liaison X Mara Perry, City Liaison X Also in attendance: John Layton – State Farm Insurance Charlie Downs – Cyrano’s Joe Stratton – Imo’s Pizza Bill Kunz – Hwy 61 Roadhouse Joan – The Hair Affair Fran Sudekum – Administrative Support Parking issues in the District are not new, however, recently some issues have been brought to the Commission to be addressed. The purpose of this Special Parking Meeting was to gather input on parking from the businesses in the District. The new Webster University parking garage is slated to be completed in the summer of 2017, before the fall semester starts. It will contain approximately 500 parking spots. Nerinx Hall will have 110 dedicated spots in that new garage. The University will have increased enrollment once their new building is completed. Items discussed included:  Several businesses are growing and want to expand, but there’s not enough parking for their employees; we need to retain growing businesses.  How many spots is the District short on a daily basis?  Could adjustments on time limits and/or time frames for public parking and permit parking improve parking issues?  Parking fines seem to be ineffective.  Step up parking restriction enforcement efforts. Target hot spot locations. Information from the traffic officer on where these hot spots are would be helpful.  Focus enforcement to chronic offenders.  Additional parking permits could be added to S. Old Orchard; may impact Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Big Sky Café however.  Increase awareness of available parking, i.e. spots on Log Cabin never seem to be used.  Cutting back foliage on Frisco could open up additional on-street parking.  Need to look at the impact of the various adjustment options.  Could parking meters help? Be aware, new apps allow remote reload.  Nerinx Hall students use a great deal of the parking in the District.  Webster University students don’t appear to purchase garage parking passes due to its high cost.  Could Bethesda flip flop their public and private lots? Mara will look into that possibility. Long Term Parking issues are not specific to Old Orchard; it is a problem city wide. A parking plan was completed several years ago, but has not been implemented; it did involve acquiring land. Commission members discussed the need for a long-term parking solution on a city-wide basis and felt the City should be engaged. One city-wide idea is off-site employee parking offered to all business districts with the use of a shuttle. Joe Fichter would like to include the other business districts in a discussion of this idea. Perhaps the Owen Ridge Campus could be the location of the off-site employee parking. Other possibly areas for off-site employee parking could be the lot at Deer Creek Center or vacant areas on Watson; there could be others. Currently, Webster University is using Deer Creek for parking during construction; finding out their costs and logistics could be helpful in this discussion. Since Nerinx Hall is part of major parking issues, it was felt they should be engaged in discussions. It was suggested a meeting with its president to find out their future plans is needed. If they have outgrown their space and relocated their location could potentially be redeveloped with parking solutions in mind. Next Parking Meeting Commission members felt others in the District still need to be heard from to discuss both long-term and short-term solutions and suggested a follow-up parking meeting. Frank Janoski shared the Council would like to hear parking ideas and solutions from the Commission. Targeted items for next parking meeting:  Removing parking restrictions on DeSoto lot  Parking Permits  Off-Site Parking  Parking Garage Cost  Meeting with Nerinx Hall  Nerinx Hall Enrollment Figures and Trending ADJOURNED Meeting adjourned at 9:00 AM. NEXT MEETING The next regular monthly meeting will be held on November 8, 2016 at 8:00 AM – City Hall.