Old Orchard Business District Advisory Commission

Old Orchard Special Business District Advisory Commission MEETING MINUTES DRAFT MEETING DATE: Tuesday, January 19, 2017 LOCATION: City Hall CALLED TO ORDER: 8:05 AM MEETING ADJOURNED: 8:58 AM NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, February 14, 2017 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 Steve Zielinski X Frank Janoski, Council Liaison X Mara Perry, City Liaison X Also in attendance: John Layton – State Farm Insurance Dave Sanders – HPD Cambridge Tim Tynan – Ross & Baruzzini Marsha Bradford – Diversified Health and Wellness Kurt Koller – Diversified Health and Wellness Fran Sudekum – Administrative Support The universal comment from all in attendance at the meeting, “We’re out of space.” Parking Reminders:  New Webster University parking garage: o The new garage is slated to be open in the spring. o It will contain approximately 500 parking spots. o University patrons pay to use the garage. o Nerinx Hall will have 110 dedicated spots in that new garage; which is an increase of 55 (double) from the number of spaces they had on their private lot which they gave over to the University to be part of the new garage. o University enrollment will increase once their new inter-disciplinary building is completed.  Process/restrictions for making changes in parking: o Permit parking is controlled by City ordinance. o Changes to parking parameters, such as hours, would require a change in the ordinance. o On-street parking changes need to go thru the Traffic Advisory Commission. o Public Works needs a recommendation from the Commission on any proposed changes to the ordinance. o St. Louis County owns Big Bend and controls all its parking; they will not allow any permit parking. Mara Perry provided a handout of some follow up items:  Create permit spaces at the back of Log Cabin Lane City lot (10+ spaces).  Create permit spaces along Log Cabin Lane next to Commerce Bank drive thru (6-7 spaces).  Redesign the DeSoto building’s lot in collaboration with the Quonset Hut lot before resurfacing in  the spring; a change in the striping of the parking spaces could result in the addition a couple more spaces.  Talk with Bethesda about putting hourly restrictions on their existing spaces behind 8103-8161 Big Bend (30 spaces).  Look at off-site employee parking with a shuttle service. Off-Site Employee Parking  Ross & Baruzzini stated a shuttle type off-site employee parking would not be feasible for them. Their biggest issues are during lunch time and in the summer. Mara Perry suggested they could use the public parking lot just to the east of them.  The two new tenants in the Quonset Hut (Boulevard and Diversified Health and Wellness) are looking at off-site employee parking at the Ozark Theatre Building in Old Webster (same landlord). Parking Impact on District  Retail businesses will move out/not move into the District if there’s no place for their customers to park.  Service and professional businesses will move out/not move in if there is no place for their employees to park. Negative Impacts on Parking  Parking habits of Webster University and Nerinx Hall students.  Part-time traffic officer covering the whole city does not allow for enough parking restriction enforcement.  University patrons can park on the street and in public lots for free instead of paying to use the University’s existing garage (as will be the case with the new garage as well).  Non-retail use of space is not conducive to parking turn over.  Webster University construction workers have started parking on Bompart instead of using the off-site construction-worker parking. District Parking Priorities  1. Customers come first.  2. Employees come second.  3. Educational Facilities need to manage their students’ parking so as not to negatively impact #1 and #2. High Priority Set up a meeting with Nerinx Hall and Webster University and several members of the Commission to address parking issues.  Nerinx Hall – Work with Nerinx Hall to aggressively manage their student parking.  Webster University – Work with Webster University to manage their retail lot appropriately for retail use (a.k.a. Mills lot) and address parking garage fees vs. free street and public parking. Commission idea = spread out that cost in the tuition and make University student and faculty parking in the garages free. NEXT REGULAR COMMISSION MEETING  February 14th at 8:00 AM – City Hall ADJOURNED Meeting adjourned at 8:58 AM.