Studio Davis: Placemaking through Parking Policy
All parking problems have a similar root: a great place. Here are a few of their stories.
Downtown Portland
Downtown Portland. Click to expand.
As the Great Recession lifted and parking demand returned to downtown Portland, the City needed to update management strategies. Brian led a comprehensive supply and demand study encompassing approximately one-third of the metered parking and loading zones within downtown Portland and the Pearl District.
Northwest Portland
Northwest Portland. Click to expand.
The Northwest District has aruguably the most congested parking in Portland, with a vibrant mix of residential, commercial, and employment uses driving demand in roughly equal measure. To manage this, the City implemented an ambitious set of measures in 2016, including a first-of-its-kind hybrid meter/permit district. Brian led a robust before-and-after study to determine the impacts of the initial management change, and inform ongoing management efforts.
Newport, Oregon
Newport, Oregon. Click to expand.
Newport is a city of about 11,000 stretching along the Central Coast of Oregon at the mouth of the Yaquina Bay. The city has three key commercial centers:
Portland Centers & Corridors
Portland Centers & Corridors. Click to expand.
The east side of Portland is characterized by its numerous "Streetcar Suburbs:" Dense clusters of mixed-use corridors and town centers that grew up near old streetcar stops. Coming out of the recession, as infill development increased pressure on public parking, The City aimed to develop a "Parking Toolkit" that gave neighborhods a suite of options to manage demand.
Uptown Charlotte, NC
Uptown Charlotte, NC. Click to expand.
Uptown Charlotte is one of the fastest growing urban cores in the nation, yet at the time our work commenced it had one of the lowest meter rates in the country at $1 per hour. We were brought in to conduct a comprehensive analysis of supply and demand, to test the efficacy of that $1/hour rate and glean insights into other usage patterns and management impacts.
Hillsboro, Oregon
Hillsboro, Oregon. Click to expand.
The City of Hillsboro is one of Oregon's leading communities for providing affordable housing, with the state's second largest existing stock (after only Portland) and several new projects in the planning stages. In 2018 I led a comprehensive analysis of parking supply and demand patterns around the City's affordable housing stock, which aimed to determine whether certain factors impact (e.g., proximity to transit, income of residents) parking demand, and to identify opportunities to reduce parking requirements (and thus costs of development).
Cannon Beach, Oregon
Cannon Beach, Oregon. Click to expand.
Like many coastal communities, the City of Cannon Beach, Oregon (population 1,500), experiences a significant influx of parking demand during the warmer months, with particularly high demand during weekends in the summer. Seasonal parking demand can be challenging for cities to manage since the inconsistent demand over the course of the year typically precludes construction of new facilities, so it’s crucial to maximize existing parking resources.
Forest Grove, Oregon
Forest Grove, Oregon. Click to expand.
Forest Grove, a city of 25,000 about 25 miles west of Portland, has seen steady growth over the past several years. It is home to Pacific University, which combines with the robust mix of retail, restaurant, and entertainment uses to create significant parking demand in its downtown area.
Audubon, New Jersey
Audubon, New Jersey. Click to expand.
Audubon, like many of the South Jersey suburbs, grew up around the turn of the 20th Century on one of several competing railroads connecting Philadelphia to Atlantic City. The Merchant Street district surrounds the old train station, with a dense cluster of old stores and residences offering little off-street parking.
Yachats, Oregon
Yachats, Oregon. Click to expand.
Yachats is a city of about 1,000 on the Oregon Coast, but on summer weekends the population can triple or more as visitors flock to “The Gem of the Oregon Coast.” Studio Davis prepared a comprehensive parking management plan for the downtown area. The planning process convened with a site visit and inventory of all public and non-residential private parking facilities within the study area. An initial set of interviews was conducted with local stakeholders, followed by a broad public outreach campaign that generated a robust set of feedback. A detailed set of demand observations during peak season provided data on the exact timing, location, and severity of parking issues experienced by visitors.
Grants Pass, Oregon
Grants Pass, Oregon. Click to expand.
Developing a parking plan for Grants Pass, Oregon was a case study in how quickly factors on the ground can change, and how a parking plan must change with it.