3. Parking Commission/Downtown ParkingKalispell Parking Commission
433 Main Street, Suite 10
Kalispell, MT 59901
November 21, 2003
Mayor Kennedy
Kalispell City Council
Kalispell City Manager
Box 1997
Kalispell, MT 59903
Downtown Kalispell is experiencing a shortage of parking spaces. Most of
the city's parking lots are full or overflowing. Some are even over sold. We
currently have no more vacant land in the core to use for increasing the
parking supply. As you can see from the attached aerial photo, there really
are a lot of parking lots; perhaps even a surplus. To get more parking spaces,
with our past way of thinking, we would need to tear down some buildings.
Obviously, that is going in the wrong direction. We all know we need more
buildings not fewer buildings. There's no more teardown's out there.
Parking industry wisdom shows that we must increase the densities in
parking by building up. This will allow some of those other surface lots to be
built on, thereby increasing the densities and the tax structure at the inner
core.
Working toward both goals of more parking spaces and more buildings, is a
better management Kalispell's assets.
We feel that a study of our parking needs will show that:
1. We need to increase our municipal parking supply.
2. A parking structure can pay its way through user fees plus the increase
in Downtown tax structure.
Toward solving the parking piece of the puzzle for a healthy and vital
Downtown, we recommend that Kalispell update the parking needs study
done by Clete Daley in 1992. Included in this update should be:
# 1 A current and future needs assessment.
#2 Identifying the best locations for higher density parking structures. KPC
sees a shortfall in the current supply for meeting the current needs. We also
feel that that current shortfall is in fact inhibiting the future growth of our
downtown. Many new projects are stillborn because of parking needs. There
can be no new construction without increasing the parking supply.
#3 We suggest that accompanying this parking study should be a cost
analysis with research into the repercussions of parking structure's ability
to free up existing surface lots for development of additional buildings. If a
parking structure were to be built, many of the neighboring surface lots
could become structures with a much higher tax base. The city owns some of
these lots and would also gain income from their eventual sales. The
economics of these factors need to be factored into any cost analysis.
We look forward to your response and to this becoming a workshop agenda
item in the very near future.
Sincerely,