City of Columbia set to approve parking advisory commission

The Columbia City council is expected to authorize an amendment that would establish the Parking Advisory Commission.

In June 2016, the council created a task force to review and evaluate the city’s current parking resources and possible future parking demands.

The task force presented their final report in July with six recommendations for a future commission. The recommendations include the following:

Evaluating the effectiveness of existing parking resources Make recommendations on policies and procedures affecting parking resources Studying parking alternatives and making recommendations to most effectively manage existing parking supply and reduce parking demand Monitoring future demand trends for public parking structures Examining neighborhood parking programs Providing citizens with opportunities to participate in planning and assessing parking programs.

The commission will have seven members, including one representative from the University of Missouri, one representative from the Downtown Community Improvement District and one from the Downtown Leadership Council.

The task force’s study found many of the city’s parking garages are being underutilized, while street parking and neighborhood parking can hard to come by.

The study looked at the Benton-Stephens neighborhood and the East Campus neighborhood. It found tight spaces with many cars often parked tightly into spaces and over yellow lines or residential driveways.

For downtown and meter spots, the task force recommended the future commission converting 10-hour spaces on the edge of downtown to business permit spaces at a discounted price, freeing up some prime parking spaces in the central core for customers.