City leaders ask for more public parking spaces in garages
The Downtown Leadership Council is asking for more public parking spaces on the first floors of all parking garages.
The council finalized a draft letter Tuesday that will now be sent to the city council.
The letter asks the council to review the following:
1. The location of the public parking spaces in the 8th & Walnut “Plaza” garage
2. Issues in the Short Street Garage including the permit process, the percentage of reserved spaces versus public parking, and the number and location of spaces leased to The Broadway hotel.
“In general, the DLC would like to see more public parking spaces available on the first floors of all the parking garages for the convenience of downtown business customers and visitors,” the letter states.
The letter comes after a recent report on parking garages which revealed that more than 60 percent of parking spaces in downtown garages are permit spaces and less than 20 percent are hourly spots.
“You really need to make it easy for outside visitors and shoppers, and I think, we maybe have a little of that backwards right now,” Randy Gray, a member of the Downtown Leadership Council, told ABC 17 News.
Some members of the council also said parking in Columbia, particularly permit parking, simply doesn’t make sense.
“Why does somebody have an opportunity to basically buy a spot in a garage that taxpayers have paid for?” Gray questioned.
Steven Sapp, community relations director for the City of Columbia, said garages are funded by users, not taxpayers. He said the bonds used to fund the garages are all paid for using fees from permit holders and hourly parking in the garages. No general revenue or other tax funds are utilized.
ABC 17 News also spoke to residents downtown. One person called the parking situation “chaos” and another said it’s “inconvenient.”
“Garages more available would be nice instead of having to parallel or meter park all the time,” another resident said. “It’s easier to park in a garage.”
Columbia’s newly-formed downtown parking commission will be discussing the issue further next week.
