Typically, a Technical Assistance Program (TAP) of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) identifies a specific parcel for the panel to study and provides strategic advice on the highest and best use of that particular parcel.
Recently, however, a TAP undertaken by ULI Kansas City studied not a single site, but the corridor in which the Main Street extension of the KC Streetcar will be located, approximately 27th Street to 51st Street.
TAP co-chairs Jon Copaken, principal, Copaken Brooks, and Leah FitzGerald, managing director, CBRE, led a panel comprised of local and out-of-town experts which included Diane Binckley, deputy director, planning and development department, City of Kansas City, Missouri; Lynn Carlton, practice leader for planning and urban design, Burns & McDonnell; Sara Clark, vice president, TranSystems Corporation; Michael Collins, founder and CEO, Grayson Capital,LLC; Bill Dietrich, president and CEO, Downtown Council of Kansas City; Chris Frantze, partner, Stinson LLP; Eric Haggett, director of planning, Walker Consultants; Craig Scranton, principal, BNIM; Jaime Snyder, senior parking consultant, Walter P Moore; Chad Snyder, principal, Walter P Moore; Natalya Steinke, preconstruction manager, MW Builders; and Brittney Swartz, project manager, Burns & McDonnell.
The panel made recommendations concerning shared parking solutions along the Main Street extension. On Friday, the panel outlined some of its recommendations in a public presentation. A written report will be forthcoming in the near future.
FitzGerald said that the panel toured the district, spoke with the sponsors paying for the study to learn their needs and questions and then identified stakeholders and interviewed them. The stakeholders included elected leadership, city professional staff, business and property owners, developers, community organizations, faith and school leaders and neighborhood representatives.
The panel then split into three groups that studied policy, communications and technology and the actual physical improvements that might happen along the various nodes/stops on the streetcar extension line.
“One of the things we wanted to do was really create a policy about how shared parking would work. . . .We wanted to focus on what could have the best impact along the corridor for shared parking without creating a wealth of parking along the streetcar line,” said Collins.
Collins outlined some of the policy recommendations for implementing a shared parking plan, which includes adding a small percentage of parking at new multifamily developments for public use; implementing a maximum parking ratio of one space per unit in all new multifamily projects located in transit nodes and transition zones; and investigating ordinance limitations for parking requirements, addressing them as necessary. The panel also recommends that parking be managed by a public entity on behalf of the City of Kansas City, Missouri, or a benefits district.
Collins addressed the panel’s recommendations for possible funding and financing options from Federal, state and local sources.
“The first one we were looking at was the Federal Transit Administration Joint or Shared Use Development Agreement. . . . It would provide assistance to develop, improve, maintain and operate a public transportation project that sits along the corridor,” said Collins.
Collins said possible sources of state funding include the Missouri State Infrastructure Bank and the creation of a Missouri transportation corporation.
On the local level, Collins described several funding options, including funding from KCATA/RideKC Development Corporation through its Sustaining Transportation and Reinvesting Together program (START), streetcar TDD incremental funding, funds from the City in a lump sum or annual payment to pay for shared parking spaces within developments, parking in-lieu fees where a developer would pay an agreed upon cost per parking space in lieu of the parking spaces required under the new shared parking policy and revenue generated from the public parking.
The panel identified three different zones within the studied corridor in considering potential for shared parking, both from existing inventory and from future development: Neighborhood Main Street, which includes residential areas; transit nodes, the higher density areas; and transitional zones, the bridge between Neighborhood Main Street and the transit nodes.
“We didn’t necessarily identify specific locations for parking. This was an entire corridor. We did identify some maybe targeted locations of where you could potentially build that into the future. . . . One of the considerations that we had is we’re not going to put the parking facing Main Street. We want it 500, 1000 feet back. One of the reasons is we don’t want that concentration of cars running around trying to find where the entrance is. This is a transit corridor. We want that to be the focus,” said Clark.
Carlton addressed issues of management, technology and communication.
Carlton said wayfinding and technology are extremely important to the success of any shared parking program. Identifying a single app for the entire district that can expand and grow with the parking program is crucial, Carlton said.
A big piece of the success of a shared parking program will be a media and public relations campaign.
“We think that the kickoff and the initial start of that campaign can happen as the streetcar is coming on line, but even before that to make sure that everyone understands where there’s available free parking right now up and down the district so that people aren’t parking in the neighborhoods and really understand where this is,” said Carlton.
The panel outlined several next steps, including leveraging existing resources first. Copaken said the panel was not suggesting establishing new parking right now. He said there needs to be more detailed studies at key nodes, especially at 39th and Main Street, to understand demand better. In addition, there must be a re-evaluation of the addition of new parking at the onset of major new development.
“It may seem a little strange that with the streetcar coming, to spend a lot of time talking about parking. Why aren’t we talking about streetcar? Well, our primary goal is we want streetcar to be as successful as it possibly can be and to help Midtown continue to get better and better. But we also know that most of us don’t live in a bubble and just live along the streetcar line,” said Kevin Klinkenberg, executive director, Midtown KC Now.
“And, as the area continues to redevelop, we’re going to have more and more people who want to come to this area, who are coming here from all parts of the metro area and beyond, and we have to be smarter and realistic about how to accommodate those people when they come to our part of the city. . . . Parking is like the Rosetta Stone of development. If you can figure out how to better plan for it and manage it and operate it, then it can really unlock so much potential in our neighborhoods and in our commercial areas,” Klinkenberg said.
Feature photo: TAP panelists from L to R: Jon Copaken, Leah FitzGerald, Michael Collins, Craig Scranton, Brittney Swartz and Lynn Carlton. Photo credit: MWW KC | Marcia Charney.