City council, community members continue parking discussion

MOSES LAKE — The quest for a new downtown continues.

Moses Lake City Council members and Moses Lake residents gathered before the city council Tuesday to discuss plans to revitalize downtown Moses Lake, in an effort to draw more people and businesses into the area.

During the hour-long study session, those in attendance looked over conceptual drawings for the layout of Third Avenue.

The street's existing conditions are sidewalks 11 feet wide on both sides of the street, four travel lanes 11 feet wide, and parallel parking 7 feet wide on both sides, making for a total of 80 feet for the revitalization team to work with and containing 103 parking spaces.

City municipal services director Gary Harer and associate planner Lori Barlow displayed three proposed configurations that allowed for diagonal parking on one side of the street, maintaining parallel parking on the other.

The first included 16-foot wide sidewalks on each side, two 12-foot travel lanes, one side of 8-foot wide parallel parking and one side of 16-foot perpendicular diagonal parking at a 30 degree angle. The perpendicular distance would limit car length to 16 feet. The configuration allows for 84 parking spaces.

The second proposed configuration changed the angle of parking to 45 degrees and maintained the other measurements. The 16-foot perpendicular configuration would limit car length to 13 feet, and allow for 99 parking spaces.

The third proposed configuration included 14-foot wide sidewalks on each side, and a 20-foot diagonal parking space perpendicular to the curb on one side, still at 45 degrees. The rest of the measurements were maintained. The perpendicular distance from the curb would limit car length to 16 feet and allow for 99 spaces.

City Council member Richard Pearce asked if merchants were willing to give up parking spaces, in addition to the proposed loss of parking spaces in Sinkiuse Square, as they attempt to draw more people downtown.

"To accomplish what we want to accomplish, then the merchants will say, 'Wow, we've got so many people downtown, we need to park cars,'" Pearce said.

Bob Arnold of Columbia Basin Quilt Works said if the number of parking spaces dropped to even 84, and merchants ceased to park in customer parking places, there would not be a parking problem.

"Somebody has directed the police department to start ticketing cars in Sinkiuse Square, so everybody has moved out of Sinkiuse Square onto the street, and there are still enough parking places," Arnold said.

Moses Lake Mayor Ron Covey and city manager Joe Gavinski clarified that warnings had been issued, but no actual citations had been given. Arnold noted that some cars had parking warnings or notices, and others had not.

"I think if you're going to do this, that you should do it with all of the cars and not just a select few," he said.

Covey said that the city is trying to enforce the two-hour parking limit in the square. He agreed that everyone should be warned equally, instead of a select few.

Jeff Foster of Advantage GMAC Real Estate noted that there is only one vacant store on Third Avenue in the downtown core.

"If we're going to revitalize downtown, what more are we going to have for people to go to?" he said. "The businesses are full … The issue of what they're going to do when they get down there, I think is predicated strongly on parking. If they have to drive around the block, they're not going to come."

Covey said he disagreed, and he and Foster both agreed to have differing opinions. Foster added that the Sinkiuse Square warnings said that the issuing began due to recent complaints, and said he hoped that those complaints were documented, as they were coming at a sensitive time.

"If we don't have a parking problem downtown, where did those complaints come from?" he said.

Covey said he and other staff members suggested enforcing the two-hour parking restriction — not citing or ticketing, but only warning.

"I think there are complaints periodically coming in all the time, but to what degree, what level, I don't know," Covey said. "It may not have been as many complaints as it was just direction by myself and maybe some staff persons that we needed to enforce that to actually see what type of an impact it was having on downtown."

Foster said he was not speaking out against downtown beautification, but he said he was thankful for the study sessions because he wanted to see that the best interests of the downtown merchants continued to be discussed.

Covey replied that there are a number of businesses that would complement the development of downtown, while others may be just the opposite. They might not want to see higher lease rates or might not need increased traffic circulating throughout the area.

"There are some businesses that … want (customers) in and out, because they are working on volume, or they are working on something else," Covey said. "There will be a change, so there will be some vacancies open up, I'm sure. I think this only lends itself to the future development of our downtown area."

Ralph Kincaid of Windermere/K-2 Realty stressed that there needs to be a mixture of reasons for people to go downtown — restaurants, bookstores, coffee shops, office use, residential use, etc. He liked the comment made at the previous meeting, held March 29, that the city look into purchasing property around the downtown area for additional parking.

In a healthy downtown area, the downtown retail is the most expensive land and rent in town, Kincaid continued, noting that Moses Lake is the opposite. According to consultants, another sign of a declining downtown is under-utilized space, and seeing businesses like porn shops, pawn shops, Internet providers, dance schools and karate schools.

"Those kinds of businesses are looking for the least expensive space," he explained. "They have to, because they don't have high margins like retail. Those are the signs — we want downtown to be full, but we'd like it to be full of the types of businesses that will pay a good retail rate."

The next study session will take place April 19, beginning at 6 p.m. in the city council chambers. That session is expected to last two hours.