Council discusses parking's lot

Staff given directions for revisions, next session April 12

MOSES LAKE — Parking was still one of the prime discussion topics at the Moses Lake City Council study session Tuesday night, but by the end the council agreed to take several steps forward.

The city council directed city staff to take its directions for revisions to Sinkiuse Square and Third Avenue, utilizing several concepts designed to slow traffic and increase pedestrian friendliness, including sidewalks extended by 6 feet, a mixture of parallel and nose-in diagonal parking, raised intersections, bump-outs, curb extensions and mid-block pedestrian crossings.

The next study session will be April 12 at 6 p.m.

In response to council member Steve Shinn's question about discussing the matter of cost of those renovations, Mayor Ron Covey said it was too early.

"We're going to do what needs to be done no matter what it costs," he said. "But the cost may dictate how fast we do what we do. I don't want to do it just half-way. If we're only going to do it half-way, I don't want to do it at all."

Over the course of nearly two hours, council members and community members alike discussed potential plans to revitalize the downtown Moses Lake area, in hopes of drawing more people.

The prospect of potentially removing parking from downtown in favor of a gathering plaza in Sinkiuse Square has worried some people and downtown business owners.

Council member Richard Pearce stressed that Moses Lake is not yet a walking community, and said he did not want to seem too lackadaisical on the issue of parking.

Covey responded that it's all a matter of mind set. For years, he would drive around blocks in hopes of getting one particular parking place in front of the store he wanted to walk into, as opposed to being perfectly happy with a parking spot four blocks away from his destination in Seattle, he recalled.

"You've got to move with the times, change with the times, realize that Moses Lake, if you want it to stay the way it's always been, then don't do a darn thing," he said. "But if you want to see some changes, if you want to see some improvements, if you want to see some growth, we're going to have to attract some people here."

Local attorney Julie Harper asked about the possibility of the council buying downtown property and putting in alternative, smaller, designated parking lots around the Sinkiuse Square perimeter, saying she would hate to lose the advantageous parking downtown.

"Conceptually, most people don't have a problem with anything that's being proposed as downtown's design and needing to bring people downtown," she said. "But the parking is just huge, and that's so important to a business."

Covey responded that the only reason he sees to eliminate curb-side parking is that it would be required to make room for curb extensions or pedestrian cross walks. He can see eliminating some parking in Sinkiuse Square, because "I think it has a higher priority than just a parking lot," he said, adding that providing alternatives half a block to a block away would probably solve the problem.

Clint Bridges, owner of The Computer Place, said that he would probably have to relocate his business if the downtown area became designed for slower business, because the nature of the Computer Place is not that people would walk half a block for service.

Bridges also wondered if it would be better to work towards attracting people downtown, by drawing some of the types of businesses that attract people on a daily basis to the outskirts of Moses Lake, such as along Pioneer Way or on Stratford Road.

Ralph Kincaid, owner of Windermere/K-2 Realty, said that the downward cycle of businesses downtown in the past 12 years has not been healthy. The proposal is not to eliminate parking, he said.

"This downtown area has changed and in my short time in town, has gone from an area with maybe a parking problem, maybe needing to purchase a Sinkiuse Square area parking to an area with absolutely no parking problem today," Kincaid said.

Kincaid noted that on his way to the study session, he drove the length of downtown Moses Lake and did not see a single person on the sidewalk at 6:05 p.m., which he said is not a good sign. In some of the other communities that have been visited, he said, things are going on all times of the day, evening and weekend.

Moses Lake Business Association Executive Director Sally Goodwin said that Tuesday's meeting went much better than the previous week's study session, which suffered from a lack of focus.

"They made some decisions, not cast in stone, but some things that you can start building on," Goodwin said.

"The city council developed direction on how to go on Third that I think will please most, if not all, business owners and community members," said Jacie Daschel, Vision 2020 chair. "It will provide a wonderful pedestrian area, as much parking as possible and good traffic calming."