[MissoulaGov] committee update 5-6-09

[Geoff Badenoch]

Six hundred spaces is a lot-so many cars coming and going from one location
will create its own traffic weather.  Fortunately, the planners will take
that into account using path of origin/path of departure analysis and other
metrics.  In addition, the idea of turning Front Street back into a two-way
street will factor in to determining the optimal number of vehicles the
location can accommodate.  

 

Since 600 cars are twice as many cars as the Central Park facility on West
Main holds, this will be an imposing edifice six or seven stories high or
so.  One way to make the structure smaller is to make some part of it
"mechanical parking."  Often called "mechanical valet parking", this system
consists of simply driving into a bay, getting out of your car, getting a
claim check and getting on with your life.  The system of computer driven
mechanical lifts safely whisks the car away and stashes it in a space until
the driver returns.  When the driver returns to the garage, the car can be
summoned (and conveniently turned around) and ready for the driver in 90
seconds or less.  A shopper couldn't schlep an afternoon's worth of shopping
up to the second or third floor and leave the facility that fast.  As an
added benefit, user safety is enhanced, cars are not dinged up or broken
into, and the facility can be covered with solar cells to generate much of
the energy it takes to operate. There are other benefits, as well.  This is
a system of parking that is used successfully in Europe and Japan, and in
some cities in the US.  Is it time for Missoula to consider this?  

 

Geoff Badenoch

P   Please consider the environment before printing this email. 

-----Original Message-----
From: missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com
[mailto:missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com] On Behalf Of Bob Jaffe
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 10:27 PM
To: missoulagov at cmslists.com
Subject: [MissoulaGov] committee update 5-6-09

 

Greetings,

This morning in Conservation we learned about an agreement the parks
department had put together with developer Kevin Mitty regarding the park in
the 44 ranch subdivision. Kevin wants to go ahead and build the improvements
in the park and get reimbursed later as the city collects impact fees.  The
estimated costs for the project are just over $1,000,000. In the end the
city will only have to pay him back around $410,000.  It's a great deal for
the city. I imagine Kevin's motivation is that his development will be more
sellable with a finished park instead of a weed field. 44 Ranch is a very
vertical project in that Kevin Mitty developed the property, built all the
houses, and now is doing the city park improvements. It's kind of like John
Didell at Pleasantview except Kevin is working with us for parks instead of
suing us to avoid them.

 

In PAZ we had the dreaded Chickasaw subdivision return.  This was the
painful project out on seventh just past Tower.  We had required a three
acre Agriculture set aside and a connecting road which required the whole
thing to get redesigned. We approved it conditional on staff and the
developer bringing something back to us that met all the various conditions
we were after. They did this today and it was pretty straight forward. There
were still a few concerns including traffic calming for the someday
connection to the north and how storm water was being handled with the
shallow aquifer. The Community Food and Agriculture Coalition didn't like
the shape of the resulting agriculture parcel so they requested we deny the
project. I get this image of the terraced farms cut into steep hillsides
when they say killing the project is better than farmland that isn't a
perfect rectangle. We will finish this one up next week.

 

In A&F we discussed the parking garage planned for Front and Pattee.  There
are still a lot of unknowns. It will be at least 300 spaces and some retail
along front street. If there is enough money it will be 600 spaces. The
downtown plan calls for 600 spaces so there is some concern of what the
implications are to the rest of the analysis in the plan if we only build it
to half size.  On the other hand I have some concerns over the idea of
induced demand. We know that if we build a road bigger more people will
drive on it. I imagine if we make parking easier downtown more people will
choose to drive there. That's fine if you are talking about customers but
not so good if you are talking about employees. I guess I would like to see
us build the bigger structure and then allocate as much as can be used for
short term parking and charge a lot for the leased spaces to encourage
commuters to develop other habits.

 

In public works we had some disagreement over approving the Mayor's choice
to replace Tom Wilkins with Ginny Iverson on the parking commission board.
The motion stalled on a tie and will be forwarded to the floor with no
recommendation.  

We also agreed to accept a bunch of stimulus money for the north Higgins
street project, a project to build a whole bunch of handicap sidewalk ramps
around town, and the sidewalk project connecting Spruce to Greenough. Some
of us were expecting a fight from the more republican sorts over the evils
of stimulus money but no one had any complaints today.

 

In COW we heard a report from the lobbyist we hired to work the session for
us in Helena. If you would like to see the written report it can be found
here:

ftp://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/Packets/Council/2009/2009-05-04/Referrals/LegRpt
COWRef.pdf

 

Thanks for your interest,

 

Bob Jaffe

Missoula City Council, Ward 3

bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us

406-728-1052

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