City mapping out plan for Downtown parking upgrades

By Cameron Montemayor

City officials are enlisting the help of an outside consultant to study Downtown’s parking capacity and evaluate projected needs for future demand.

With a decade-plus of steady economic growth and ongoing development in the Downtown area, city leaders are aiming to get a complete understanding and blueprint of its parking infrastructure by summer of 2025.

City councilmembers authorized a $23,500 contract in early December with SP+ Consulting Services, a leading parking management company, for the study, which is scheduled to begin in the coming weeks according to St. Joseph Public Works and Transportation Director Abe Forney.

“This study will look at on-street parking, off-street parking, traffic flow and parking structures, how people park and where they park,” Forney said. “So it’s an in-depth look.”

Downtown’s population and economy has grown to include more than 100 businesses, companies or facilities that require parking infrastructure, in addition to an expanding number of community events that bring in thousands of additional vehicles over the course of the year.

SP+ will conduct data collection activities both on-street and off-street to verify the existing number of parking spaces before analyzing data to assess current parking usage patterns and availability.

A key component of the study will include a parking demand analysis to determine if current parking supply can meet current and anticipated future demand. SP+ will provide a recommendation summary offering potential strategies to improve parking accessibility and efficiency.

“With Downtown continuing to grow, we want to make sure that this parking infrastructure that we have down here works for growth, visitors and citizens alike,” he said. “We want to have the best experience possible.”

One of the first plans in motion to improve short-term parking centers around the aging parking garage at Fourth and Felix streets by the InspireU Children’s Discovery Museum, which held its long-awaited grand opening Thursday.

City Council has already allocated $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to evaluate and renovate the three-level garage to accommodate additional parking for museum visitors and Downtown foot traffic, with preliminary construction currently underway.

The $1 million project is part of a larger $1.5 million ARPA agreement between the city and Mosaic Life Care to use funds to rehabilitate and improve the two block area adjacent to the museum.

“This parking garage is old and and it’s falling apart,” he said. “You’ll notice that some of the parking spots are blocked off so people can’t park there and that’s for construction.”

The garage also serves a vital role for the future of the new-and-improved Civic Arena, which has become a growing hub for high school and collegiate sporting events, including marquee events like the MIAA Volleyball Championships and D-II Women’s Basketball Elite Eight/National Championship.

With $9 million in widespread upgrades planned or already carried on the facility, St. Joseph is bidding to become the next host for the MIAA Basketball Tournament currently held in Kansas City, another high-profile multi-day sporting event that would bring in thousands of tourists if secured.

The Downtown study will also focus the city’s other aging parking garage by the Driver’s Examination Office and Police Department at Jules and North Seventh streets. A large majority of the top parking level is currently blocked off and unused due to deterioration.

“Part of this is they’ll (SP+) go to all the stakeholders in this Downtown area and talk to them and make sure that what they have is sufficient. And if we need to adjust, then we’ll do so accordingly,” Forney said.