Prepared for River City Company Chattanooga Area Regional Transit Authority/ Chattanooga Parking Authority by Stantec Nelson\Nygaard Consulting January 2018 Associates Perkins+Will i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Lead Agencies and Supporting Partners River City Company University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Kim White, President and CEO Dr. Steven Angle, Chancellor Jim Williamson, Vice President of Planning and Development Dr. Richard Brown, Executive Vice Chancellor Amy Donahue, Director of Marketing and Communication Tyler Forrest, Associate Vice Chancellor for Budget and Finance Ann Yoachim, Director of Community Partnerships Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority/Chattanooga Parking Authority Erlanger Health System Lisa Maragnano, Executive Director Kevin Spiegel, President and CEO Brent Matthews, Director of Parking Britt Tabor, Executive Vice President and CFO Philip Pugliese, Transportation System Planner Bruce Komiske, Vice President Mickey Milita, Director of Guest Services and Parking Lyndhurst Foundation Macon Toledano, Associate Director Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation Carol Sim, President and CEO Benwood Foundation Jim Deraney, Assistant Vice President Jeff Pfitzer, Program Officer Public Agency Partners City of Chattanooga Yuen Lee, Research and Analysis Mayor Andy Berke Melissa Taylor, Strategic Long-Range Planning Stacy Richardson, Chief of Staff to Mayor Berke Blythe Bailey, Administrator, Department of Transportation Hamilton County Cary Bohannon, Department of Public Works Mayor Jim Coppinger Mike Compton, Chief of Staff Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Todd Leamon, Administrator of Public Works Agency Paul Parker, Real Property Manager John Bridger, Executive Director Kim McKinney, Geographic Information Systems Specialist Karen Hundt, Community Planning and Design Downtown Chattanooga Parking Study iii Study Stakeholders 3H Group, Hiren Desai Hennen’s, Tim Hennen Berry & Hunt, Steve Hunt Heritage Land, Will Yandell Bessie Smith Cultural Center, Dionne Jennings Hamilton County Health Department, Becky Barnes Blue Plate, Rob Gentry High Point Climbing and Fitness, John Wiygul and Johnny Bluff View Arts District, Angie Niemeyer O’Brien Camp House, Matt Busby Houston Museum of Decorative Arts, Mel Cooper Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce, Charles Wood Hunter Museum of American Art, Virginia Anne Sharber Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Adam Kinsey Kinsey Probasco Hayes, Adam Kinsey Chattanooga Convention Center , Mike Shuford Lamp Post Properties, Tiffanie Robinson Chattanooga Lookouts, Rich Mozingo McKibben Hotels, Daniel Mote Champy’s Chicken, Seth Champion Noon Development, Todd Phillips Creative Discovery Museum, Henry Schulson and Shannon Read House, Ken Merkel Johnson Republic Parking, Jack Skelton and Britton Stansell Defoor Brothers, Ken Defoor Riverfront Business Partners, Jerry Sterling The Enterprise Center, Ken Hayes, Ann Coulter, and Andrew Riverside Development, Chris Curtis and Betsy Ranalli Rodgers Russell Construction, David Smith Easy Bistro, Eric Niel Tennessee Aquarium, Keith Sanford EPB, David Wade and Hodgen Mainda Unum, Breege Ferrell and Richard Meadows Fidelity Trust Company, Matt McGaulley Vision Hospitality Group, Mitch Patel and Drew Hibbard Finley Stadium, Chris Thomas Warehouse Row, Jen Mingola Fletcher Bright, Fletcher Bright Consultant Team Stantec Consulting Services Inc. Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, Inc. Joel Mann, AICP, Project Manager Alyson Fletcher Ralph DeNisco, Principal-in-Charge Brynn Leopold Liza Cohen Perkins+Will Jessica Florez Blake Reeves iv Downtown Chattanooga Parking Study CONTENTS 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 2 OVERVIEW 7 3 KEY FINDINGS 15 4 GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS 33 Shared Parking 34 Performance-Based Parking System 35 Monitor, Report, Adjust 36 Reinvest Funds in Multimodal Improvements 37 Potential Transit Service Enhancements 38 Eliminate Time Limits on Paid Street Parking 42 Pursue Publicly Accessible Supply 43 Update Technology to Support Management Goals 44 Consistent Signage and Wayfinding 45 Curbside Management for Emerging Mobility 46 Event Management 47 5 DISTRICT-LEVEL PROFILES AND RECOMMENDATIONS 49 City Center North 52 City Center South 62 Riverfront 70 Southside 78 Martin Luther King Corridor 88 UTC Campus Area 100 Health & Education District 108 Downtown Chattanooga Parking Study v 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY WHY THIS STUDY? wide look at parking in over a decade, during which time major changes to downtown such as the relocation of Blue The Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority/ Cross Blue Shield and the addition of new hotels, businesses Chattanooga Parking Authority (CARTA/CPA) and River and residents have changed downtown’s parking profile. City Company (River City), in partnership with the Lyndhurst and Benwood Foundations the University of Tennessee at OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY’S STEPS Chattanooga (UTC), Siskin Hospital, Erlanger Health System, and the City of Chattanooga (CDOT), commissioned this The study gathered information on the supply and use of comprehensive study of parking in central Chattanooga to greater downtown Chattanooga’s approximately 43,000 understand challenges and opportunities related to parking parking spaces, which included both on-street and off-street as the city’s urban core continues to grow and develop. It is spaces of both public and private access. In addition to intended to capture the current state of parking at a time counting and classifying spaces by their access and regulation, of ongoing change in downtown and to provide strategic the study also measured how much these spaces were used recommendations for addressing and balancing the current on a typical weekday and Saturday to understand normal parking needs of downtown’s diverse set of organizations, patterns of parking activity. businesses, and residents. The study is the first downtown- 2 Downtown Chattanooga Parking Study This is the most comprehensive such inventory of parking that has been developed for greater downtown Chattanooga and SUMMARY OF KEY served as the basis for recommendations and decision-making FINDINGS throughout the study. It also allows Chattanooga’s various civic organizations and public agencies to continue to update Less than one third of greater downtown’s this information in a consistent framework, thus allowing the parking spaces are publicly available. findings and recommendations of this study to be assessed as downtown grows. Certain parts of the study area, especially The study’s primary analysis compared information on UTC and Erlanger and Siskin hospitals, supply (the parking inventory), levels of use (parking expect to grow to levels that will exhaust utilization), and expected demand (a summary of current current parking supply if they current land uses and activities in the study area, considering both parking usage increases at the same rate. a present-day snapshot and future growth based on known development potential). This allowed the study team to This potential shortage on the east of understand true gaps in parking potential, looking beyond an the study area is mirrored by general individual parking facility but considering the needs of the availability in City Center and Riverfront. entire district. The study team augmented this information with local In the MLK district, a lack of publicly knowledge and insight gained from stakeholder discussions. available parking is already leading to parking shortage. On the Southside, FINDINGS: PARKING NEEDS AND OPPORTUNITIES residential streets face spillover demand Findings of this analysis guided the study’s recommendations, from a growing commercial district. which are based on the principle that Chattanooga has numerous opportunities to better define and execute While the study suggests that downtown management strategies, even though adding to parking Chattanooga does not currently face a inventory is a worthwhile strategic investment in key areas. critical, district-wide shortage of parking overall, supply and demand dynamics are In general, the study observed that current parking use tends to be less than what would be expected given the uneven, and some specific areas currently type and amount of land uses in the whole of greater face parking challenges and feature parking downtown Chattanooga, but as much as would be expected, facilities that are fully used at peak times. if not slightly more, in select areas such as the Health & Ed district and UTC campus area. In addition, even when supply There is room for efficiency through is constrained on weekdays, it is much less heavily used on different pricing and management techniques, especially adjusting on-street pricing and the times of day that regulations are in effect. Downtown Chattanooga Parking Study 3 weekends, further suggesting that major additions to parking meters and time limits are in effect. This recognizes that the supply might have limited utility. most valuable parking spaces in downtown—those spaces on street and in surface lots convenient to businesses and However, even in areas with constrained supply today, downtown attractions—should be priced accordingly in order the cost of new parking construction and uncertainty to provide availability for customers who want to access them. about its long-term use have led major users of parking to explore other arrangements than building new supply. Set price to create availability. In general, the study has The study recommends strategies to capture these kinds recommended that price is the most effective