POWELL — Public parking spaces are an endangered species in downtown Powell, with only 14% of all downtown parking representing public spots.
With warm weather in the near future, those limited spots will become even scarcer as residents and visitors alike flock to enjoy downtown’s summer scene.
Fortunately, Powell city officials have plans to address parking with short- and long-term solutions, without breaking the bank on expensive amenities like million-dollar garages.
Powell Economic Development Administrator Sean Hughes presented an analysis he conducted on downtown parking to the Powell Development Committee on Tuesday evening.
“All communities have a parking problem in their downtown. I’ve never heard of a community that did not have a parking problem,” Hughes said.
Hughes inventoried parking for all downtown buildings in Powell except for detached single-family dwellings. He found there are a total 1,788 spots downtown, with 86% of those being private parking lots.
He also analyzed parking on the busiest day downtown last year — Aug. 8, which Hughes estimated brought in 5,100 people and 3,400 cars.
The public parking lots saw lots of traffic, especially in the evening, with many cars occupying the spots for long stretches.
“If all property owners allow their spots to be publicly used 24/7, 365, we’d actually have excess parking spaces at any given day,” Hughes said. “[Even] considering the busiest day of the year, we’d still have 180 excess parking spaces available.”
Short-term parking solutions
Powell is starting with a mix of shared parking agreements and better signage to make existing spaces easier to use, hoping for several changes in place by June 1.
The city has already opened its first public-private parking agreement at 110 S. Liberty Street, which adds 26 parking spots until the site is redeveloped.
More could follow soon; Hughes said he is negotiating with about 15 private property owners. If every deal pans out, the city could add up to 165 existing spaces as dedicated public parking.
Each parking lot could operate slightly differently depending on what the business owner wants to agree to. For example, Hughes said one business owner is willing to offer the parking lot for public use after the business closes for the day.
Finding parking is just as important as adding spaces.
Assistant City Manager Jeffrey Tyler said the city plans to replace existing parking signs with more visible, historically contextual designs that will be lit at night. All public parking lots have also been added to Google Maps.
To accompany those signs, Tyler also proposed adding pedestrian way-finding signs that would be on the same posts as the parking signs.
“Once somebody gets out of their car, we want to able to get them downtown,” he said.
The signs will include walking distances to downtown from the parking lots and a QR code that will take people to a website with more information about downtown.
Long-term solutions
Powell is planning for a more permanent parking footprint, with 148 spaces proposed as dedicated public parking.
The largest share — 130 spaces — would come from a new lot tied to the Scioto Street extension project, which is intended to improve traffic flow around the Four Corners intersection.
Crews began demolishing the city-owned building at 44 N. Liberty St. on April 6, the first step before the street extension project begins. Hughes expects the parking lot to open by fall.
The remaining 18 spots would come from a proposed parking lot on 50 W. Olentangy St.
That project had been delayed after the property owner struggled to secure a tenant, but Hughes said negotiations have resumed now that a tenant has been identified. A timeline has not yet been established.
Beyond new construction, city officials are also looking at long-term policy changes.
Hughes said Planning Director Logan Stang is working with the Planning and Zoning Committee to update the city’s parking code, with the goal of supporting a broader public-private parking network.
City Manager Andrew White said he would like to see council adopt those changes as a formal policy initiative, particularly as construction costs continue to rise.
“The cost of a structure for parking is getting so expensive,” White said. “If there’s a means for us to avoid that by way of some alternative like this, I would just like to have the development committee and council consider that as a policy initiative.”
