Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board members approved a Grand Traverse County proposal Friday to eliminate public parking in the south half of the Governmental Center parking lot, meaning the 103 parking spaces in that part of the lot will only be available for permitted city/county employees and board members to use going forward. The proposal, which next goes to city commissioners for final approval and preserves a row of free-30-minute metered spaces for public use, comes over concerns that nearby developments under construction will further exacerbate staff parking challenges at the Governmental Center. The topic is one of several parking and project-related agenda items DDA members tackled at their Friday meeting.

Governmental Center Parking
Visitors to the Governmental Center could soon need to use either metered spaces or nearby street parking when visiting the city-county facility under a new parking agreement headed to city commissioners for approval. According to DDA Transportation Mobility Director Nicole VanNess, the plan will require vehicles to have a permit to park in the Governmental Center’s southern lot Monday-Friday from 7am-5:30pm, with the county and city to distribute permits to employees and city/county board members to use the lot. Twenty-five metered spaces and six handicap spaces will still be available for public use in the northern section of the lot closest to the building, including a row of spaces that offer 30 minutes of free parking.

Pointing to anticipated parking demand likely to come when the Commongrounds development opens across the street later this year, VanNess said there would still be “an opportunity for after-hours use of the lot for the public, as well as on the weekends.” County Administrator Nate Alger said it was the looming opening of Commongrounds and other nearby developments that prompted the requested change, with officials worried those projects will drive up weekday parking demand at the already-stressed Governmental Center lot. “You don't have to go very far in our lot to figure out why we have to do this,” Alger told DDA board members. “The parking is problematic for our employees, both city and county.”

DDA board member Pete Kirkwood, who owns The Workshop Brewing Company, questioned why county and city employees would get free parking permits to use the lot when other employees throughout downtown must pay for their permits. “We're trying to encourage people to take alternative modes of transportation and try not to have a whole bunch of cars parked just taking up space downtown all the time,” Kirkwood said. “What's the rationale for waiving parking fees for people just because their job happens to be here? My staff don't get free parking permits.” VanNess said that unlike in other parking areas, the county owns the Governmental Center parking lot, “so it’s not in the current public inventory.” She compared the arrangement to that of Northwestern Michigan College, where parking is also enforced by the city but spaces are either privately permitted or metered.

The DDA will have to spend more time patrolling the parking lot under the new agreement, according to VanNess, but will also receive money from fines. Parking violation fees go into the DDA’s parking fund, while revenues – monies paid by people to park in the lot – are split between the county (74 percent) and city (26 percent). The split reflects the county-city ownership breakdown of the Governmental Center. County commissioners have already approved the proposal; if city commissioners follow suit, parking services “will work with the county and city to ensure signage is installed and the changes are communicated to employees prior to starting any enforcement,” according to VanNess.

Also at Friday’s board meeting…
DDA CEO Jean Derenzy provided board members with an early look at the proposed 2022-23 budget, including upcoming downtown projects. Within the general fund, those include extending a contract with Traverse Connect for economic development services and business retention and recruitment, completing an asset inventory of downtown, and going through a public visioning process to create the conceptual design for the new civic square planned at the corner of Union and State streets. The TIF 97 budget includes funds to assist with two upcoming bridge projects on South Union and North Cass streets and the planned conversion of State Street to a two-way street. The Old Town TIF fund includes riverwalk projects near Midtown and River’s Edge and the installation of a snowmelt system along Union Street. Meanwhile, the parking budget includes two resurfacing projects in city parking lots: Lot B, the farmer’s market lot, and Lot C next to Traverse Connect. Derenzy said the DDA would look to schedule those resurfacing projects around this year’s bridge projects and next year’s Grandview Parkway reconstruction so the area wouldn’t be completely shut down during work. “When people get downtown, we need to make sure that they can stay downtown and park as well,” she said.

Several other major projects are also on the horizon, including the planned redesign of the 100 and 200 block north alleys of Front Street, the buildout of the new civic square, the construction of a planned new West Front Street parking deck, and the reconstruction of East Front Street. Some of those projects will require amending/extending the DDA’s TIF 97 plan and/or bonding project costs. The DDA has hired a consultant, Progressive Urban Management Associates (PUMA), to help create a plan for the future of the downtown organization, including recommendations on how best to implement those projects. That report is expected later this year, with the DDA likely to go through a public process in the fall to extend the TIF 97 plan and then tackle bonding in early 2023. The DDA is also working with the city on a mobility and bike plan that will lay out a cohesive vision for how the grid system interconnects throughout the entire city. Derenzy said pushback from the cycling and pedestrian communities on a planned redesign of East Front Street illustrated the need for a mobility plan “so we know what a complete street can look like.”