Thursday, August 25, 2011

Discuss: Center City Parking

Despite being the most intensely urban location in Forsyth County, many underutilized surface parking lots exist in the Center City.

How do we encourage the redevelopment of these parking lots as building sites and structured parking?

Similarly, what do we do about the perception that Downtown parking is scarce and difficult to use?

Should new parking decks be “wrapped” with other uses or have ground floor retail or office space?

Give us your thoughts -- click "comments" below:

6 comments:

Wake Wagner said...

1. All buildings downtown should ALWAYS have restaurant/retail space in the bottom.

2. the is TOO MUCH parking downtown. People are just lazy.... once they get used to walking a block the complaints will stop. Those that can't get used to walking a block will hate downtown forever anyway so their is no point in catering to them.

3. Please Build GMAC a deck in exchange for all those great lots they own on 4th and Holly Ave.... sell some of those lots for development to pay for part of it.

4. Please ask Centenary to remove their ugly chain link fences and sell those 4th street lots for development to what they should be.... at a minimum they should have the common curtesy to remove those rusty ugly fences.

5. The 4th Street Parking Deck should ALWAYS BE OPEN AT NIGHT FOR PEOPLE TO PARK IN FOR FREE!

Center for New North Carolinians said...

Provide more shuttles for downtown residents, workers and visitors---make them free and frequent. Do not build more parking decks as they encourage people to drive. Build park and ride lots linked to WSTA or PART services...make the service affordable and frequent

Nora Streed said...

More Park and Ride shuttles would be awesome, especially for events and games -- I think they would be used if available and appropriately advertised (i.e., from the stages, by the ticket sellers and promoters, etc.). And the shuttle/remote parking should be MUCH cheaper and more convenient than downtown parking.

If additional parking decks are built (which I'd argue against, as if you build it they will come downtown in their cars), I think multi-use development, with attractive public spaces (retail, office, other services) is a great idea - especially if there are residential units included or nearby.

Anonymous said...

I agree that we DO NOT want more parking downtown. We don't want to encourage more cars. It would be helpful to know where the parking is, who can park there (employees, patrons, anyone) and when.
Alternatives to driving into town? Convenient bus service with multiple stops in the downtown area, not just at the bus station;
Encouraging people to bring bicycles downtown - that would require safe routes from outside the downtown area, safe places to park bikes, services for cyclists such as air pumps and repair stations, possibly a bike-share program.

Wake Wagner said...

As another point... I would like the city to take those multiple GMAC lots off GMAC's hands and replace them with public parking....

if we are going to build another parking deck.. would love it to be built for GMAC in exchange for the lots on 4th St. and Holly Ave.

Anonymous said...

I think we can all agree that parking decks for the most part are ugly, what many cities are doing is putting modern design on the outside of the parking decks that make them nice to look at as well as functional, there are several in charlotte, and in miami the city has hired many very modern architects to design parking decks creating a deck that is not only functional but a work of art, i think that winston should take a page out of that book, and retrofit the parking that is downtown with designs on the exterior that dont make them such an eyesore...just saying.