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Transportation
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Plenty of Space to Park
[ download NMG press release ]
Lobbying group blames planning for excessive lots
10 July 2003, The Buffalo News
By Brian Meyer
Half of downtown is a parking lot.
That's the conclusion of a study by the New Millennium Group, a
lobbying organization of young professionals trying to find a way out of
the region's malaise.
"When you look at this map, it's just shocking," said New
Millennium President Jeremy Toth. "It should be very clear that downtown
doesn't have a parking problem, it has a planning problem."
"If our master plan is to demolish all of downtown, then we're
only halfway there," group member Patrick McNichol said sardonically.
"If you look very closely, there are still some buildings that are
standing in the way of parking progress."
The map unveiled at a Wednesday news conference shows that more
than 200 surface lots and ramps cover a large portion of the downtown
grid. The diagram, however, includes buildings with underground parking
such as Main Place Mall.
In a mocking gesture, the group is promoting a walking tour
called "Park Buffalo" that showcases lots and ramps in "all their
glorious splendor."
But downtown leaders deny that parking projects have been
launched in a planning vacuum, and they insist efforts are under way to
encourage transportation alternatives.
New Millennium members met with reporters at the corner of
Franklin and West Huron streets, where construction is proceeding on a
project that will add 850 spaces to the Owen B. Augspurger ramp. They're
pushing for a moratorium on the future demolition of downtown buildings
for new ramps or lots until a detailed parking blueprint is developed.
Other recommendations:
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A requirement that any new downtown parking be tied to new
"large-scale investment" such as the construction of new office
complexes.
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A mandate that any new parking structures include space for
commercial or residential uses, including "street-front" retail.
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More emphasis on other transportation options, including
greater investments in park-and-ride programs.
Group member Chuck Banas said a steady drop in parking rates
charged in city-owned ramps has only compounded the problem, enticing
motorists who once parked on the fringes of downtown. "It's like giving
a crack addict more crack," Banas said.
"That analogy is highly offensive," said Thomas A. Gallagher, a
consultant for the city Parking Board. "We have hundreds of thousands of
square feet of vacant space downtown. We're dealing with the real world,
and we have to meet real demands."
Gallagher denied that parking projects have been launched
without sufficient planning, saying a study group conducted a 14-month
review that included an inventory of every downtown parking space. He
said that while a consultant's report found that downtown has an overall
surplus of parking, it also verified a parking shortage in two of the
city's most active business corridors. If downtown is to compete with
suburban office space, Gallagher argued, it needs accessible, affordable
parking.
"They're operating in a vacuum," Gallagher said of the New
Millennium Group. "They've never once talked to me."
Meanwhile, officials who head the not-for-profit corporation
that manages the downtown business district said planners have been
"working feverishly" to accommodate more parking without adding more
lots or ramps. Buffalo Place Chairman Keith M. Belanger and Executive
Director Michael T. Schmand pointed to a park-and-ride program that
serves about 1,400 downtown workers daily.
They also cited efforts to create more on-street parking,
convert underused parking meters into all-day meters and encourage
public transit ridership.
Planners defended ongoing expansion projects at the Augspurger
and Robert B. Adam ramps, insisting that more spaces are needed to
attract and retain businesses. About 1,000 current downtown workers are
on a waiting list for parking, they said.
The city's draft comprehensive plan already proposes a
moratorium on any new surface parking lots downtown, but Banas said
that's only a stopgap solution.
"That's not a plan. That's like saying 'hold the horses' until
we develop a plan," he said.
Joining the group in the push to block new parking projects
until a long-term plan is developed were Fillmore Council Member David
A. Franczyk and North Council Member Joseph Golombek Jr. Golombek
perpetuated the tongue-in-cheek tenor of the news conference, painting a
futuristic vision of a downtown that closes its Metro Rail system to
build an eight-mile-long parking ramp and tears down City Hall to build
a ramp for a future casino.
"There will be a lot of places to park. There just won't be a
whole lot to do here," he said.
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