Downtown Parking Plan

Project Background

As a result of input received from the public during the preparation of the General Plan update, the Mayor and City Council Policy Goals and Implementation Plan for 2015-2019 called for the preparation of a Downtown Parking Plan to identify the strategies, infrastructure improvements and funding needed to increase the supply of parking in downtown Turlock.

What was analyzed?

TJKM took inventory of the public parking spaces in the Downtown area, including any on-street and off-street public parking spaces within the project area. There are currently 3,872 public parking spaces in the entire study area which is broken into the following 3 zones:

Zone 1

Also known as the core of the Downtown area, Zone 1 offers 800 on-street parking spaces. Potential users include those who visit and/or work at the businesses, merchants, and restaurants in the Downtown area. Most of the off-street public parking lots (Zone 3) are located within the core Downtown area.

Zone 2

Covering residential units and several heavy commercial land uses, Zone 2 contains 2,549 spaces.

Zone 3

Consists of all public parking lots in the Downtown area. It provides 523 spaces in total.

Existing Conditions

In order to properly assess the existing parking demand, extensive occupancy and turnover data was collected. Table 1 summarizes parking counts and percent occupancy for each Zone at every hour of the data collection. The total average of the Downtown parking occupancy was 28 percent during daytime on the weekday, and 29 percent on the Saturday after 7:00 p.m. The result suggests that adequate parking supply is provided to accommodate parking demand.

Zone 1

The average occupancy of Zone 1 was 43 percent during daytime on the weekday. The maximum percentage observed reached 47 percent at 10:00 a.m., declining in the afternoon. The average occupancy on the Saturday was 29 percent; nearly 560 spaces were available during this period of time.

Zone 2

A 20 percent average occupancy was observed during daytime on the weekday. The parking demand in Zone 2 did not vary much from the 20 percent average.

Zone 3

On average, 46 percent of the parking spaces were utilized during daytime on the weekday, peaking at 9:00 a.m. with 50 percent occupancy. On the Saturday, occupancy resembled Zone 1, of which 29 percent average occupancy was observed.

Key Findings

A total of 70 vehicles were found parked for at least six hours in Sub Area 1. Out of the 70 vehicles, 39 were parked for more than eight hours. As a result, 138 of 800 (approximately 17 percent) of the parking spaces in Zone 1 were occupied for more than six hours on the day of data collection.

Recommendations

• Enforce time restricted parking
• Provide outreach and education to employees making them aware of all available options and negative impacts of not utilizing public parking lots for all-day parking.
• Encourage merchants and employers to monitor parking habits of their employees.
• Public parking wayfinding signs
• Provide parking information on City of Turlock’s website
• Work with the Downtown vendors and events to provide parking information to customers
• Improving bicycle friendly infrastructure such as bike lanes and storage.
• Explore valet parking
• Plan for a future parking garage

Downtown Parking Management Plan Final Report
Implementation Plan Final