To park or not to park: That is the question CCDC wants people to ponder

Even with three new parking garages on the horizon, downtown Boise workers should still be thinking of alternatives to driving,  says Max Clark, parking and facilities director at the Capital City Development Corp.

CCDC owns six public garages in the heart of downtown and has bought 300-some spaces in the new garages opening soon at The Fowler apartment and the Pioneer Crossing development at 11^th and Front streets.

Old Boise General Manager Clay Carley said he plans to start construction sometime in 2018, possibly spring, on a 600-space garage at Front and Sixth streets, whether the garage is built alone or in tandem with a proposed hotel.

But “we obviously have a shortage of supply and an overabundance of demand,” Carley said. “We need more parking.”

More parking is not the only answer, Clark repeats frequently. About 34,000 people work downtown and there are about 18,000 parking spaces in public and private garages, surface lots and street parking.

“What if everybody did one alternative mode one day a week?” Clark posed. “Carpool one day a week. That would mean 20 percent of the vehicles off the road.”

Katy Decker, an environmental consultant at Haley & Aldrich, does what Clark would like to see more downtown workers do. She bikes from her home near Collister and State via the Boise River Greenbelt.

“Honestly, it’s more the experience of riding is so much better than the experience of driving,” Decker said.

Scott Schoenherr is a partner at Rafanelli & Nahas, which owns several downtown Boise office buildings as well as the 150-space Key Bank and 951-space Boise Plaza garages. But Schoenherr likes to bike in from his southeast side home.

“I go through spurts,” Schoenherr said. “I try to average one day a week. Some weeks I ride three to four days. I think bike commuting is a hidden gem. You can’t answer the phone. You don’t have any distractions.”

CCDC has 550 people on waiting lists for its garages. Schoenherr said even at only $90 a month, he has about 100 monthly passes available for the Boise Plaza garage at Bannock and 12^th streets.

“We don’t have takers,” he said. “It’s a little farther away but it’s not that far away.”

CCDC will raise monthly parking rates Feb. 1 from $140 to $175 on the Idaho Street garages and from $120 to $140 on its other garages, which are being rebranded with large ParkBOI signage. CCDC hourly parking will increase from $2.50 to $3 per hour, but the free one-hour parking will remain.

“The parking is abysmal already,” said Anne-Marie Trebbi, co-owner of Wild Root Cafe & Market. “Parking is a challenge already for our customers. (The city) needs to come up with a solution other than raising rates. They are just pushing the problem aside.”

The CCDC and city pricing philosophy for garages and meters is if you want to park close in, you pay more. That philosophy rings hollow with A10 Capital, which is located at the Eighth and Main building and parks about 100 people in that building’s garages and at CCDC garages as far away as Hotel 43 and BoDo.

“It’s a pretty big (rate) increase, especially since they just raised them last year as well,” said Noelle Nicula, vice president of operations at A10, a commercial real estate firm that pays for employee parking. “(Carpooling) is not convenient for a lot of people to do that because many live in Star and Eagle and Meridian.”

Clark countered: “They could carpool if they took the effort to do it. I bet there are two people that live close to each other.”

City parking meters are also going up Feb. 1, from $1.50 to $2 for the first hour in the downtown core. And for the first time in decades, parking meters will be active on Saturdays.

The people paying for Saturday parking meters will likely be shoppers and vendors at the Capital City Public Market, which sees 15,000 to 20,000 people at the height of summer.

“I don’t think people will stop coming to the market because meters are no longer free,” said Kristin Porter, development director at Capital City Public Market. “I don’t think it’s going to have a huge impact.”

Carley doesn’t have problems with the increase.

“It’s really painful to go through it right now, but it’s essential we do it,” Carley said. “We are in a time period where we are moving from a big town to a small city. You have to pay for what you want.”

CCDC plans to use increased parking rate revenue to pay for alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles. As soon as January or February, Clark wants to have dedicated garage space for motorcycles and preferred parking for carpool drivers.

A park-and-ride shuttle is already in place but minimally used at Elder Street near Vista Avenue and Interstate 84. Clark is looking for a west end park-and-ride site.

“We have to rethink how we get downtown,” said Clark. “My big thing is double up. I hear people say ‘I need my car in case my kid gets hurt’ or ‘My boss may send me to a meeting in Meridian.’ Uber takes care of both of those things.”