After a recommendation from Lance Stahl from the Trading Company, one of the Burns Square property owners, we started a petition requesting the city to purchase a location for a parking structure and it goes as follows:
BURNS SQUARE NEEDS PARKING DESPERATELY!!
PETITION To The CITY COMMISSION
I support the purchase of the lot on Dolphin Street and Orange Avenue by the City so they can build a parking facility for the Burns Square area. I feel this lot is centrally located within Burns Square making it an ideal location for a parking facility. I encourage the City Commission to move forward consistent with the Downtown Master Plan 2020 and The City Master Parking Plan and purchase the mentioned property with the TIF funds that were put in place for this purpose. It will never cost less!
End of petition
Signatures are being taken in the area shops. If you wish to support this effort, please stop by, if you can find a parking space and sign the petition. We already have over 200 signatures since December 21st.
Just kidding about if you can find a space. We do have on-street parking and some temporary parking locations. The temporary lot that is open to the public is on the East side of Orange Avenue just north of Laurel Street. We are also working on some other temporary lots that have not gone into construction yet. These locations are temporary and will be unavailable once developed. We thank you for your support.
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6 comments:
I have no problem collecting signatures but what a lot of work and somewhat of an inconvenience to have to go through this again. Did we not do this several years ago and as you wrote, does the city not have a parking study that already shows our need?
Do the people that signed your petition mind if the parking is in a high rise structure?
So thrilled that the neighborhood is working to bring parking to the area. I was not aware the deal with the Orange Dolphin had stopped completely. How can they be working so hard with other area's and the parking needs and not this one?
I had asked a question under the last post about the Pineapple Square project and the agreement they are trying to get with the city and the State Street lot. Can you read my last blog and give us your input? Thank you.
Wow, a lot of questions! I will try to answer to the last four posts.
Yes, the area has gone through a petition process before but that was over 10 years ago and we now have new commissioners to work with now. And yes, there are policies in place with the city that supports the purchase of the Orange Dolphin such as the Downtown Master Plan, the Downtown Parking Master Plan and the adoption of the TIF program. Many people like to put all the responsibility on the city but we feel responsibility is shared with the citizens to work in cooperation with the city when requesting improvements that will benefit an area. Just because something is needed does not remove the need for citizens to continue to be active and help with the projects. The help may be just showing support at the meetings when the issue comes up or getting signatures in support. I do not feel you can just sit back a citizen and expect things to happen.
The petition is specific therefore the people signing the petition realize that it is to build a parking facility on the Orange Dolphin lot. So I do not fully understand the question, "do the people that signed your petition mind if the parking is in a high rise structure?". The city did an analysis with the location for a 5 story structure and that is not considered a high rise.
The staff with the city has been working on our parking needs and again, this is a partnership and they need our help as well. We are actively working with them on this issue.
I do not know all the details about the Pineapple Square project. The one thing that I see is that the developer would like the State Street land in exchange for approximately 350 public spaces within their development. The State Street lot is two times the size of the Dolphin lot and appraised at twice the cost. Therefore it seems the Dolphin lot would not be as costly a deal as some thought.
Are we getting the signatures from the surrounding neighborhoods as well because business parking does overflow into other areas that surround Burns Square?
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