PROFESSIONAL PARKING ANALYSIS CONDUCTED

Further studying the parking needs in the Burns Square area, expert help was sough from Rick Chellman, P.E. of TND Engineering, http://www.tndengineering.com/people/chellman.html. Extensive research was done during the 2005 charrette and some of that information, zoning code regulations as well as the Downtown Parking Master Plan information went into the Chellman report. The report is, "A preliminary analysis of the anticipated parking needs for the proposed redevelopment of the Burns Square area in Sarasota, Florida has been completed in conformance with the Urban Land Institute's 'Shared Parking' methodologies." A first analysis was completed to calculate what might reasonably be construed as the "minimum" parking needed for Burns Square. These calculations assume that all parking - even including residential spaces - are available to be shared, and that several of the existing vacant blocks are not yet redeveloped. A peak weekday demand of 1,990 spaces (20% sharing) and a peak weekend demand of 2,097 spaces (16% sharing).

The Downtown Parking Master Plan adopted by the City Commission shows between 1,265 to 1,620 spaces constructed in three separate civic parking facilities throughout the Burns Square area.

The Downtown Master Plan 2020 identifies three important civic responsibilities, Civic Buildings, Civic Space and Civic Parking. A few quotes from the Master Plan:

“A surface parking lot is an example of the worst type of street frontage, affording the passerby little sense of enclosure, protection or interaction.”

“The Master Plan proposes allocating particular uses to appropriate location within the Downtown Proper, with incentives that reward future developers for maintaining a low to mid-rise scale for their projects. The Master Plan suggests ways to strengthen the emphasis on pedestrian scale retail and restaurant uses along certain corridors such as Main Street and Palm Avenue. The Master Plan also suggests a broad based public program to develop parking structures; this program coordinates with other forms of private sector development.”

“The new ordinance will contain a provision for providing parking spaces in municipal parking garages to be purchased by the developers of individual buildings thereby preventing the necessary bulking up of buildings in the attempt to provide on-site parking.”

“On-street parking is a key element of the walkable, livable downtown environment.”

“…written and graphically illustrated plan for building form, land use, public open spaces, pedestrian circulation, vehicular circulation and parking.”

SMARTCODE WORKSHOP ORGANIZED BY KOWAL & PLACEMAKERS

On August 9, 2007 Denise Kowal organized a SmartCode Workshop with Placemakers, instructors of the code and developers of the SmartCode Complete.  Over 100 people participated in the day-long workshop at the Payne Park Auditorium.

From the SmartCode:

The SmartCode written by Andres Duany and calibrated and adopted by the City of Sarasota through the Master Planning process incorporates Smart Growth and New Urbanism principles, Transect-based planning, environmental and zoning regulations, and regional, community and building-scaled design provisions.

The principles of Smart Growth and New Urbanism support communities that are town-centered and transit and pedestrian-oriented, with a mix of housing, commercial and retail uses, while preserving open lands and achieving other environmental goals.  New Urbanism was born in the early 1980's with the design of the groundbreaking new traditional town of Seaside, Florida.  Since then, planning has progressed on over 900 New Urbanist communities across the continent.

Many of the most-loved traditional towns of North America were deliberately and thoughtfully planned.  However, in our time, over the past sixty years, places have evolved in a completely different form.  They have spread loosely along highways and haphazardly across one-open country, enabled by the widespread ownership of automobiles, cheap petroleum, and generalized wealth.  Standards in favor of the automobile over the pedestrian.  These practices have created strip shopping, big box stores with enormous parking lots, and sadly gutted downtowns.  This movement has made walking or cycling beyond one's own cul-de-sac dangerous or even impossible.  There has been simultaneous destruction of both towns and open space - the 20th Century phenomenon known as sprawl.  The form of our built environment needs a 21st Century correction.

The SmartCode was created to attack this problem at the point of decisive impact - the intersection of law and design.  It is a form-based code, meaning it envisions and encourages a certain physical outcome - the form of region, community, block, and/or building.  This form is compact, walkable, and mixed-use, and it is meant to be comfortable, safe, and ecologically sustainable.  It allows a mix of uses within the neighborhood, so its residents don't have to drive everywhere.

The operating principle of Transect is that certain forms belong in certain environments; for example, an apartment building belongs in a more urban setting, and a ranch house belongs in a more rural setting.

Denise Kowal, President of the Burns Square Property Owners Association is one of only two people in Sarasota who are professionally trained in the SmartCode.