Charleston's parking system will have more than $1 million to spend once its parking garage bonds are retired this summer.
A handful of city officials are working to develop a comprehensive assessment of the parking system to determine the best use for that money.
Last April, Mayor Danny Jones directed City Manager David Molgaard to conduct a study to better understand the parking system's needs and where the city can improve. Molgaard has since commissioned an internal committee to lead those efforts.
But it's easier said than done.
Led by Sherry Risk, executive projects administrator with the city manager's office, the committee is tasked with creating an exhaustive inventory of the city's nearly 28,000 existing public and private parking spaces. Using the Imagine Charleston Comprehensive Plan as a blueprint, the committee divides the downtown area into different sections based on usage, but as retail, government sectors and attractions such as the Civic Center.
By the first week of April, the group plans to count the number of spots used at different times of day throughout the week. They'll repeat the process in June and compare their findings.
"The goal is to see exactly what the usage is of our existing parking inventory ... to assess the parking service delivery in Charleston," Risk said.
The bonds that funded construction of six, city-operated parking garages that contain about 3,500 spaces will be paid off in June, leaving a sizable chunk of funds to spend on improvement projects related to parking. Certain stipulations that were part of the original bond deal also will be eliminated.
"We're required to keep a certain number of spaces available to daily parkers; that's part of negotiating when you put together a bond deal," Molgaard said. "While the parking bonds were to build some garages, all the money from the whole system has been pledged toward those bond obligations."
According to the city's downtown redevelopment plan, "there seems to be an abundance of parking ... however, some parking is not conveniently located near the activity areas."
With that in mind, the committee will assess how far the average person is willing to walk to their destination from where they park; but that's just one of many questions it hopes to answer through its assessment findings.
A major challenge, Molgaard said, is balancing the interests of residents, businesses, visitors and downtown employees competing for the best parking spaces.
The city has made minor changes to the existing parking system to better accommodate the changing needs of drivers. Last summer, it began leaving the exit gates of most parking garages open to prevent drivers from getting trapped after the garages closed.
"We hope to continue that," Parking Director Mary Jarrell said. "It's been working really well."
Some cities have already made significant advancements to their parking systems, such as Shepherdstown, which allows drivers to pay for metered parking via a mobile app. Others, like Morgantown, have installed meters that accept credit and debit cards.
But Molgaard is waiting for the committee's findings before making any recommendations to the city.
"We wanted this study so we didn't go down one path and spend a lot of money, only to discover we need to go in another direction," he said.
The city could "probably" support one or more new parking garages in key areas defined by the comprehensive plan, he added.
Once the data from the April and June inventories is finalized, Molgaard said the city would create a GIS map that will eventually be available for the public to find parking.
Molgaard's office plans to make recommendations to City Council based on the study's initial findings this fall.
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.