As of February 2009, the Central Corridor light rail line as designed is proposed to eliminate 87% of on-street parking along University Avenue. As a result, the City of St. Paul and two planning groups along the corridor partnered to explore the possibility for off-street shared parking.
A morning meeting, called the “braindump” provided an opportunity for affected business and property owners to discuss parking issues with their neighbors. The design team recorded the discussions and used them throughout the day. See the visual results.
While not the perfect solution, it is believed that by reorganizing existing surface parking spaces, providing more attractive signage and navigation and adding ramps and other structures where appropriate, some of the parking issues will be addressed.
The Raymond Station area will be substantially impacted by the loss of onstreet parking. There exists some metered parking, but 100% of on-street parking near Raymond Station will be eliminated when the line is built. The intent of this workshop was to demonstrate the potential for reorganizing existing parking and also accommodate new development in phases.
This workshop also demonstrated the importance of community participation and engagement. In order to build any parking facility, surrounding property owners and businesses will need to work together to find a solution. Tools such as CommunityViz and stormwater cards help to inform the engagement process and are good examples for future parking discussions along the Corridor.
