REDLANDS >> Business owners in downtown have been innovating to solve what they are identifying as a parking problem.
There about 4,000 parking spaces in the downtown area.
“I have been in downtown nine years and that is my No. 1 complaint,” said Sara Hector, owner of Visiting Angels and Redlands Fitness Training.
Hector and Richard Pennington, owner of Pennington Designs, have proposed creating diagonal parking spaces on one side of Citrus Avenue.
The proposal, which could add 25 parking spaces, is headed to the Traffic and Parking Commission, confirmed Carl Baker, city spokesman, on Tuesday.
SHUTTLING CUSTOMERS
Jeff Salamon, owner of The Tartan, and employees have been researching bringing a valet service to downtown.
“We frequent Newport and a lot of other kinds of places that don’t have a lot of parking, but they have a lot of patronage,” Salamon said.
Salamon said they hired a consultant to review the costs involved with offering a valet service. They are reaching out to other businesses in downtown and the city to discuss partnering to offer the service.
“This is something that we really need to look at … how do we drive more patrons? And the parking seems to be one of the bigger issues that we’re plagued by,” Salamon said.
The city conducted a survey in June 2014 to gauge interest in providing a shuttle service for employees working at downtown businesses.
Of the 210 surveys sent out to businesses, 45 were returned and 18 of those indicated they would use a shuttle service, Baker said.
In July, the city offered free shuttle service to downtown employees and patrons while the city repaved State Street.
An additional parking space was added during restriping after the paving.
“The business owners I know are working as diligently as possible with employees to ensure their employees park somewhere that isn’t in front of the business, so that is available for customers,” Mayor Paul Foster said. “We certainly appreciate that. I know the customers do, and I think that’s a very high priority for the business owners.”
Foster said city officials have discussed building a parking structure in downtown for many years.
“The problem has been there has not been resources to construct a parking structure,” he said.
Foster said the city accepted $1 million from San Bernardino Associated Governments, or SanBAG, to be used toward building a parking structure to accommodate users of the passenger rail in downtown.
“Even that $1 million wouldn’t even come close to being an adequate amount of money to build a three or four-story parking structure, if that was the desire of the council,” he said.
Foster said city councils have discussed the parking issue in downtown for years, and there has been no resolution, partly because residents do not want to pay additional taxes to pay for a structure.
“It’s going to take an effort on the part of our civic leaders, business community and residents as a whole to find a way to enhance the parking and find a way to pay for it,” Foster said.
BEAUTIFYING DOWNTOWN
City Manager N. Enrique Martinez and Councilman John James met with business owners last week to discuss a list of issues, including parking and the homeless.
Downtown businesses generate $2 million in sales tax, Martinez said.
“It behooves us to make sure we provide an environment for business to thrive,” Martinez said.
The city has been focused on several improvement projects in downtown, including turning an alley into a park, repaving streets and beautifying entry points from the 10 freeway.
The City Council recently approved an agreement with the state Department of Transportation to maintain the area around the 10 Freeway on- and off-ramps.
REDLANDS MALL
Although the Redlands Mall has sat vacant for years, it has provided more available parking for downtown.
The city owns the parking lot surrounding the mall, with 468 ground-level parking spaces and 284 underground spaces.
In July 2014, San Diego-based Brixton Capital LP purchased the mall.
At the time the firm was proposing converting the mall into a mixed-use project with residential and retail, but no official plans have been submitted to the city, Baker said.
“I can’t speculate on any potential negotiations by the mall owner to purchase the city-owned parking or what they would do if they did purchase it,” Baker said.
DOWNTOWN PARKING
4,000 spaces in downtown area. 1,323 of those spaces are in seven city-owned parking lots or structures.
2,724 street spaces. 468 spaces at Redlands Mall parking lot. 284 in the underground parking at the Redlands Mall.