City studies parking situation on Ninth Street; can new parking deck be in the works?

In the last year I have covered many planned construction and development projects around Ninth Street, including the controversial Harris Teeter, the Circle Nine apartments, the renovation of the space formerly occupied by George's Garage, and other miscellaneous projects. 

But while growth -- smart or otherwise -- is on the way, questions have been raised by local businesses and residents alike about the future of Ninth Street Shopping District, particularly in light of the attention the newly revitalized downtown Durham has grabbed in the imagination of the local leaders and the national media.

One such concern, expressed very clearly by several business owners of Ninth Street establishments, as well as  the commenters to this WRAL article about Ninth Street, is the lack of parking. Aside from street parking, shoppers can park at a city-leased lot directly across the street the Regulator Bookshop Shop. There are also some parking lots on Hillsborough Road and on Iredell St. but no clear guide or path to find parking for a person who is not familiar with the area. 

So it was with some interest that I have recently learned that the City Council has recently commissioned a comprehensive parking study for Ninth Street and Downtown, retaining Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. to provide professional consultant services on the situation. 

If, as I suspect, the consultants determine that there is a lack of sufficient parking to attract additional shoppers to Ninth Street, the most logical remedy would be to build a well-designed and unobtrusive parking deck somewhere in the strip, perhaps replacing the surface parking lot. If designed and built correctly - this new parking deck can be a boon for business, giving new shoppers an easy and clearly demarcated way to park without subtracting from the overall pedestrian and small-town feel of the area. 

How to improve the Harris Teeter parking lot

As I have previously covered on this blog, the new Harris Teeter coming to Ninth Street is a reality and although its design may undergo some cosmetic changes, the front-facing parking lot for 200+ cars is almost certainly not going away. So what can be done to improve this space?

Surprisingly a lot. Not all parking lots are created equal and there is much a clever designer can do to ameliorate the impact of a parking lot on the community.

As this post on the Atlantic Cities website makes clear, the city of New York has taken the lead in creating a specific set of requirements designed to make parking lots greener, more visually appealing and pedestrian friendly. These include landscaping the perimeter with mature trees, creating islands of greenery throughout the parking lot, thereby reducing "heat island" effect, adding bicycle parking and numerous other improvements (check out the presentation that summarizes all of the improvements here).

In another interesting article, reprinted below, Tom Vanderbuilt, the author of Traffic, writes in Slate about making parking lots into community spaces and improving their appearance more generally. His thesis is that parking lots are going to be with us for a very long time so instead of bemoaning their continued existence, we need to come up with creative ways to integrate them into the community space. For example, he suggests that on weekends a section of the parking lot be converted into a portable farmers market - an idea that was tried with great success by Arlington, VA at the Columbia Pike Farmers Market.

My hope is that Harris Teeter designers take note of at lease some, if not all, of these suggestions. Surely, perimeter landscaping, smart water filtration, bicycle parking, and islands of greenery are a necessity. Some other, more ambitious ideas, such as adding solar panels on top or using alternative surface materials may belong to the realm of fantasy. In any event, at the very least, the developers should review the EPA's 2008 Parking Lot Resource Guide, which provides a comprehensive overview of best practices. As for our city leaders - they should consider using this report -- as well as NYC regulations -- as a blueprint for parking lot construction in urban areas.