Downtown Bend Parking Update | Dec 2019

Parking in Downtown Bend is an important discussion in our community.  In 2017, the City of Bend invested in a Downtown Strategic Parking Management Plan (to view the full plan, click here).  In 2018, the Downtown Bend Parking Advisory Committee (DPAC), and the DPAC Work Committee was formed.  This committee achieved several successes:

• Partnered with Deschutes County to provide access to county lots for weekends and special events in downtown.  This essentially provided the community with the equivalent capacity of an additional parking garage at zero cost to tax payers during our busiest days of the year for parking demand.
• Developed a relationship between the COB Streets & Operations Department and the Downtown Bend Business Association
• Increased communication with Downtown Bend business owners & employees
• Held public meetings/events to talk about parking in Downtown Bend

In 2019, in response from citizen concerns and feedback from the Neighborhood Leadership Alliance (NLA), the City of Bend expanded the scope of the City's Parking Manager position, and moved it from the City's Economic Development department into the City's Streets and Operations Department.  These changes allowed for a more robust, effective management of parking not only in Downtown, but also extending to other parts of the city.  The City then hired Tobias Marx as the new Parking Manager, the DPAC Work Committee began meeting again, and a work plan was created to enact the steps outlined in the Downtown Bend Strategic Parking Management Plan. 

The steps in this plan are designed to:

• Improve the customer parking experience
• Optimize utilization of available parking in Downtown Bend.
• Establish funding for parking improvements and increasing future parking capacity.  

Some of the project identified for 2020 are:

• Re-stripe the North Mirror Pond lot
• Re-stripe the selected streets in the Downtown Bend Economic Improvement District (EID)
• Center entrances to Troy lot, re-stripe & install more bike parking
• Replace split elevator systems in the Centennial Garage
• Repair cracked concrete in the Centennial Garage
• Design and install new signage on all levels of the Centennial Garage
• Investigate feasibility to change traffic flow to one-way in the Centennial Garage
• Create a mural art program in the Centennial Garage

"We are really excited about the parking changes being developed for Downtown Bend," says Mindy Aisling, Executive Director of the DBBA, "and we are excited to work closely with the new parking manager and the City of Bend to assure that the needs our our businesses and customers are met throughout this process."

​The full list of strategies from the  Downtown Strategic Parking Management Plan are as follows:

​​1. Formalize the Guiding Principles as policies in appropriate City documents. 
2. Adopt the 85% Rule as the standard for measuring the performance of the parking supply and triggering specific management strategies, rates, permit prices and efforts by discrete zone. 
3. Centralize the management and administration of parking in a Parking Services Division, integrated with the broader program of transportation services management. 
4. Create the position of Parking Demand Manager for the City of Bend. Develop a job description and submit a service package to hire an appropriate individual. 
5. Establish a Downtown Parking Advisory Committee to assist in the implementation and ongoing review of the parking plan. 
6. Evaluate collection of data to measure parking impacts in select neighborhoods adjacent to the downtown, as well as feasibility and cost of neighborhood permit programs (e.g., administration, process and stakeholder education). 
7. Develop funding options to support parking management, maintain the existing parking supply, and support future growth, ensuring the financial feasibility of the system. 
8. Create a cohesive pricing policy for on- and off-street parking in downtown Bend. Support new policy with a rate/fee study to inform appropriate adjustments to current pricing formats to cover the cost of managing the downtown parking system. 
9. Evaluate and implement solutions to safety impediments that create inconvenient and inefficient connections to parking, e.g., lighting, sidewalk/paths, lot conditions, etc. 
10. Establish business-to-business and residential outreach on parking issues, including education and planning, and a Customer First Partnership with the Downtown Bend Business Association. 
11. Identify off-street shared-use opportunities based on data from the 2016 parking study. Establish goals for transitioning permit users and long-term parkers out of on-street parking, begin outreach to opportunity sites, negotiate agreements, and sell permits. 
12. Implement variable-rate pricing for on-street permits based on location, demand, and availability of parking. This will create pricing differentials between “premium” and underutilized locations. 
13. Reduce or phase out the number of “2-Hour or as Otherwise Specified” on-street stalls in coordination with Strategies 11 and 12 above to simply “2-Hour Parking”. 
14. Based on documented parking behavior, establish four distinct on-street parking management zones in the downtown parking district. Use 2016 or newer data to define the boundaries. 
15. Eliminate free parking for the first two hours at the Mirror Pond lots. 
16. Create a critical path timeline to a new parking brand that can be utilized at all City-owned lots and shared facilities, and in marketing/communications. 
17. Standardize the design of on-street parking signage in the parking management district and incorporate the new brand/logo. 
18. Rename all public parking facilities by address. 
19. Establish best-practice protocols and performance metrics for enforcement personnel and support enforcement with appropriate technology. 20. Where practical, expand the bike parking network to connect parking and the downtown, encouraging employee bike commute trips and drawing customers to downtown businesses. 
21. Develop a reasonable schedule of data collection—every two years —to assess the performance of the parking supply and support the 85% Rule for decision-making. 
22. Using data collected per Strategy 21, evaluate on-street pricing by zone in high-occupancy areas. If peak occupancy exceeds 85%, implement on-street pricing during enforcement hours where appropriate. - If on-street pricing is implemented, review on-street time stays established in Strategy 14. 
23. Eliminate free parking in the public garage when garage occupancies exceed 85% and on-street parking is priced. Implement demand-based pricing for all hours of enforced parking—e.g., hourly, evening, weekend, overnight, and event rates. 
24. Develop and implement improvements at the downtown public parking garage to enhance its appearance, identity, safety, revenue control, communications technology, and pedestrian access. 
25. Solicit firms to establish wayfinding and dynamic signage systems in the public right of way, integrated with the off-street system and using the brand/logo developed per Strategy 16. 
26. If existing parking becomes limited, explore expanding access capacity with new transit and parking. 
27. Develop cost forecasts and feasible financing methods for preferred parking supply and transit/shuttle options. 
28. Expand capacity as necessary and feasible.

For more information, please feel free to reach out to the DBBA at downtownbend@gmail.com

The DBBA is a small nonprofit with a mission is to grow the vitality of Downtown Bend by enhancing the experience, image, and lifestyle of the Economic Improvement District (EID).  For more information about the DBBA, visit www.downtownbend.org.