With any forsight, the demand for parking will grow. Afterall, one day empty car lots on El Camino Real will be occupied bringing in new shoppers. In addition, projects all over town are adding significant commercial square feet and hundreds of new apartments.
Do we wait until the parking demand is over 100%, or in anticipation, should we begin planning on our future? If so, I'd like to suggest two possible ways to advance the conversation, as follows:
1) Provide an old fashion Town Hall Meeting on the topic - located somewhere downtown, such as the MPPC Meeting Room, behind Ace Hardware, and
2) Invite architects and/or urban planners to submit ideas for improvement.
One idea may be to use one of the eight downtown parking plazas, such as Lot 2 or Lot 3, and consider
a) Underground parking,
b) Surface level community use (with lawns, trees, sidewalks, etc.), and
c) Above ground two or three story housing.
It has been done elsewhere, perhaps it can be done here. Just take a look at what Belmont and Mountain View are considering. Bottom line, let's get started. Let's make year 2015 where progress on downtown parking is done. Let's be pro-active. Now is the time and this is the place.
