Should paid parking be considered in Puyallup? This City Council member doesn’t think so
Puyallup residents and visitors will not see parking pay stations anytime soon.
At the Aug. 27 City Council meeting, consulting firm Fehr & Peers presented findings and recommendations for a study it did on parking in the downtown area. The city hired the consultant in 2020.
City spokesperson Eric Johnson wrote in an email Sept. 6 that the original contract amount for the consultant was $49,705. That was for the initial study presented to the City Council in June 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic put the parking study on hold, Johnson said. The update recently presented to the City Council was $37,765. The city pulled those funds from its economic development budget.
Paid parking is “unlikely to be necessary” for many years, according to a 17-page memo from Fehr & Peers. It could be explored in the future if downtown parking consistently exceeded about 85-90 percent occupancy per day.
On an average weekday, on-street and off-street parking had about 56 percent occupancy from 9-11 a.m., 68 percent occupancy from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 64 percent occupancy from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., according to the memo.
On an average weekend, on-street and off-street parking had about 40 percent occupancy from 9-11 a.m. and 52 percent occupancy from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to the memo.
The consultant collected data over three weekdays and two Saturdays between April and June 2024, according to the memo. The study did not reflect parking demand for events such as the Washington State Fair.
Several business owners say there is limited availability of customer parking on Meridian due to employees parking there, according to the memo. The owners also feel that there is not a lot of enforcement on parking spots with a time limit.
“I will not support transitioning to paid parking anytime soon,” council member Lauren Adler said at the council meeting.
Adler was the only council member who spoke about the paid-parking recommendation at the meeting.
Adler told The News Tribune Sept. 5 that she would rather see the city focus on parking enforcement. As someone who lives someplace busy with street parking, she has witnessed parking challenges every day, she said.
“I hope we can double down on enforcement,” Adler said.
When asked how or why paid parking became a recommendation, Johnson wrote in an email Sept. 4 that paid parking is a tool to get vehicle turnover and lower occupancy percentage. A “healthy” parking system has a 60-80 percent occupancy rate on average, he said.
“Based on the study findings from our consultant, the City does not need paid parking at this time due to the fact that we have sufficient parking overall to meet weekday and weekend demand,” Johnson said.
The city does not see paid parking coming to fruition anytime soon, Johnson said, and any decision like that would need to go through the City Council for approval.
“Better signage, enforcement, updating time limits, and other strategies will help us make our parking more efficient and less stressful for residents and visitors. This is an ongoing process, and we’ll have more information about changes to downtown parking at a future City Council meeting,” Johnson said.
