Parking survey suggests a busy Downtown
Paul Clinton
Usage of a central Downtown parking structure has doubled since last
year, a sign of the popularity of the area, city officials said.
Results of a survey, that counted the number of vehicles that used the
Main Promenade parking structure over the weekend of May 11 to 13, showed that nearly twice as many cars used the lot this year as compared to
last.
“In general we’re getting a lot more cars in there than we used to,”
said Steve Benson, the city’s supervisor of parking and camping. “Over
the past three or four years, it’s been growing.”
The structure, which is on Main Street between Walnut and Olive
avenues, is a couple of blocks away from the Huntington Beach Pier.
While usage has been on the rise for a couple of years, this last year
saw a monumental jump according to the numbers during peak hours on the
surveyed weekend.
Vehicles were counted at six two-hour increments starting at 2 p.m.
and ending at midnight each of the three days. A seventh count was done
at 1 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
The biggest increases in usage occurred at midnight Friday, from 250
to 497 vehicles, and Saturday at 10 p.m., from 406 to 663. The 4 p.m.
Sunday count also showed a huge jump, from 353 to 700. Those jumps work
out to 99%, 63% and 98% respectively.
The structure, and surrounding retail shops, opened in 1990, after the
city partnered with Los Angeles developer Robert Koury Properties. The
structure cost $17 million, Benson said.
The city charges an hourly rate of $2 to park in the structure, with a
ceiling of $9 per day. The structure began paying for itself several
years ago, when the city decided to raise the rates.
The city is still mulling whether to close Main Street to cars and
other vehicles and use it as a pedestrian walkway.
* PAUL CLINTON is a reporter with Times Community News. He covers City
Hall and education. He may be reached at (714) 965-7173 or by e-mail ato7 paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .
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