Citation

Revell J, Rich R. Am. City Cty. 2001; 116(7): 50-54.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Penton Media)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

In the early 1990s, the city of Spokane, Washington, sought to expand a parking structure in order to revitalize the city's downtown area to attract more visitors and businesses. The city expected the parking structure to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars above cost each year. Instead, the garage failed to recoup the cost of the debt service used to fund the renovation. Eventually, this situation led to a downward financial spiral for the city, culminating in a downgrading of the city's bond rating. The authors examine what went wrong in this endeavor, concluding that planners relied too heavily on national planning data in drawing usage conclusions and largely ignored factors such as local usage patterns and area parking prices. Generally, this article describes the methods that will yield greater success in parking planning, and provides the example of a more successful downtown parking project in Charlottesville, Virginia.