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Burbank Citywide Parking Management Objectives
1. Protect Single Family Parking
The City Council has identified protecting single family neighborhoods as a top priority in the City’s policymaking, and protecting single family parking supports that priority. Residential street parking should be reserved for residents on those streets and their visitors, particularly if these parking spaces will be needed to support new housing in single family neighborhoods from new Accessory Dwelling Units, which are not required to provide parking if located near transit. Protecting single family parking also requires more efficient enforcement to ensure the parking is protected, and also requires streamlined permitting to make permit administration more convenient. Protecting single family parking also indirectly supports the economic viability of adjacent commercial businesses by removing the inherent competition between residential and commercial parkers in these areas. To that end, limited residential parking could be assigned responsibly to employees of nearby businesses and still provide overall protection.
2. Increase Parking Availability
In places where parking demand is high, increasing its availability is required. This does not necessarily require the construction of expensive new parking, but should instead involve improving regulation of existing parking to ensure efficient turnover, spread the demand for parking away from core areas, simplify enforcement to improve effectiven ess, and improve information to drivers on where parking is available. Improving availability through regulation and better information will also reduce the congestion caused by drivers hunting for parking, particularly in high- demand areas like San Fernando Boulevard in Downtown Burbank
3. Leverage Underused Private Parking
Burbank’s zoning regulations require each commercial and residential property provide its own supply of parking, based on requirements that allow generous extra parking to account for peak parking periods. As a result, many private parking lots are underutilized during off-peak times or because particular business operations require less parking than basic code requirements dictate. Loosening private parking regulations to allow businesses to share parking and to allow businesses to offer surplus parking as general public parking could free up substantial new parking supplies in areas where on-street public parking is at capacity.
4. Regulate Street Parking and Public Parking Lots with Pricing In places where street parking is over-utilized, it is critical that the most convenient parking be used efficiently. This means that users should use the parking only as long as they need, and parking usage should turn over often to increase utilization of each parking spot. In these cases, street parking should be regulated with pricing. Parking that’s priced ensures that turnover occurs in these high- demand areas and simplifies enforcem ent to help with compliance. For price to be used effectively, however, it should be set in a manner that achieves a measurable ATTACHMENT 2 – 2
performance goal for the parking system. That is, the price should be set in a way that ensures turnover to maintain no higher than 80 to 90 percent occupancy at all times. This translates to maintaining one or two open parking spaces per city block at all times. The price should be set just high enough to achieve this performance goal (and no more), and should be adjusted periodically to achieve and maintain this availability. Because many neighborhoods have sufficient parking, in many neighborhoods oft en the price needed to meet this goal will still be free. The purpose of setting parking pricing in this way is not to generate revenue, but to regulate parking. A beneficial side- effect of regulating parking with price is that some drivers may shift their trips from cars altogether and may walk, bike or take public transit as a way to avoid paying for parking. Finally, setting a price on public parking in high-demand areas will incentivize nearby private parking owners with underutilized parking to offer that parking up for public use because they can charge for it without facing competition from adjacent free public parking.
5. Reinvest Parking Revenue
While parking management programs that use pricing should not be guided by the goal of revenue generation, the revenue that is received can fund other public services. Any revenue from parking management should be directed back into the parking system. T his means that parking revenue should be reinvested to fund additional parking enforcement or to maintain City parking assets like parking lots and structures. Some cities also invest some portion of parking revenues back into the neighborhoods that are s ubject to the parking pricing. The City Council could consider dedicating a portion of parking revenue towards improving local neighborhoods subject to parking pricing.
6. Tailor Implementation to Neighborhoods
Parking management may be implemented differently across neighborhoods because different parts of the City have different parking issues. Parking management will need to be tailored to individual neighborhoods, including Downtown, residentially adjacent strip commercial like Magnolia Park, multifamily neighborhoods, certain industrial areas, and special land uses like transit centers.
Parking management should be implemented at a neighborhood or district level to avoid piecemeal implementation while also recognizing that different neighborhoods have different parking needs.