14th Street Safety Project
Attachment E: 14th Street Safety Project Parking Management Plan
The ongoing Downtown Oakland Specific Plan (DOSP), the recently adopted Oakland Equitable Climate Action Plan (ECAP), and the City’s Parking Principles provide guidance to City staff regarding parking in the Downtown core. Adopted by the City Council in 2013, Oakland’s Parking Principles assert that “parking is part of a multi-modal approach to developing neighborhood transportation infrastructure” and as such, private vehicle demand for the curb “must be balanced” and managed with all other modes’ demand for the same spaces. The Parking Principles also state that parking should support access to Oakland’s commercial districts and off-street parking should be encouraged where possible. The ECAP, adopted by the City Council via Resolution No. 88267 C.M.S. on July 28, 2020, states that for Oakland to “shift to more sustainable transportation modes, the City must remove existing subsidies for driving. Parking policy is inequitable by design: by reserving public lands for cars, drivers are subsidized at the expense of people without access to cars.1” The ongoing Downtown Oakland Specific Plan calls for the City to implement “parking management strategies that incentivize people to drive less” and calls for the City to build on the recommendations of the 2016 Downtown Oakland Parking Study which put forward the following prioritization framework for considering curb uses Downtown, ranked from most to least important 2:
1. Bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit
2. Active freight and passenger loading, including taxi stands
3. Places to linger, such as parklets and sidewalk dining
4. Short- and long-term parking.
As OakDOT strives to meet the City’s ambitious safety, mode-shift, and climate goals, parking is often a focal point in design and outreach discussions. The safety improvements recommended by the 14
th Street Safety Project will remove approximately 24 of the 210 public parallel parking spaces on 14th Street between Brush Street and Oak Street. The Project Area in Downtown also overlaps with the federally funded Demand-Responsive Parking and Mobility Management Initiative (Resolution 86457 C.M.S.) which primarily seeks to improve parking availability through parking pricing. However, OakDOT recognizes that parking is a context-sensitive issue and that no one policy can consider each individual project-level design decision. For this reason, OakDOT has crafted a Parking Management Plan for the 14th Street Safety Project that will perform the following actions alongside project implementation:
1. Repaving and restriping 13th Street between Franklin and Oak Streets to remove a lane of travel and add angled parking on the south side of the street to add up to 53 parking spaces to the small business core of 14th Street between Franklin Street and Oak Street.
2. Providing up to 35 discounted off-street parking in the Harrison Street Garage at 13th and Harrison Street to local small business owners and employees
3. Conducting a comprehensive review of curb colors, signage, metering, and parking regulations to ensure that the street efficiently accommodates all loading activities and meets the operational needs of residents and businesses, without reliance on enforcement and ticketing
1 City of Oakland Public Works Department, “Equitable Climate Action Plan” (2020): https://cao - 94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Oakland-ECAP-07-24.pdf 2 City of Oakland Public Works Department, “Downtown Oakland Parking” Study (2016): https://cao- 94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/oak059357.pdf
4. Providing discounted validated parking for visitors to businesses along 14th Street in the Franklin Plaza Garage at 17th & Franklin Streets
5. Relocating existing Flex Streets Initiative installations on 14th to new floating parking areas, where feasible
6. Modifying street sweeping regulations to promote availability of parking for nightlife uses and for residential overnight parking (complete)
14th Street is the heart of the Black Arts Movement Business District, which was established by City Council action on January 19, 2016 as a way to “highlight, celebrate, preserve and support the contributions of Oakland's black artists and business owners and the corridor as a place central both historically and currently to Oakland's black artists and black owned businesses. 3”
Additionally, as the home of Oakland’s City Hall, the Main Library and African American Library and Museum of Oakland, the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, and the Byron Rumford Post Office, 14
th Street is Oakland’s civic core. While Downtown Oakland is well-served by transit options including two Bay Area Rapid Transit Stations and a dense network of AC Transit bus lines, many Oaklanders and visitors from around the region live in areas that are not well-served by transit and rely on personal vehicles to drive and park Downtown. Furthermore, recent housing development projects recently repurposed two parking garages on 14th Street between Franklin/Webster and between Alice/Jackson that cumulatively removed 647 off-street spaces from the area in the last 5 years.
Based on strong community support to retain the ability for people from outside of Downtown Oakland to continue to drive and park to access these regional destinations, OakDOT embarked on a Parking Management planning effort to identify opportunities for this project to increase parking options in the Downtown core. This Parking Management Plan is meant to increase the available spaces in the area, address the concerns of merchants about availability of parking for their staff, and ensure that the new roadway configuration operates smoothly for businesses by providing adequate loading zones and discouraging double-parking.
Parking Management Strategy #1: Add Parking to the Project Area First, this project will add up to 53 parking spaces on 13th Street between Franklin Street and Oak Street by repaving the roadway, reducing the number of one-way eastbound travel lanes, and installing angled parking on the south side of the street. This lane reduction and increased parking was a direct result of stakeholder conversations in late 2019 regarding the project’s impact on overall parking supply in Downtown. The project team coordinated with the Paving program to increase the scope of the paving project to add up to 53 spaces to the Downtown Core. As part of the ongoing “Park Oakland” Demand-Responsive Parking and Mobility Management Initiative, OakDOT will adjust parking prices to promote availability of both new and existing on-street parking spaces. These price adjustments will reflect demand for parking on each block, making less popular blocks cheaper and freeing up 1-2 spaces on more popular blocks.
Parking Management Strategy #2: Provide Discounted Off-Street Merchant Parking Parking for customers and visitors to 14th Street has always been a paramount concern for neighborhood merchants, artists, and residents. Merchants also brought up the availability of parking for themselves and their employees – many of whom must arrive early in the morning or depart late at night. To respond to this concern, OakDOT’s Parking and Mobility Division is
3 Oakland City Council Resolution 85958 C.M.S.
https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2520641&GUID=AB18C5BC -F340-4D01-A6F1- 61B87410BE65&Options=&Search=
prepared to set aside up to 35 spaces for eligible monthly parkers in the Harrison Street Garage located at 13th and Harrison Street. These spaces have been made available due to recent renovations the garage. Staff recommend that these newly available spaces be used to meet the commuter parking needs of 14th Street merchants and employees, which is consistent with Oakland’s parking principles to enhance the value of parking assets in commercial districts and its commitment to equity. Staff recommends that these monthly spaces be offered to small business owners and their employees on 14th Street at a 50% discount, allocated in some way that ensures a fair distribution (details to be determined). This program will sunset 5 years from the date of final construction of the 14th Street Project.
Parking Management Strategy #3: Manage the Curb
Going from four to two lanes on 14th Street means that double-parking (which regularly occurs today on 14th Street in the more congested commercial areas of the corridor between Broadway and Harrison) needs to be addressed in a comprehensive manner to ensure that the future roadway configuration functions smoothly and safely. For this reason, the final stage of design for the project will involve a Curb Management Plan that considers the operational needs of existing businesses on 14th Street and provides adequate short-term parking spaces for loading, food pickup/drop off, and other short-term uses. The approach to this Curb Management Plan will be modeled after the Chinatown Parking & Loading Pilot, in which OakDOT staff conducted a detailed review of the curb in Chinatown and updated curbside spaces to match the neighborhood’s parking and loading needs based on land use patterns and the community’s vision.
Parking Management Strategy #4: Provide Parking Validation As a hub of regional destinations, easy and well-promoted customer parking options will encourage a “park once” approach to patronizing 14
th Street businesses. To meet these
parkers’ needs and further support area merchants, OakDOT’s Parking and Mobility Division will work with interested businesses on 14th Street to establish a parking validation system at the Harrison Street Garage and Franklin Plaza Garage at 19th & Franklin. Staff recommend that a 50% discount be afforded to eligible merchants as one more important part of the 14th Street parking program. This program will sunset 5 years from the date of final construction of the 14th Street Project, at which point staff will reevaluate the strategy and make new recommendations to City Council. Staff is making this recommendation of a steep validated parking discount as a small measure to redress the historical neglect for supporting black owned businesses with parking programs, despite such programs being offered in other commercial districts.
Parking Management Strategy #5: Revise Street Sweeping Regulations The City received feedback from nightclub owners and residents along the 14th Street corridor that street sweeping regulations made it difficult for people park overnight at their residence or to drive and patronize Downtown businesses after dark. Based on this feedback, OakDOT implemented changes to street sweeping schedules on 14th and Alice Streets to reduce the number of days of sweeping and shift street sweeping times to early morning after nightclubs shuttered.
Parking Management Strategy #6: Support Flex Streets Installations The City’s Flex Streets Initiative provides a high-value use of curbside spaces and has played an integral role in supporting Oakland’s businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Project Area, there are two “Flex Street” outdoor dining parklets on the south side of 14th Street between Webster Street and Harrison Street. These parklets will be relocated to side streets or construction staging areas during construction of the project by the construction contractor.
Where feasible, existing outdoor dining parklets will be replaced in the new parking stalls adjacent to the protected bike lane.