DPW Downtown Hilo Parking Analysis Dec 2009

Home

4.5 ON -SITE PARKING EXEMPTION Section 25 -4 -59.2 of the Hawaii County Code exempts the area of Downtown Hilo, bound by Kinoole Street, Ponahawai Street, Hilo Bay and the Wailuku River from the standard off - street parking and loading requirements. For more information on the on -site parking exemption boundary in Downtown Hilo, refer to page D9. This exemption, in effect, relieves property owners of the responsibility to provide adequate employee and customer parking, and covers a significant portion of the Downtown Hilo Sub -Area. It should be noted, as shown in the previous section and in Table 2 that several businesses within the subject area do provide private parking for their employees and customers to use. 4.6 EXEMPTION AREA PARKING DEFICIT ESTIMATE The County of Hawaii conducted a parking study in an effort to determine the parking needs of the exempt area. The primary goals of the study were to determine the parking required, the private and public parking available, and the existing parking surpluses and deficits. In order to simplify the calculations, there were three assumptions that were made. The assumptions include: • 100% occupancy and full commercial use of all usable building floor space; • 1 parking space required per every 300 square feet of gross floor area; and • All existing buildings and current gross floor area values taken from data books provided by the County of Hawaii Planning Department, compiled in 1985 and last edited on 12/27/93. Deficits - 1977 total stalls, 1826 regular stalls, and 151 ADA stalls. The shortages calculated are considered to be theoretical values and should not be used for design purposes without further justification. For more information on the exempt area parking deficits, refer to pages D 10.1 and 1310.2. V. THE PROBLEM Parking in downtown Hilo has essentially been converted from metered parking to time limit parking. Time limit parking, unlike metered parking, is not self - regulating. Where meters have the ability to monitor parking with a built -in timer, time limit parking relies primarily upon enforcement to be effective. Since no significant additions to the County of Hawaii enforcement staff have been made, parking and traffic problems have steadily increased with the conversion to time limit parking. The most notable problems include: 1. The general disregard of the time limit zones. 2. People parking for an extended period in short-term parking areas, such as: • The two -hour parking zone near the storefronts along Kamehameha Avenue. • The one -hour parking zone near the storefronts along Keawe Street. 3. Added traffic congestion as people drive (cruise) in search of available stalls. 4. A loss of revenue by the Downtown Hilo merchants when customers who cannot find parking shop elsewhere. •9•