North Broadway Parking at Planning Commission and Howard Hall at SCAN on Tuesday

Did you forget about the North Broadway Parking Study? Yeah, me too. It's been almost two years since the draft recommendations came out, and it seemed like they languished for a while. Officially, since it represented policy change, it was put on hold during the "clean-up" of the Unified Development Code.

Now that the UDC project is turning to the policy changes, the parking study is back and at Planning Commission on Tuesday.

As we noted,

The plan looks evolutionary and incremental, and is not a game-changer. It doesn't lead on making the district a walker's paradise. Instead, it is a modest retreat on the norms of Salem's auto-dependent and auto-centric development styles.

It's important to note that it's also a response to the fact that our current parking minimums are too big here (and in general), and with the over-supply of parking, developers and owners are seeking many variances to reduce the required minimums. This is market-driven, not city- or planner-driven - though of course it is also consistent with higher-level goals to reduce off-street parking supply.

Bike parking is a part of several of the recommendations:

• Consider strategic placement of bicycle parking at key destinations
• Continue to include bicycle parking (racks) with Broadway/High redevelopment
• Provide incentives for business who supply bike parking
• Revise SRC 133.150 (Satisfaction of Off-Street Parking Requirements through Alternate Modes of Transportation) to include objective standards for allowing a reduction in parking due to proximity to transit, pedestrian enhancements, availability of bicycle parking (including covered bicycle spaces or lockers) or other transportation demand management (TDM) measures. Eliminate the need for special review.

The incentives in code for reducing the required car parking (the SRC 133.150 bit) are helpful:

• 5% reduction for a bus stop
• 5% for covered bike parking
• and up to 10% for walking amenities

See here for a longer list and discussion of the recommendations. The staff recommendation is to send it on to Council for adoption. And see here for all notes on the process and study.


 Also on the agenda is proposal to delete a sidewalk out at an apartment complex on Cordon Road briefly discussed here as an inappropriate and utterly car-dependent site, as well as what looks like a house-keeping matter on zoning for the Minto Bridge. Apparently the Boise and Audubon parcels still have "industrial" and "agricultural" zoning and need instead to have a "parks" zoning - or, "public amusement" in the official lingo.

The Commission meets Tuesday, August 19th, from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM, at City Hall, Council Chambers, 555 Liberty St SE, Room 240.

SCAN to Deliberate Next Steps on Howard Hall

Agenda items six, seven, and eight are all about the Blind School:

• Howard Hall Next Steps  - Board discussion and possible resolution on how to proceed in light of City Council’s decision to approve Salem Health’s application to demolish Howard Hall
• Report on SCAN Appeal of Development Permit, Curt Fisher, Jon Christenson, Victor Dodier
• Information Item on Hearing Concerning Street Vacations within Former School for the Blind Property

SCAN says "Everyone who is concerned about the future of the former School for the Blind property is welcome to attend the meeting and participate in the discussion."

SCAN meets Tuesday, August 19th at 6:30 p.m. in the Pringle Community Hall, 606 Church St SE.