City approves parking plan for Block22
City Press Releases
July 25, 2018
The City of Pittsburg has approved a parking plan for incoming residents of Block22. During a special presentation to the City Commission Tuesday, July 24, 100 city-owned parking spaces were identified that will be used by the new student residents.
Community Development and Housing Director Quentin Holmes says the plan was developed to restrict student parking to specific locations and limit the impact on public parking spaces.
“The City began planning in 2016, by assessing our inventory of lots, evaluating lighting and security needs, and also identifying infrastructure improvements, such as sidewalks and alleys,” says Holmes. “We created this plan to accommodate downtown merchants, knowing that 99 new residents will be living downtown.”
City of Pittsburg Planning Assistant Brittan Brenner stated that the changing landscape downtown and other City initiatives lead to a new, revised plan.
“We started planning for parking in 2016, but a lot has changed since then,” says Brenner. “After further study, we noticed we could get a lot more parking out of existing lots, we could reconfigure those lots to maximize parking, and we could spread these student parking spaces over five lots, instead of four.”
During the presentation, Brenner also outlined a number of new parking spaces being added to the downtown district this year. The City was able to acquire 40 spaces from the Besse Apartments and add 10 spaces after restriping and reconfiguring existing City lots. Approximately 14 new parking spots will be created after the City’s Community Development and Housing Department moves to the new All Aboard Center, and the existing office is demolished. Altogether, these improvements account for 64 new parking spaces in the downtown overlay district.
The City also addressed how parking restrictions will be enforced. Parking violations will be complaint-driven and will funnel through the Pittsburg Police Department, in collaboration with PSU campus police. New lighting and high-definition cameras will allow officers to identify license plate numbers.
Brenner stressed this parking plan is fluid and will be re-evaluated on a regular basis to accomplish the best use of publicly-owned parking spaces.
“This plan is by no means set in stone,” Brenner says. “We will be revisiting the plan each semester and making changes as needed.”