Phase 3: Implementation and Action Plan Project

Following is an update on the progress, recommendations, and next steps to-date for the City of Loveland Downtown Parking Management Implementation and Action Plan Project, which constitutes Phase III of the City of Loveland Downtown Parking Study Project.

PROJECT HISTORY

The City of Loveland has been working with Walker Consultants (“Walker”), a parking and transportation consulting firm based in Denver, since 2018, with studies conducted from 2018-2019 (Phase 1) and again from 2019-2020 (Phase 2).

Phase 1 of this study occurred in 2018 and included an inventory of available public parking; parking use on weekdays, weekends, and special events; supply and demand projections; and stakeholder engagement. A Steering Committee and Technical Advisory Committee were established as part of the stakeholder engagement process.

Phase 2 of the Downtown Parking Study occurred in 2019 and included expanded stakeholder and public engagement, as well as an assessment of parking management strategies, policy options, and alternative approaches. The Community Survey that was launched as part of this phase received over 1,200 responses in total.

In this study, a total publicly available parking inventory of 2,342 spaces was documented. This does not include the new Foundry Garage, which was not yet completed at the time of the study. Peak occupancy for the public parking system reached 67% at noon on a weekday. The study projected that the parking system would continue to meet needs in aggregate through 2023, while projected demand system-wide would exceed the projected supply by 2028.

Phase 3 This Downtown Parking Management Implementation and Action Plan project continues the Downtown Loveland parking study work. The intention of this project is to build upon, refine and modernize work accomplished in the previous phases. Specifically, the objectives include:

• Vetting and validating core challenges, guiding principles, and recommendations borne from the previous phases and modernizing these principles and recommendations based on the values, trends, and behaviors of today’s Downtown Loveland.
• Educate, gather feedback, and build consensus for core recommendations with a rigorous decision-maker, community, and staff engagement process.
• Develop a detailed short-term, mid-term and long-term implementation and action plan, including such topics as on- and off-street parking management, parking permit programs, administrative and operational needs, policy, ordinance and regulatory changes, technology and capital needs, and communications efforts.
• Support the Plan through a review and adoption process with the Planning Commission and City Council.

The following are some planning documents that are already adopted by the City of Loveland and that influence this work.

HIP STREET MODERNIZATION PLAN (2017)

DESTINATION DOWNTOWN: HIP STREETS MASTER PLAN (2009)

To learn more, please visit the Phase I and Phase 2 memos