Crowded downtown parking is both a curse and a blessing.
What is a blessing for businesses busy with customers can be a curse to those customers circling, searching for coins or winding up with expired meter tickets. Parking can be also be a deterrent at times for businesses working to keep good employees.
The city of Ferndale and the Ferndale Downtown Development Authority are trying to make the whole process of parking easier with the new
Ferndale Park + system. The new system will include multi-space pay stations, rather than individual meters, and will take cash, coins, credit cards or ParkMobile, a pay by phone or online parking service.
The pay stations, called Luke II's, will be solar-powered and cover about 900 spaces in 13 parking lots. The parking design has changed too, into a concentric layout that makes the most convenient spaces available to consumers.
The system is expected to go into service by mid-February, after signage and such is complete. Improvements such as increasing the number of available spaces will be ongoing. Some individual meters will remain.
The concentric system will prioritize parking spaces and set rates according to the users. More affordable parking spaces on the edges of parking lots will cost less (ideal for employees), and closer-in spots will go at new, higher rates. Employees can also buy parking passes.
"Instituting all of the components of Ferndale Park+ is a very big step to improving the parking experience in downtown Ferndale," says Ferndale City Manager April Lynch. "Park+ allows us, as managers of the system, to get more use out of every space we have, while planning for future upgrades and the addition of more spaces."
Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Chris Hughes, Ferndale Downtown Development Authority
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