By KATHERINE PETERSEN
Customers who shop and eat in downtown Sunnyvale will soon have improved access to parking, said David Boesch, the city's director of community development.
Restriping has already begun in the parking lot at the corner of Frances and Evelyn avenues. The barrier at the extension of Taaffe Street near the post office will be removed, allowing better access to available parking and improving circulation, Boesch said. The city will also install an access point to the parking lot from Evelyn Avenue, he said.
New identification and sectional signs are being designed to help direct customers to available parking in all downtown parking lots, including the double-decker garage behind the Sunnyvale Town Center, Boesch said.
"Parking will be both more convenient and easier to find," Boesch said.
Sunnyvale began to improve parking last summer, constructing 60 new parking spaces at Sunnyvale and Evelyn avenues.
"According to parking studies, one-fourth to one-third of parking spaces nearest to the front doors of businesses are used by employees," he said.
Suzi Blackman, executive director of Sunnyvale's Chamber of Commerce, said she is delighted with the new improvements.
"I think parking is key to people wanting to come into the area to shop. They want to have convenient parking that is close to shops, safe and has easy access," she said.
Cole Bridges, manager of Town and Country Village and president of the Chamber of Commerce, agreed, adding that the changes are long overdue.
"I think they're tremendous. It will facilitate movement in that lot 100 percent, which would make people more interested in coming here," he said.
Once people drive into that lot, there's currently only one exit, he said. The spaces in the back of the lot will be easier to get to.
But Joe Antuzzi, owner of Il Postale, isn't so sure that the signs and restriping will alleviate parking problems in the downtown area.
"They say there's plenty of parking and there's not. I have complaints from customers that parking is impossible. I think the improvements are good. I'm glad the city of Sunnyvale is addressing the problem," he said.
Identifying the parking in the double-decker garage, which is 90 percent empty, should help with parking availability, Antuzzi said.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, November 6, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.