The Willow Glen Resident

Planners' new study to review parking on Lincoln

Proposal to change parking regulations for new businesses is on the table

By Cecily Barnes

With the goal of putting a long-bemoaned issue to rest, the city of San Jose's planning department began a rigorous parking study on Lincoln Avenue this month. Project manager Michael Flores says he and his staff are carefully examining parking along Lincoln Avenue and will present a list of solutions to the City Council by summer.

"We're trying to identify solutions for the parking problem in Willow Glen," Flores said. "This is something that the city and business folks in Willow Glen have been talking about since 1994. We're trying to come up with something concrete."

The new study was spawned as a follow-up to a 1994 Lincoln Avenue parking survey conducted by District 6 City Councilmember Frank Fiscalini's office. Though the study found that property owners didn't think parking was a severe enough problem to make physical changes to the street, it indicated that a slight change in city parking requirements could address some major complaints.

At the time, Fiscalini aide Joe Guerra suggested that the city amend the zoning ordinance for downtown Willow Glen. San Jose asks merchants to find more parking than do comparable cities. Guerra proposed that the city lower these high standards for Lincoln Avenue merchants. In exchange, businesses would be required to either restripe their parking lot or consolidate space with neighbors.

"We went to planning and said, 'We need to stop approving parking variances on a case-by-case basis. We need to have different parking standards for Willow Glen,' " Guerra said. "The planning department wouldn't change the parking requirements without doing a study of their own."

At a 1997-98 budget meeting, the city allotted almost $60,000 to District 6 from the general fund for a parking study. Now the money is being used for the new, in-depth study by the planning department.

"They didn't get through everything," Flores said of the study conducted by Fiscalini's office. "We're going to survey customers and take a harder look at what other cities have done. We're also going to look at how certain lots can be restriped."

To start off the investigation, Flores and his staff are gathering background information from Fiscalini's parking study. Then they will place surveys in each business along Lincoln Avenue. When customers come in to shop, merchants will ask them to quickly fill out the survey and leave it behind.

"The survey card will ask customers where they're parking, how far they have to walk and how many trips they make downtown each day," Flores said. "From there, we can see if Willow Glen shoppers use parking more efficiently than shoppers elsewhere."

Members of the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association said they are hopeful the new study will result in some concrete changes.

"We've had this [parking] concern for some time, so we're all for it," WGBPA president Kathy McDonald said. "The last study was a parking study put out by Fiscalini's office, and the conclusion was that things weren't pressing enough to do anything."

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