Wheaton finds its does have parking woes

Back in September, Wheaton heard the results of a $52,000 downtown parking study that found there are no major parking problems in the near term.

After three months of dissecting those results, Wheaton staffers told the city council Monday night that there actually is a parking problem.

The location of the problem is a specific part of the downtown. The northwest quadrant, encompassed by Seminary Avenue, Main Street, the railroad tracks and West Street, doesn't have enough spaces to address the needs of the immediate area.

This is particularly troublesome because that's the same quadrant as the public parking garage. The problem is not the garage itself, staff members said. It's restaurant and seasonal employees who work downtown .

Those employees are using far too many of the most convenient parking spaces reserved for customers, staffers said. Moreover, they are parking in the spots longer than three hours. And, because they are part-time, Wheaton's parking enforcement officer has a hard time distinguishing their vehicles from those of customers.

Wheaton will sort out this issue from now until next year's budget is finalized.

Ideas on the table include hiring an additional parking officer to write more parking tickets. The city is also considering raising the parking violation fine as a deterrent.

The solution involves finding areas for more downtown employees to park. One idea is the public library's parking lot. Another idea is making better use of commuter lots and privately owned lots in the downtown. There are no plans to build another parking garage or bring back parking meters.

The city is also considering changing the parking requirements associated with opening various businesses throughout the city.

Decreasing parking requirements may have an immediate impact on bringing business downtown. For instance, the long-dormant Dusek project was ultimately stymied by the costs of adding more parking.

The plan would've brought new retail and office condos to the northeast corner of Wesley and Hale streets.