Comments on: Paid parking in downtown San Marcos? It’s in the plan

By: pat cole

pat cole — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 20:38:56 +0000

my experience, parking is rare even after 6pm, (lbj) the advent of the trailer food court further reduces parking. i have counted 34 businesses and approximately 60 parking spaces for these businesses. this does not promote downtown shopping at all when most of these businesses are not shops that have intermittent shoppers but are designed for group or many clients at one time. (theater, dance studio, wallys and paper bear, hair cutting, etc.) this does not take into consideration the handicap spots, and students who can park for a max of two hours, further reducing the shopping experience. but now i can see theres not a parking shortage.

By: Keith Cunningham

Keith Cunningham — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 01:33:27 +0000

Well, I stay the longest during the courthouse market days when I might be there for several hours and never have a problem with parking whether I get there at 9 or 12.. On other times if its on a weekday I admittedly do not walk around all day long, usually something shorter like to go to twist and shout with my kids or something like the book store or post office. Once again I never have problems finding a spot.

If it were a weekday and i was going to be doing it for several hours I’d probably just walk from my house. I’ll admit there might be an issue if someone from out of town wanted to do something like your Fredericksburg example, but I suspect we don’t have too many people doing that here (not that anyone would want to discourage it, of course).

Couldn’t we just designate several all day spots in the lot where the Farmers’ Market meets on Tuesday and figure out a way to regulate that spot? That would seem to make way more sense than putting up meters or building a garage at this point in time to fix a problem that really isn’t.

By: Ted Marchut

Ted Marchut — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 22:17:18 +0000

If I go to Fredericksburg for the day, I park wherever I find a spot, and I walk around for the day. Generally, I am there long enough to wander around, taking photos, hit a bunch of shops, have lunch, and maybe do something like visit the Pacific War Museum for a couple of hours.

Where would I park, to do that sort of thing in San Marcos?

By: Ted Marchut

Ted Marchut — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 22:12:52 +0000

Keith, how long do you stay?

By: Keith Cunningham

Keith Cunningham — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:59:32 +0000

I’m downtown several times a week at various times of the day and never have to walk more than a block or two to get wherever I’m going…I just don’t see that we have a problem.

By: SMsince95

SMsince95 — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:36:07 +0000

Parking garages are very, very expensive. If we can possibly avoid building one I hope we do. If TxState would park their students we wouldn’t have an issue to begin with. Sell the old justice center to the private sector and get something on the tax rolls. That’s an excellent spot for multi-story student housing or office.

By: Tarl

Tarl — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:10:17 +0000

Build a parking garage on the lot where the old justice center, now vacated, is currently rotting. It’s all of two blocks from the square, so it’s perfectly suitable as parking for the downtown commercial zone. Employ a flexible design that allows ground-level space to eventually be used for businesses (coffee place, bodega, etc.) if commuter rail ever does come to San Marcos.

You could even claim some space for the Tuesday Farmer’s Market there, and then open up the current Farmer’s Market space for more public parking.

All that delicious parking could be used both for downtown businesses and commuter rail passengers.

Keep street parking free, but release the time limits after 5 or 6 pm on week nights so people can catch a show and get a pizza (and, maybe someday, Indian food??).

By: Ted Marchut

Ted Marchut — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 20:59:39 +0000

That being said, there may be a parking shortage during the day, if peopel are able to park long-term. There is ample parking for people to come and go, in 1-2 hour intervals. I just don’t think that helps the downtown area to thrive.

The money from metered parking could help address any potential shortage.

By: Ted Marchut

Ted Marchut — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 20:55:45 +0000

Patches, I don’t think there is a parking shortage, so much as a parking management problem. When you go out on Saturday night, you are not required to move your car, every 1-2 hours, depending on where you park. If I want to spend the day downtown, walking from restaurant, to shops, to bar, that’s what I have to do.

Parking could easily be metered during the hours that it is currently time-restricted, and free the rest of the time.

By: SMsince95

SMsince95 — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 19:20:20 +0000

On the RARE nights I would go to a bar downtown I expect to park a block or two away and walk in.

By: SMsince95

SMsince95 — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 19:18:45 +0000

I usually don’t have trouble finding a spot but I sure hear a lot of complaining so maybe there is a problem. At least one person has complained there is no (or not enough) long term parking if you want to have dinner and see a show. I don’t mind feeding a meter for the type of downtown shopping I do which is usually short term. I feel the revenue is fairly earned as the city maintains the parking to the benefit of the downtown businesses. Perhaps the revenue should be restricted for downtown improvements/parking issues.

By: Patches

Patches — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:50:58 +0000

Does anyone else think there is really a parking problem in San Marcos? I’ve gone to the Square numerous times on a saturday night, and it’s never taken me more than 10 minutes to find a place to park. If evaluations show there is enough parking to meet demand, then there is no reason to establish meters.

By: aquafresca

aquafresca — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:53:49 +0000

We need the revenue. However, something should be done to accommodate bar employees who get off work at 3-4 in the morning. Walking alone at night a few blocks when people know you’re carrying cash on you is not 100% safe. There have been a handful of incidents in the past year or two.

By: Ted Marchut

Ted Marchut — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:52:49 +0000

If I recall correctly, most of those spaces are in private lots. The master plan may have an actual count.

By: LK

LK — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:51:50 +0000

I’d gladly pay to park downtown if it meant easier access to spaces. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to drive around and around while waiting for a spot to open up.

Parking does seem to be a little better since so many of the county offices moved out to the new building on Stagecoach, but it’s still not great. I know for a fact that a lot of students who don’t want to pay for Texas State parking permits park their cars downtown literally all day while they’re in class. Meters would likely cut down on that quite a bit.

By: SMsince95

SMsince95 — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:22:20 +0000

The article says there are 1,828 downtown parking spaces. Say you chose to meter 1,200 at an average of $.75/hr for 8 hours/day that’s $7,200/day 5 days a week for $1,872,000 per year. I think that more than covers maintenance, etc. Even if my estimates are high. Not a pot of gold maybe, but worth considering.

By: Intrepid

Intrepid — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 05:58:20 +0000

Let’s do like they used to do at the Capitol. Hire some old retired guys to sit in lawn chairs at the courthouse and run off everyone who tries to park at the courthouse without business there.

By: Ted Marchut

Ted Marchut — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:47:13 +0000

I don’t know about Commissioner’s Court day, but my wife works on the square, and we have paid numerous tickets.

By: Jim Green

Jim Green — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 22:54:16 +0000

“Anon,” If parking on the courthouse square is time restricted, the city sure isn’t enforcing it very strictly. Before the county offices moved away from the square, I parked on Guadalupe Street and spent hours doing research in the County Clerk’s office and not once did I get ticketed. Some people, including me, often spend two or three hours on Tuesday morning attending commissioners’ court. We don’t move our cars once during that time and don’t get ticketed.

My point about not metering the square is that some slack should be cut for attendees at commissioners’ court. Perhaps put a sack over the meters on that day. Remove them when court adjourns.

Also, dreaming about meter revenues being the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is unreasonable. Don’t count on it.

By: NannyStater

NannyStater — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 21:46:43 +0000

Tear down the courthouse and build a parking garage, they don’t even serve beer in there.