Napa City Update: Getting around downtown

Over the last year or so, the number of construction projects in Downtown Napa has been on the rise. In addition to the flood wall work on the west side of the river from First Street to the Napa Mill, we now have six major private projects underway. (Details on these projects can be found at www.cityofnapanews.com on the “Downtown Projects Map” page.)

The Flood Project and the many private development projects in the pipeline will bring Napa many benefits. But while everything is getting built, these projects impact the downtown area, with noise, truck traffic, and temporary loss of parking spaces as examples.

The recent start of two new projects will bring a substantial impact to the availability of parking on the south side of downtown. The two new projects are the Riverfront, the mixed use private development project on the west bank of the river from Third Street to Fifth Street; and the county/city parking garage to be built along Fifth Street between Main and Coombs streets.

The Riverfront project is already under way. In order to secure the site for safe excavation work, parking along Main Street in the area has been removed temporarily, along with the permanent removal of the Main Street Landing parking lot. This resulted in the loss of about 50 spaces. This week the county’s surface lot for its fleet vehicle and employee parking is closed as the parking garage project gets started. That surface lot has been holding more than 100 cars. The county is relocating a number of fleet vehicles to minimize the impact, but the net result is that there are many vehicles that have been parking in that surface lot that are now displaced. The new parking garage will provide 484 spaces — but it won’t be available until the summer or fall of 2008. In the meantime, it looks like there will be a new level of competition for on-street parking spaces in the area.

Those of us who work, shop and enjoy the attractions downtown are lucky to have a variety of options to cope with this new parking crunch. For example, we can:

• Ride the bus. The Vine will save you gas money and reduce your carbon footprint. See the routes and schedules at www.nctpa.net/vine.cfm.

• Walk or bike. The weather is great and you need the exercise, right? The city has made a concerted effort to provide more dedicated bike lanes and bicycle boulevards to make bicycling safer and more appealing.

• Share a ride. Check out Solano-Napa Commuter Information at www.sta.dst.ca.us/commuterinfo.html for details. Ride sharing works locally, too. There’s no carpool lane from Browns Valley to downtown, but it makes sense anyway.

• Use the city’s free parking garages. Recent surveys show that even on the busiest days, there are still more than 150 spaces available in the Clay Street garage and more than 200 in the Pearl Street garage. And since Napa has a compact downtown, you can walk from any garage to any other downtown location in 10 minutes or less. The garages have been improved with enhanced security patrols and brighter lighting, and the Pearl garage has a new elevator. With summer here, you don’t want your car baking all day, so keep it cool – garage it.

• Buy a parking permit. For $30 a month, you can buy a permit that allows you to use the surface lot and parking garage spaces that are marked “Permit Only.” Sale of the available permits and use of the permit spaces is a first come, first served proposition. Get details at City Hall, 955 School Street, at the Finance Department window.

No single option can be the perfect fit for every person who needs to park downtown. It’s understood that not every driver finds it easy to maneuver in parking garages, and some people have limitations on walking distances. But for most of us, one of these approaches could be helpful during this parking crunch.

If you need more information on any of the topics in this month’s Napa City Update, contact me at 258-7843 or e-mail bmartin@cityofnapa.org. If I don’t have the answer for you, I’ll find someone who does.

— Barry Martin, City of Napa community outreach coordinator

“Napa City Update” provides information from Napa city officials about on-going projects of public interest. The column appears on the first Tuesday of each month. All information is from the City of Napa.

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