The project would be in Hill's district and he said more specifics, such as a traffic study and an economic impact statement, were needed before the council could discuss deeding the land to the county.
Well, is there a study yet? Sounds like Co Exec Picente is still pushing the plan without one.
The county executive doesn't want county employees taking up space in the city's parking garage, which should be used as a marketing tool to attract more tenants into downtown office space, Picente said.
The proposed plan for Park Avenue would address the congestion, said Picente, who added that cities larger than Utica have implemented similar governmental complexes through road closures.
"Utica's not 110,000 anymore; it's much smaller," Picente said. "Bigger cities have adjusted to the safety and traffic issues in their downtowns."
I have news for Mr. Picente.
Oneida County's not 320,000 people any more; it's much smaller. County Government, and its need for parking, should shrink as well.
4 comments:
Just a quick note to consider;
Downtown Utica has about 100,000 square feet of class A office space with about zero parking. The white paper written by Edge in 2005 and the City's own Walker study shows where parking is needed. Closing Park Ave. and turning it into parking space will serve the County Court and the County office building complex's. When NYS tore down the parking garage behind the State building some years ago they shorted the area about 250 parking spots that have never been replaced. The renovation of the Adirondack Building, Seneca Building and the old Harza building has "given" downtown some great available office space. Without parking, much of it will stay empty.
Just remember that there cannot be any substantive development of downtown without the parking problems being addressed.
The Park Ave concept is a low cost step in that direction.
But where is the traffic study?
If you read both reports you would understand.
Anonymous - If either of the reports contained a traffic study of the effect of closing down a portion of Park Avenue we would have been told about it by now -- it would have been the appropriate response to Councilman Hill and the media. Until we are told about it and what it's conclusions are with regard to traffic (1) we should assume that none was ever done and (2) that the "low cost step" to fix the parking situation runs the risk of being "penny wise and pound foolish."
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