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City steps up enforcement of downtown parking time limit
The good news is that US Bank has been adding employees and is now up to around 150 workers.
The bad news is that the increase in workforce downtown has stressed the available parking.
"This is a good problem to have," Ron Clow, Nevada planning director, said.
However, the parking issue is not just because of the added workers at US Bank. It also stems from a busy restaurant and the employees and owners of other downtown businesses who park on the street instead of using the municipal parking lots.
Clow said that recently several business owners have expressed a concern about the lack of parking on the Square and on June 30 Clow met with downtown business and property owners to discuss how to address their concerns.
"We sent out 95 letters to property and business owners on the Square and two blocks in each direction," Clow said.
"Twenty-four attended," he said.
He said that his intention was to bring the interested parties together, come up with a consensus and develop a strategy to improve the situation.
He said that the number one issue was clear: Customers were not able to park close to the businesses.
Clow said that one business owner told him that if his customers could not park within 100 feet of his building they would not come in.
He said that as result of the meeting they have come up with a set of guidelines with the goal of encouraging downtown employees to park off the street in the public lots, so the on-street spaces can be used for the businesses.
The city is also looking at other options for adding some off-street parking.
Clow said that the city will also strictly enforce the two-hour parking limits for on-street parking.
"This is a step in the right direction," he said.