Following public backlash in August to the city’s previously approved plan to implement more paid public parking throughout Wichita’s core, from Old Town to the Delano District, the City Council moved to delay the purchase of equipment tied to that plan. A Sept. 10 Council meeting is set to include a city staff update on the plan, including the latest on public feedback and alternative options to pay for downtown parking infrastructure needs. Caught in the uncertainty are business owners and operators. Some say increasing the prevalence of paid parking could deter customers from visiting downtown. “In this economy that we’re in right now — with all the costs that are going up — I think people just fear that this is another thing you have to pay for, and people just won’t come,” said Byron McSwain, who recently opened Greater Grounds Coffee & Co. at 922 E. Douglas Ave. “That is my fear.” Others — including those leading Wichita’s economic development efforts — say a new approach to downtown parking is critical as the city prepares for an expected boom from the under-construction Wichita Biomedical Campus. “We’ve got the biggest economic activity coming ever in the history of downtown Wichita,” said Alan Banta, veteran Wichita businessman, developer and longtime member of the Downtown Wichita board. “You can’t have 3,000 students and a $300 million investment in the center of Wichita and not have a parking plan.” City officials say the parking fund is not on a sustainable path to support the maintenance needs of garages, surface-level lots and street parking in the core, let alone needed security upgrades and modernizing parking infrastructure — much of which looks firmly entrenched in the 20th Century. “What we’re doing now isn’t working,” assistant city manager Troy Anderson said.
Source: Wichita Business Journal
