Politics & Government

New Farmington Council Member Eyes Parking Authority

At his first meeting, Greg Cowley urged officials to consider a new body to oversee downtown parking.

Editor's note: This article is part of a series that will focus on the issue of parking in downtown Farmington. Weigh in on the conversation by taking our poll and leaving a comment below.

Newly elected Farmington City Council member Greg Cowley left his first meeting Monday night with no question about his priorities for the next two years.

"I believe the DDA (Downtown Development Authority) and City Council need to get more in lockstep with planning," he said at the end of the meeting. "One example would be to create a parking authority."

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In an interview Tuesday, Cowley, who has served on the DDA board, said he sees parking as a "fundamental deterrent" to business recruitment and retention. And, he acknowledged, "It's a very contentious issue on all sides."

According to a parking study prepared by Walker Parking Consultants in 2007, there are 2,300 parking spaces in downtown Farmington, but only 700 of them are publicly owned. While Walker's first recommendation was to come up with a strategy to consolidate and share parking, the small percentage of public spaces limits those options.

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Compounding the problem, about 500 employees work the day shift in downtown Farmington, Cowley said. "Assume 80 percent of them drive a car," he said. "It doesn't add up. ... For every 1,000 square feet, a big box (store) has eight parking spaces. We have three. We're not going to get to eight, but I certainly think we can do better than three."

Cowley said the parking study "has been sitting at the DDA for three years, and it has not been executed. I want the City Council to own it." He said the city has economic development tools and incentives that the DDA board, an appointed group, does not.

The issue is critical now, he said, because it's important to shore up the city's commercial property tax base in order to keep declining revenues from residential properties from cutting into the delivery of city services. Cowley said incentives could include tax abatement and business incubation, which may involve covering the rent for a "destination" business "for a period of time."

But no matter what incentives the city may be able to offer, parking remains a stumbling block for the business owners Cowley met during his tenure on the Farmington DDA board. "I've talked to enough businesses who have said 'no' to this marketplace," he said, "and parking has always been one of the issues."

It's an issue for his family's business, John Cowley & Sons, a two-story restaurant and bar located on the corner of Grand River and Farmington Road. There is limited parking in the publicly owned lot north of the building, but Cowley said customers often complain about not being able to find parking nearby, particularly in inclement weather.

While surface parking has been added at the Masonic Hall (22 spaces) and a handful of spaces added by switching parking from the west side to the east side of Liberty Street, Cowley believes downtown Farmington has to double its parking capacity during the next 10 years in order to attract new businesses.

"The reality is, we're going to have to build a deck," he said. "We don't have enough space." There is a deck designated on the downtown master plan in the Downtown Farmington Center area, but that location is likely to be changed, Cowley said.

Paying for a large project will require a cooperative effort on the part of businesses, the DDA, the city and, Cowley said, residents. "In my opinion, at some point in time, housing values will rebound if the community becomes more viable, and the residents will benefit as well (from a parking deck)."

Cowley also recognizes that the parking issue is tough, because nobody wants to pay for parking. That's why he suggested establishing a parking authority. "The strategy would be to create a body that owns all of the city parking lots. The authority would call the shots on consolidation, meters and, long term, a parking deck."

"It's really a way to move the issues to another group," he said. "The DDA hasn't moved on it. The City Council hasn't taken it up, either. It's a political football."


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