Valet Parking for Foundry

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

According to the Somerville Patch, the Foundry has requested 4 to 6 spots to be used for valet parking.  The article mentions that the valet spots would only be used on Friday and Saturday nights and that they would decrease the amount of general on-street parking.

Comments

[spatch]

And from which back lot would they take their four to six spots? I'm guessing the lot on the corner of Day and Herbert, which would make for an easy loop.

And I'm hoping they're asking for lot spaces, because trying to cordon off actual street spots on the weekends will not end well at all.

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

From what I understand is that they are asking for 4-6 street spaces reserved for pick-up and drop-off. Where they are actually going to park the cars, I have no idea - but I hope those cars won't be parked in public parking lots, as that would do absolutely nothing to help the parking situation in Davis.

[spatch]

Four to six spaces on Elm simply for picking up and dropping off cars? Good luck and godspeed, Foundry.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

This seems like a bad idea in general given that these are the Parking is at a Premium nights to begin with. I dunno though. Maybe it's just me.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

The general consensus seems to be it'd actually be good for the area if a syndicate of restaurants did it, as there would be fewer people looking for parking.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

At the time the comment was left, the idea of a syndicate of restaurants had not been presented. That isn't a bad idea at all.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Since there is no information on where the valet cars will actually go, it's not clear to me how losing 4-6 spots will *help* the parking situation in Davis. (For example, if they'll just be parked a block or two away in other public spots.) When I read the article, I was thinking about writing to Rebekah to ask her how that would work, exactly, so if anyone else has spoken with her or knows more, please share!

It seems a little nutty to me.

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

That would be great if you could. I'm technically just outside of her district and I figure a question from a constituent would be more appropriate.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not in her district, either.

(It wasn't really clear if you even had an opinion on the matter since you just posted the link without any commentary, which I admit I found weird, since I was planning to post it myself, but with plenty of editorial. :)

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

I think there is too little information right now. I don't event know for sure if they are asking for 4-6 on street spots to park in a private lot, or they are asking for 4-6 spots in a public lot. Or if it's something altogether. Frankly both options above suck, but if they wanted a small spaces in front of restaurant (1-2 spots), and park in a private lot outside of square I'd be down with that. However, with the way that article is written it doesn't sound like that. It does sound that want to take public spaces and make them theirs.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Basically, the spots are for pick-up/drop-off; the cars are parked elsewhere.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I know that. I'm asking *where* elsewhere?


(Also, I totally saw it was you when I read the article yesterday. Woo! :)

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

LOL, thanks.

I believe that still needs to be worked out, and where they'd be parked would be part of what gets it approved.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Hm. For now, I'm going to suspend judgment; if they are really parking vehicles *well outside the square*, this has potential (although - 4 to 6 spots? Really? Valet parking, done properly, ought to take 2 spots, maybe 3). If all they're going to do is park these cars in spots elsewhere in the square where others could park, I think it's an overall lose. But since we haven't been provided with the details, I will wait until we are to trash the proposal (or embrace it, if it turns out the owners have thought this through from the *community's* perspective, as well as their own).

[gruene.livejournal.com]

This is the standard tactic of ask for more than you really want than "compromise" down to what you actually wanted in the first place.

[trtls.livejournal.com]

This.

[ron_newman]

I would hope they could valet park these cars in private lots that are always empty at night, such as Citizens Bank and the big one behind CVS. I don't understand why the owners of these lots don't turn them into pay lots at night -- they'd do good business.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

There are a couple of good lots on Highland that would be ideal for this -- the BoA lot and the Professional Building at 404 Highland (covered parking). They could park in these with just a quick trip around the block.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

Make that 403 Highland.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Would the city allow it?

[ron_newman]

Why would they object? I'm sure they'd welcome it.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

I know that in recent years Cambridge has been very hostile to pay lots, which is why most private off-street parking is owned or rented by residents or employees on a monthly basis. I wouldn't be surprised if Somerville had a similar policy.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

On friday and saturday nights, the cab stand on elm extends pretty much from the Burren all the way back to the square intersection anyway. If a Valet does get set up there it will probably lead to tieups in the left traffic lane.

Original pdf staffreport from the city

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

I do not recall where this was on the city website or if it is still there, but 2 requirements for approval were 1) "to provide 3 bicycle parking spaces either within the building or on the sidewalk in consultation with the City's Traffic Engineer" 2) " to provide the City a multi-space parking meter kiosk capable of accepting coins,paper currency,credit/debit card, park cards and possible pay by cell technology along with all long term and short term service agreements associated with the parking meter kiosk".
I believe once the 2nd was met and fulfilled there was the possibility meters would be extended to 10pm- but for the love of Indiana Jones please don't quote me on that statement.Those 2 requirements #'s 8 and 9 that the planning staff recommended for conditional approval. Also there were other tidbits where as the property and it's "use now" had been variance for 29 parking spots, but required actually 31.
There was also reference to a 2009 study that "calculated 561 off-street parking spaces including parking spaces which were metered,business permit and short term parking spaces. This study indicated that during the evening hours there were 75 available parking spaces in the CBD.These parking spaces are not permanent static parking spaces(always empty)but parking spaces in flux i.e. various parking spaces that become vacant then occupied and vacant again throughout the CBD"

[hikermtnbiker.livejournal.com]

This is not unprecedented, at least in Brookline, where I was told to move my car on Beacon because the adjacent restaurant had a deal with the city to keep these spaces free for valet parking. Just pick-up and drop-off, not the actual parking.

Not sure what the city gets out of it but the business certainly benefits. One would hope that they use private parking (IE Dilboy) or out of the way spaces like behind Rite Aid.

This begs the question, why do these new businesses get waivers for their parking requirements if they later need to have valet parking? Where are all these available parking spaces that the submitted parking studies say are there? If they are too hard to find and people give up, are they really available?

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

The Dilboy used to have a deal with Jimmy Tingle's when it was there. People could park for a fee. I haven't heard boo about The Foundry approaching us though. Friday and Saturday are busy events nights for the post as well. I wonder how that would work out in the end...

[ron_newman]

by the way, DSLJ readers should recognize the by-line on this Patch article.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

That's somewhat annoying. Once one upscale restaurant gets reserved spots for valet staging, they'll all want them, and eventually it will really cut into the on-street parking supply. This has happened in the South End and other neighborhoods around the city.

[ron_newman]

At that point, what you really want is a shared valet service for all of the restaurants.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

But the whole point of valet parking is so lazy people can pull right in front of their destination and jump out of the car. A centralized, shared valet isn't what they're going for, and it would basically be the same as a regular pay lot.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

I'm too lazy to read the article, but I thought in most cases the establishment has to actually pay for the valet-only spots as well. This is true in Boston proper I believe.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

They do pay for the spots, but that doesn't help me when I'm looking for a spot and most of them are reserved for valets.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

Well, if they get 2.5 lengths of spots, which seems reasonable, and they are using the valet service to keep at least 3 or 4 cars out of public spots it does in fact help you. Valets will generally lease a lot from a private company that can't deal with the insurance and staff of selling spaces during off hours, and they can stack cars up in tight lines.

Also, a healthy local business will directly and indirectly help everyone in the community. As does more revenue for the city.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

It's debateable whether a preponderance of upscale restaurants is good for a neighborhood, especially if they replace important businesses like grocery stores, dry cleaners, and drug stores.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

What about when a medium-priced restaurant replaces a vacant space that was a bit of a blight in the neighborhood? Because that's what is in question here.

[amy-s1.livejournal.com]

Park at Alewife and take the T??