Downtown Updates with Mark and Zach

Downtown Updates with Mark and Zach: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Downtown Updates with Mark and Zach: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Katie:
Welcome to a City of Redding podcast. Wondering what's happening downtown with construction and parking, so are we. In today's episode, we connect with Mark Christ and Zach Bonnin to talk about some of the changes you're seeing downtown and when to expect changes to downtown parking.

Steve:
Mark walks us through the BLOCK seven project, including the Shasta College Building, the closure of the California Market Alley. And when the new pocket park will be started. We also ask when we might see some new businesses downtown and when community members can start moving into these brand new apartments.

Katie:
Next, Zach gives us the latest on the parking changes coming to downtown, including a new parking meters and a new mobile app will come online. Also, how soon will enforcement begin and what's the parking situation like for downtown employees?

Steve:
This is a pretty quick update, so stay tuned for more information coming soon.

Mark Christ:
My name is Mark Christ. I'm an associate community project coordinator with the city of Redding. I've been focusing on downtown really since the beginning of the market center project.

Steve:
Thank you, Mark. It's good to have you back on the podcast. We're excited to talk to you today. Obviously, as folks drive or walk or bike downtown, it seems like every day and week that progresses more and more development is happening and so we're excited to get some updates from you today. We thought maybe we could start with, I guess, what is termed the BLOCK seven project kind of along California Street there. And maybe you could just update us on the various elements of BLOCK Seven, starting with the northernmost end of California, Tajima Street, which I think is maybe a Shasta college building just on the north side of the parking garage. Can you fill us in on what's happening with that building?

Mark Christ:
Yeah, so that is that is at the north end of the BLOCK seven project. And it was originally just called the B one commercial Mid-rise Tower. It is the future home of the Shasta College Community Leadership Center. They will be occupying floors two through five. The project is on schedule right now. It's currently around 60% done and they're on schedule to have a temporary certificate of occupancy by December 30th is the goal and that date is holding. So at about the end of the year, right around the New Years, Shasta College will be able to move in and make that their new home.

Steve:
And Mark, with that community leadership center, I believe it's five stories. Are all floors academic based or will some be businesses and commercial? And will it be commercial space on the ground floor as well?

Mark Christ:
Yeah. So Shasta College is occupying, as I mentioned, levels two, three, five. And the ground floor is a commercial retail space. There's about 3500 square feet at that location. And so there will be several different businesses leasing up that space. I haven't heard any announcements of what it will be, but I think we are excited to have some commercial space and possibly a food service restaurant type space down there.

Katie:
And Mark, then as we head south, the next building is B2, which is the recently opened California Street parking garage. Can you provide us with an update on any new developments or information that the community should be aware of as it relates to the garage specifically?

Mark Christ:
Yeah, so B2 is the corner street parking structure. It is substantially complete. It's been open since August 1st. Is our new 400 space six level parking structure. It's fully up and operational. It's operating seven days a week, 24 hours a day. It's about a dollar per hour. And the contact for all things regarding the parking structure is eight parking. They actually have an attendant who has an office in the structure and he is running both the California street structure and the parking structure underneath the 1551 Market Street Building. It's well-lit, well maintained, clean, shady in the summer. It'll be dry in the winter. And it's a beautiful facility. It has security.

Steve:
That's great to hear that it's safe and clean and folks are welcome to use it and hopefully take advantage of that. Moving south, the B three building. Can you talk to us a little bit about that one?

Mark Christ:
So the B three building has not broken ground just yet. It's still in the design phase as they kind of wrap up the final design and any changes and put together the final financial packages, we expect that that building will break ground sometime next year. It's going to be a five story and it's going to be another mixed use market rate housing building, 4000 square feet of commercial retail space on the ground level, and then floors two through five will feature about 20 residential units.

Katie:
Great. And as we head further south, the remaining buildings are B four, five and six, which are the new residential towers. And these are they're quite noticeable for community members as they walk or drive or bike past them. What's what's going on with these? What's the latest?

Mark Christ:
So B, four or five and six are kind of all one sort of they're different buildings, but that's essentially the affordable housing project, which is also a mixed use facility. And that has actually just been branded the California Place Apartments, and that is 78 units of affordable housing on levels two, three and four. And then again, the first floor is a combination of the management area for the apartments and commercial retail space. The project features 11,000 square feet of commercial space, that level one, and then a mix of one and two bedroom affordable apartment units on levels two through four. Along with all the community spaces and common areas, there's a total of 102,000 square feet. It's on schedule. The plan is to have the. Commercial units ready for lease up by the end of November.

Steve:
And Mark, when you drive past that one, it looks like they are three separate buildings. It looks like maybe there's some bridges or walkways that go between the buildings. Can you fill us in on that a little bit?

Mark Christ:
Yeah, that's correct. The main central elevator is in the center building, which is where the leasing offices and then you would go up from there to your various level, whether on two, three or four, and then take the bridges across. So it's really kind of a unique experience.

Katie:
And maybe it's just worth talking about the affordable housing piece here for a minute. That's income eligible, qualified candidates. Right. Can you talk to us a little bit about how people are selected for affordable housing?

Mark Christ:
Great. Thanks for mentioning that. There is actually a leasing office located at 1616 Market Street and it can go and pick up information and learn about the project. There's also a website which is California Place APTs dot com, which of course has a lot of information about the project. And you can actually download some tenant application package and fill it out and submit it that way. It is all affordable. The units are 100% affordable and there's a range of eligibility income levels from as low as 30%, a very medium income up to 80. And depending on the household size and the unit size, they're designed to be affordable to that household, occupying those units generally on these type of projects. By the time it's all said and done, we end up with waitlists to get in because they're just really high quality housing and in the heart of our downtown. So these are going to be highly sought after units.

Steve:
And Mark, maybe you can talk to us a little bit about the thought process behind building more affordable housing in the core of downtown. I assume it's tied to funding with those private public partnerships and those buildings probably wouldn't have been built if not for the affordable housing element. But maybe just talk to us a little bit about the thought process behind that development.

Mark Christ:
Yeah. One of the things that makes downtown such a desirable location for housing is all the services around it. There's certainly great transit opportunities for people that are working to get around. We have close connection to the Rava facility, connections to the trails. It's a very pedestrian, friendly, walkable part of our community shopping and groceries. That's what makes it a really desirable location. Well, just being central to sort of everything in our town. But we also realize at this point all the development that's happened downtown. There's a number of affordable housing projects right around the core of our downtown and in the core. So this may be it for a while in terms of affordable housing in the heart of downtown, we're kind of spreading out and giving people opportunity to live in other areas of the community. And so the downtown is pretty saturated now with affordable housing, which is great. And now we're going to be looking at other opportunities around town. And yeah, downtown is a great fit for affordable housing. But we also know that market rate, people are really anxious to be able to live downtown as well and they're hungry for the new units. And so that'll probably be what we see a little more of in the future with new developments.

Katie:
And I know there are some just like any construction project, there's always a little bit of pain before you get to the exciting part, right? Because you have road closures and street changes and traffic control and all that. I know Market Street Alley has been closed. Now, maybe you can talk a little bit about that project and the exciting pieces that are coming to that section of downtown.

Mark Christ:
Yeah, there's no doubt that these these kind of projects disrupt the normal flow for the surrounding businesses and property owners. So that is very true. Just recently, the California Street Alley closed all the way. It's been closed from from Tehama down to Butte. But just recently, with the progress made on the streets and circulation project happening all around, BLOCK Seven of the alley is now closed from Tajima all the way down to Yuba for vehicular traffic. And we know that adds some additional stress to those businesses that operate there. And we really appreciate their patience and their understanding of what's happening. We have ensured that there's always pedestrian access to these businesses, so we're doing everything possible to maintain those ADA accesses for pedestrians from block to block. And there will be a period of time when people are kind of rerouted from the sidewalks to where the future streets are going to be and then back and forth. But this is kind of that final stretch as we head for the finish line here where the alley is going to be completely rebuilt. It'll resemble what Market Street looks like out in front of the Market Center project between Butte and Tehama with the beautiful pavers and the pedestrian friendly sidewalks. So that's that's the end goal and we hope it's worth it to everybody. But we do understand that it's going to be some some pain for those adjacent businesses trying to accommodate those the best we can. The beauty is once we are done with these projects that everybody along the alley and everybody really in the core of downtown gets, if we take advantage of these new opportunities and the activated spaces, there's obviously a number of 78 households moving into the core of downtown, which will shop and frequent the local businesses. And so that's the economic driver that hopefully makes us all worthwhile.

Steve:
And Mark, you mentioned commercial spaces. Maybe we could talk about that for a moment. I know there's been some confusion and maybe even some disappointment around the market centerpiece because those commercial spaces in market center have remained vacant since construction, which I think was mostly due to COVID related issues. Can you fill us in on any updates on that front, but also help clarify, is it the city who is working to? Commercial tenants in those properties or how does that piece of it work?

Mark Christ:
So those commercial spaces are 100% private, and so the city is not really involved in that end of it. Of course, the one business we know who's going to be occupying the 1551 space first is going to be apricot lane. Just today I was downtown and saw that there are some new awnings that have gone up and there's a lot of work going on inside. So that's our first commercial tenant, which I think is a great fit for downtown. I think we're very, very close to seeing substantial occupancy in the market center building of those commercial tenants. I think the owners have been extremely selective and just trying to get the right fit for downtown. And so it's super exciting to know that that's coming very, very soon.

Katie:
Oh, wonderful. That's good news on the horizon. If I can switch gears and move us back over into the block, over kind of in between the California Market Alley and Market Street, there's a section that's now a parking lot that's scheduled to be a pocket park. Can you talk to us about where that project is and when we might start to see some movement there?

Mark Christ:
Yeah, so the Shasta Plaza Park is designed to be an urban park. It's located just immediately south of the college downtown campus that was formerly there parking lot, about a 16,000 square foot space. And that was a grant that was awarded to the city. It was put together by the Michael McConnell Foundation and our Community Services Department. So we received about $3.8 million in grant funding. And then there was an agreement with the city and the developer to provide some park fee reimbursements to help fund that park. The final designs for the park are underway now. Once we get those final designs, we'll be entering into a procurement process to put the plans out to bid and get this thing under construction. So we anticipate construction could start around the first of the year and be done by the end of the year. These dates are all very tentative at this point, but this park is going to feature a lot of really nice amenities, maybe slightly different than a traditional park because it is an urban park. There's going to be a shade structure that kind of doubles as a stage and an event center area. There's some walking trails, of course, around the park space. There's going to be lots of trees and plants. Of course, the plan is to have some misting boulders and places for kids to enjoy and play. And so just a lot of unique features that are going to be really inviting to the public. And again, it's a place for all the families and people living downtown to come and enjoy it. But it's also a place for college students and business owners to come out and enjoy the heart of downtown.

Steve:
Really, the whole landscape of downtown is being transformed in a pretty exciting and unique way. One of the other pieces to mark, I guess, being jumping west from BLOCK Seven is the bike depot, which is kind of kitty corner to the parking garage. Can you talk to us a little bit about that? I believe it's three Shasta Living Streets and some others. But what's the latest with the bike depot?

Mark Christ:
Yeah, I just I was lucky enough just this week to get a chance to kind of walk through that. And it is certainly from driving by. You can see it's a beautiful facility. They're also getting very, very close. The project is kind of two parts. There's the Shasta Bike Depot at Bell Plaza, which is kind of going to be the host to Shasta Living Streets, kind of running that facility. That's where they're going to have the bike share program, up to 100 different e-bikes that will eventually be available to rent. These bikes will be placed around town, sort of like the way the bird scooters are now. Soft opening date for that facility is December of this year. And then just adjacent to that on the same site is the Future Cafe, which is going to be type lane reading at Bell Plaza. As soon as that they're going to be open is looking like April, May of 2023.

Katie:
And on that note, are there any other active transportation projects coming downtown to kind of support that bike cycle movement? Within these new developments?

Mark Christ:
We have some bicycle facilities that are coming, so we have the California Street Cycle Track, which is going to connect essentially Yuba Street down to Center Street with a separated, divided bike lane on the west side of California Street, which fronts the bike depot. So that is coming our way sometime very soon. In addition to that, we've got the Trinity Street Bike Way, kind of connects Trinity Street to Continental down to Butte and all the way down to the Sundial Bridge. And that is also getting kicked off sometime next year. So between the cycle track and the diesel horse downtown and the river trail and the Trinity Bikeway, we're really getting great connectivity all around the city.

Katie:
Thanks, Mark. We're excited to see these improvements take shape downtown. Next, we'll turn it over to Zack for a parking update.

Zach Bonnin:
I'm Zach Bonnin with the City of Redding. I'm a transportation planner and I'm working on the parking program for downtown.

Katie:
Thank you for being with us here today to update us on all things parking downtown. Maybe you can just start on giving us a high level overview on what is the latest on downtown parking.

Zach Bonnin:
We've been working hard to develop the contracts to purchase the pay stations and the units that will be used to monitor the parking downtown. A lot of new technology the city is bringing in. We're using pay stations that have electronic screens, that are touch screens that will be newest technology out there for the space. Patience. The nicest thing about these types of stations that we're going to be bringing in is that they also have associated with the mobile apps that you can pay by phone and pay by the app. And the system we're using is called Flow Bird, and there's actually called a Flow Bird app that you can look up and put in your cell phone now, if you like, we're going to encourage most people to sign up with the app in order to use that. It's a lot simpler. It actually knows your location, tell you what type of rates and you have what you pay. And then if you have your information in there, you can just say, I'm ready to park and hit the button and you're ready to go. So it's a great way nowadays it's becoming much easier to set up these type of parking programs.

Steve:
I'm glad that the city is stopping some of this new technology that that's exciting. But you mentioned rates. Can we talk a little bit further about that? Obviously, the parking garage is, I believe, a dollar an hour for a maximum of maybe $8 a day for these street parking rates. Any idea on what those will look like?

Zach Bonnin:
Well, the city council did give us direction to pursue the dollar an hour that has not been adopted yet. But we're looking at that in October as the adoption of the dollar an hour rate that is going to be consistent all through downtown. So if that rate is adopted, all the on street and off street lots would be a dollar an hour. The only exception that we're looking at is potentially an employee parking program for the employees to buy monthly passes.

Katie:
And as of right now, downtown parking, some people are paying, some people aren't. There's been so much construction happening downtown that many people don't really know what's happening with the parking program. When can they reasonably expect to start seeing these parking meters and enforcement downtown?

Zach Bonnin:
Well, as part of this program, we actually been working on getting a parking ambassador for downtown who is basically the enforcement officer for the downtown area, is already starting to look at what we already have to enforce, which is the two hour parking zones, which are going to stay consistent throughout downtown. So he's already looking at that. He's not enforcing just yet, but we are working with some warning tickets and some warning ideas of how we're going to start telling people that we're looking at those two hour zones. As far as the paid zones, those are still in effect until we remove the meters. Someday in the near future, those meters may go away as we prepare for the pay stations. But as long as those meters are still out there, you should still be putting your dimes and nickels in the meter. And eventually we'll be looking at that as well. We're we're trying to roll this in a little bit slowly and let everybody know that the tickets will be coming to enforce those types of things. But we really want to do that in a way that's encouraging people to park properly and know that this is a system that hasn't operated properly in years past, but now it's really coming into its own. So there will be some learning tickets you'll see in the next few weeks, and that will try to encourage people to park in the proper locations, which we can also talk about.

Steve:
And Zach, I know we've talked about this in the past, but I've got to imagine members hear tickets and fees and cost of parking. They may not be too pleased with that. Can you talk to us a little bit about what is the impetus for paid parking downtown? Why do we as a community need to pay for downtown parking?

Zach Bonnin:
Yeah, I mean, we've worked closely with national consultant for parking, what the needs of parking and really what they help me understand is this is really to help encourage the parking spots that are key to businesses downtown. Stay available for those businesses that are looking to have clients come during the day. So we're looking at restaurants and other type of businesses that need clients to come in for a short amount of time, do their business and then leave or shop or whatever else they need to do in order to do that. What we're seeing right now is those spots are 100% filled with people who are parking there either longer than 2 hours, mostly eight hour parkers or people that are employees and parking a few businesses down from the business they actually work at and they're doing it to each other. So one business is saying go park a few doors down and the other business is saying go park a few doors down. And all those spots get filled with other people's, mostly employees and other office workers and some students and some residential. And so really to open those up, the encouragement is to find other spots for those parkers and then leave those spots relatively open for people that are coming in to shop and dine and do whatever else they do in the downtown core.

Katie:
An employee parking is a really good point because we've heard a lot of people that are concerned about employee parking like they are an employee and now what are they going to do downtown if they have to pay to park downtown for their shift? What's the city planning to do to address that?

Zach Bonnin:
Yeah, we're working on that employee parking program right now and we have about seven lots designated right now in our plan to handle the employee parking spaces and the program and the permit system. What we'd like to do is implement an employee parking pass so that as these employees designate, they'd like to find the longer term parking lots. They would be able to purchase this monthly pass and then know that there's some space for them somewhere in the downtown area that they can easily walk through their place of employment. We still are working on how many spots we actually need and those rates for that, but it's coming right behind the rest of the parking program and it's right in the same. Kind of time frame where we're looking to start seeing those parking space stations in the next couple of months. You should start seeing them on the street out there. We're going to start installing those and then they'll probably be turned on soon after, but probably in the fall. It's kind of depending on a lot of technology that has to be implemented all at the same time. So that's what we're shooting for. We're very hopeful by the end of the year that we should have this up and running.

Steve:
And Zack, for those that are employees downtown, is there anything that they have to do proactively if they're concerned now about how that parking pass or parking options will work? Do they need to go and do anything now or just kind of wait until the city and downtown employers figure things out?

Zach Bonnin:
Well, what I would like to encourage is employees to start parking on these exterior off street lots, because that is the lots that will be used for employees parking permit program. And if they start parking in those, we start to know how many lots we need in and the capacity that is out there, the lots. We have some maps online and we're actually putting some more flyers out where these longer term parking lots are. For people that are parking for 8 to 10 hours a day, they're still free currently they don't have meters. And so these employees can move to these locations right now. And as they get warning paperwork on their car that addresses warns that they could be ticketed for that type of activity, will then be moved to one of those exterior lots. And so what that's trying to do is encourage those longer term parkers that need to be there for 8 to 10 hours to move to those exterior lots and then eventually get the employee parking passes that once that gets implemented.

Katie:
And is the plan to continue to offer any free parking downtown or is this going to really fill out all of downtown with paid parking?

Zach Bonnin:
Well, the paid parking zone is really meant for the core and around the courthouse. So the courthouse zone and the main downtown core around Market Street will have paid parking. If you're willing to walk a few more blocks, you can find free parking beyond those extents. And so if you're really looking for spots that you can park all day for free, there will still be spots available downtown that are like that. And we're going to manage that as we look at the data over the first year and determine, do we have enough and do we need to kind of adjust those balances to make sure that the parking is working appropriately?

Katie:
And I'd say another thing we hear from people is the city is just trying to make a bunch of money with parking rates. Why does the city charge for parking? We kind of cover that a little bit earlier. But if people are complaining about the city just looking to make a buck, what do you say to that person?

Zach Bonnin:
Yeah, I mean, there's definitely costs associated with running the parking program. And in order to kind of make sure downtown functions properly, to maintain the parking lots, to maintain the administration of the permits, and moving these parkers around the city to encourage the vitality of the businesses down there, this is the only way to pay for that operation. And so it's meant to be at least self-sustaining. We're trying to make it self-sustaining. It may not be for a few years as it develops. And so actually the cost will probably outweigh for a little while until we start to establish the parking program a little bit better. And in the goal is to try to make it self-sustaining.

Steve:
And Zach, when we talk about establishing the parking program, I think there's some community folks who feel like why, why is the city just now thinking about parking when new developments wouldn't happen? For quite some time? Obviously, there's been a lot of thought and research and studies done throughout this process. When did the parking element begin? And I guess how far along are you in that process?

Zach Bonnin:
Well, you know, it's never really stopped. I mean, the city has looked at the parking program since it started in the forties. I mean, it's gone through a lot of iterations. And as we built the downtown mall and we built the parking garage down there, you know, there's a lot of staff parts. I was looking back from 2000 to 2005, 2008 when they were deciding, what do we do with the parking garage and do we keep it long term or do we hold on to it? And as it was reaching the end of its useful life, it was a determination made that it's probably best that we look at other options for that parking area redevelopment. And then we had a plan made three or four or five years ago about how if we get rid of the parking garage, what's going to happen. We probably need a larger parking garage and some other surface lots, which we're starting to implement. And so you're starting to see, number one, the one main parking garage that's a public private partnership on California Street. And then these exterior surface lots that are kind of filling that other need. And we've done some numerous counts and determinations of what the capacity needs are for downtown. And we're feeling pretty comfortable as we move forward that we have enough parking. It just needs to be put into the right places around town.

Steve:
And part of that process to the city partnered with the parking consultant, an expert in this realm to go through best practices and really strategize on what the best plan is for Redding. Is that right?

Zach Bonnin:
Yeah. The Dickson consulting team is a national parking consultant that we've. Brought on in the last couple of years that have really been a big help in providing the background information to make sure that our parking program kind of follows national norms but also fits our local community and the needs here and make sure that we have the most modern technology and that it's going to work for us in for the long haul, for the next ten years, that we'll have a program that fits our community and we have something to grow into and manage as we move forward and the development occurs, there's a lot of changes and so we're going to have to stay fluid because as these buildings go up and there's more activity, it's going to change the parking situation. We're going to have to stay on our toes to manage that.

Katie:
And if you could address some of the feedback that you're getting, what are some questions, concerns or issues that you're hearing from the community that you would want to address?

Steve:
You know, the biggest thing I'm hearing right now is about employee parking and where were the employees park. And so I think as we move forward, addressing those exterior lots and making sure we have adequate space for them is going to be important piece of the puzzle that we need to make sure that it's handled well. And I can assure that those employees will have a place to park downtown and we'll make sure that there's enough capacity for that. Well, great. Thanks so much, Doug. And just a reminder, folks can go to City of Redding dot org slash downtown parking for the maps that Zack mentioned as well as key parking information. And we'll link that in the show notes as well.

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