How do parks and trails fit into the plan as far as providing pedestrian access into downtown?
You won’t see very many people coming into the downtown area by foot. They’ll use great streets to drive to downtown and to the parks and trail system. We don’t think alleys, which you have downtown, are good for pedestrians; they’re good for service trucks to use to access the businesses. Neal Payton of Torti Gallas then asked for comments on their two proposed schemes for the Main Street ballfields site. (Many of those in attendance Friday night were at Tuesday’s special focus session on the issue.) I heard comments like, “They have potential,” and “It’s a good start.” Fair enough. Q: If you’ve got 700 additional residential units and 70,000-90,000 square feet of new office and 107,000-145,000 square feet of new retail coming into downtown over the next 15 years (as our market demand study shows), where are they going to park? A: The new residential units will “park themselves,” i.e. won’t use public parking spaces. As for the new retail, we’ve included a parking garage — which the
