Warsaw Aims To Attract Downtown Shoppers With Marked Parking Lots

The big white "P" on a green background will soon indicate various parking lots in Warsaw.

The informational signage was developed by the Downtown Action Team, a group of business owners and other interested parties, and is headed by Teresa Ho, the city's assistant planner and community development coordinator.

Part of the HyettPalma Warsaw Downtown Action Agenda concerned itself with parking downtown.

As part of the study, released last year, a local poll was taken. Sixty-four percent of the residents and 70 percent of the business owners polled wanted improvements in the availability of parking, and about the same amount (62 percent of the residents and 67 percent of the business owners) wanted improvements in parking convenience.

"People perceive they're walking too far if they can't see the store," Ho said. "They may just have to walk around the corner."

Customers flock to Wal-Mart, however, where anyone parking in the middle of the lot or further west is walking at least the equivalent of a city block.

She would like to see the the HyettPalma vision of downtown Warsaw - a vibrant area with a mix of specialty shops, restaurants, arts, culture and offices - in place by 2007.

"The perception is there is a parking problem," Ho said. "We want to reverse that mind-set through education. I was hired to implement the study, and one of my goals is to create such a vibrant downtown we will have a parking problem."

Downtown Warsaw has 2,220 parking spaces. Wal-Mart has 1,024.

"There are 1,770 private parking spaces available for the 1,600 employees who work downtown," Ho said. "If they would park in designated areas, there would be 450 public parking spaces available."

A few more spaces will be created when the municipal lots are restriped.

Diagonal parking is planned for the north side of the Kosciusko County Courthouse, once construction in the Justice Building is complete, which will add nine more spots.

Professional planners say each space generates between $150 to $300 in daily sales for each business downtown.

"It appears that employees and business owners are parking in the downtown's most valuable and sought after public parking spaces, which are the on-street parking spaces," Ho said, without naming names.

It's an observation Shirley Mitchell, the city's parking control officer, makes every working day.

"Some employees make a contest of the two-hour parking limit to see who can move their car every two hours without getting a ticket," Mitchell said. "People like to park close to where they're going."

The officer added, "Once you get inside two, three or four blocks, there are plenty of spots to park."

Currently, parking tickets cost $5 per offense and double to $10 after 30 days.

Parking in a space Monday through Friday is limited to two hours.

There are 60 two-hour off-street spaces, 340 spaces on the street with a two-hour limit and 40 free parking spaces off the streets. The city has 155 reserved parking spaces available.

The county allows the general public to use its parking lot at night, after working hours.

Parking is unlimited on the weekends.

"Even with all the violators, there is always available parking on the street and in city lots downtown," Ho said.

Reserved parking space rents for $12 per month in four lots, $20 in another.

A pamphlet about how to rent spaces and where the lots are located is available at the planning and building department, 372-9550.

To rent a parking space from the city, call the Warsaw Police Department, 372-9511.