Town Center parking needs studied

Several factors will determine the level of success for Yorba Linda's new Town Center mix of restaurants, retail and office uses, with adequate parking among the key planning elements.

City Council members are currently grappling with the question of whether or not a parking structure will be built to provide sufficient spaces for new and existing businesses in the roughly 24 acres devoted to commercial and public uses in the long-awaited project.

Initially, Zelman Retail Partners, the council-chosen developer for Town Center, proposed only surface parking for the area, based on the city's required parking ratio of five spaces per 1,000 square feet of commercial use, according to a report from Pam Stoker, the city's economic development manager.

But concerns expressed by city staff, council members, local businesses and residents led the council to hire Irvine-based Urban Crossroads to prepare a parking analysis for the entire Town Center, Stoker reported.

The resulting analysis, presented to council members recently, says “additional parking strategies” are needed to address a deficiency in the current and proposed number of spaces, which “could be accomplished” by constructing “an on-site parking structure.” The report did not mention size or number of levels.

The deficiency, according to Urban Crossroads, is 316 spaces during the week and 245 spaces on the weekend, based on a formula developed for “shared parking” by businesses during different peak times of operation, with a total 1,122 spaces needed on weekdays and 1,039 on weekends.

“For example,” the Urban Crossroads report noted, “parking supply needed for office uses during the morning and mid-day hours could be utilized by the restaurant and retail uses in the evening hours and weekends when office demand is low.”

And importantly, the report emphasized, “A successful development combines sufficient parking opportunities where visitors park once and walk to multiple destinations.”

The shared parking figures do not include residential uses or those at the fire station or First Baptist Church, which are considered private. Also excluded is parking at the Stater Bros.-anchored center on the eastside of Lakeview Avenue.

Additionally, the Urban Crossroads report shared a famous observation from the Urban Land Institute, which has done other reports for the city: “...shared parking has been a fundamental principal of downtown parking from the earliest days of the automobile.”

Interestingly, the report predicted peak weekday parking demand would come during Decembers at 1 p.m., with peak weekend demand also coming in Decembers but at noon.

The parking needs were figured on Town Center's proposed uses with the following square-foot totals: 125,605 for the Zelman Shopping Center; 50,800 for other retail and commercial; 17,700 for general office; 14,000 for restaurants; and 6,800 for the Bank of America with drive-thru window.