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WEST MAIN STREET PARKING OPPORTUNITIES AND ANALYSIS City of Charlottesville Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates Inc. | 17 The largest parking facility along the West Main Street corridor, public or private, is the Amtrak station lot, which features 280 total spaces subdivided into three lots. Hourly rates are $2 per hour (paying with cash) and $2.50 per hour (paying with credit); the daily rate is $12; the weekly rate is $50. Wild Wing Café, located above the Amtrak station, offers parking validation for up to two hours. Monthly permit parking is available at three private lots in the study area. The most centrally located permit lot – between Ridge Street and 4th Street (north of the private Staples parking lot) – is managed by CB Richard Ellis, and costs $78 per month; 14 additional, uncounted spaces in the northern section of this lot are presently occupied by construction trucks and trailers working on the Residence Inn on West Main, located at the corner of Ridge Street and West Main Street. The monthly rate for the Starr Hill lot (835 W. Main Street) is $55; the monthly rate for the 84 permit-only spaces in the Sweethaus lot (843 W. Main Street) is $60. Illegal on-street parking is a recurring issue on multiple blocks within the study area. While surveying the parking utilization rates, taxi cabs were repeatedly observed parking illegally on- street outside the Greyhound Station (310 West Main Street) between Ridge Street and 4th Street. Multiple cars were also consistently observed parking illegally on-street on the northern side of West Main Street between 6th Street and 7th Street, fronting the 601/603 West Main Street parking lot, where signage is missing and no spaces exist. In several instances private companies located near public lots (Safelite Auto Glass at Amtrak) and reserved/permit only facilities (Century Link at CB Richard Ellis) were observed parking work vehicles in these facilities; whether this practice is illegal or permitted is not clear. Additionally, numerous blocks within the study area are missing regulatory signage, or do not feature explicitly marked parking spaces. This is most notably an issue on the south side of West Main Street between 4th and 5th Streets, on the north side between 5th and 6th Streets, and on the north side between 9th and 10th Streets, where the total number of legal parking spaces is unclear. Clearly marking existing on-street spaces can provide greater clarity for infrequent or one-time visitors. RESTRICTED USE VS. PUBLIC-ACCESS PARKING A total of 1,084 parking spaces in the study area were surveyed, split between public-access, private, and reserved/permit only use. Thirty-seven percent of spaces are public-access, 29% are private parking, and 33% are reserved/permit-only parking. There are 121 free public parking spaces (both on-and off-street), and 280 paid off-street public spaces. The largest private and reserved/permit-only lots are located on the east and west ends of the study area. Figure 4 Monthly Parking Facilities and Regulations Parking Lot Number of Spaces Monthly Charge CB Richard Ellis 55 $78 Starr Hill 71 $55 Sweethaus 84 $60 Amtrak 280 $200 ($50 weekly)