Editor,
MIG Consulting is the city’s chosen urban planner tasked with assisting the Downtown Specific Plan update. Their recommendations have been published in draft form available from the city website. One of their assignments is this one: “Evaluate parking standards in conjunction with Downtown Parking Management Plan and City Bus System Plan and provide recommendations related to transit.”
Reading through the 47-page recommendation, I found some words repeated often while other critical words don’t appear at all.
The word “pedestrian” appears 7x
The word “bike” appears 2x
The word “bikerack” appears 0x
The word “transitstop” 2
The word “rail” 0
The word “garage” 45
The phrase “bicycle and pedestrian master plan” 0
The word “parking” appears 813 times (estimate).
Every urban planning specialist tells us increasing parking supply increases the supply of cars to fill it. Like parking garages, you build it and they will come. Of course MIG was not hired to solve a mobility problem, but to their credit they recommend reducing the parking requirement from a common one space per 250 square feet to 1 space per 1,000 sq ft.
I’m confident when given better assignments, MIG Consulting will respond in kind.
Les Miklosy, Laguna Beach
