Friday, May 24, 2013
Data show gradual migration of parking to Kent Central Gateway from lots, on-street spaces
People who park downtown regularly are doing so more frequently in the new Kent Central Gateway transit center than in on-street spaces or parking lots. City officials have been carefully tracking occupancy of several parking lots and stretches of on-street parking spaces downtown since August 2012. Data tracked since the new parking deck opened, on April 30, show there's a gradual migration happening as more people start to park in the deck. "From an anecdotal point, it seems the perception I have from talking to people is there’s much more available parking," Kent City Engineer Jim Bowling said. "We hear less complaints about parking downtown." Bowling summarized the data for members of the Kent Parking Action Committee Wednesday. The …
Monday, April 8, 2013
University to build new lot north of Liquid Crystal Institute
Kent State University will build a new, 200-car parking lot in its science corridor to serve the new College of Applied Engineering, Sustainability and Technology. The university plans to build the new lot north of the Liquid Crystal Institute because the new engineering college is planned to occupy an existing, 220-car surface parking lot that serves mutliple buildings in the science corridor, which includes buildings for the nursing and math programs. "We’re building a building on the existing parking lot, and so we have to relocate the parking to behind Henderson Hall so that we don’t lose any parking spaces," Kent State President Lester Lefton said. The new parking lot will cost about $1.45 million. The new engineering college will be …
Sunday, March 31, 2013
City, PARTA say they will not lease spaces in the new parking deck
Monday, March 25, 2013
PARTA, city plan to make 365 spaces available to public
Drivers will not be able to lease or "buy" the rights to one of the 365 parking spaces in PARTA's new Kent Central Gateway transit center in downtown Kent. The new transit center, in which the parking aspect was scheduled to open this month, won't open until mid April, the Record-Courier reported Friday. Bryan Smith, director of planning for PARTA, said that when the deck opens it will be available to everyone. "We do not plan to lease spaces," Smith said in an email. Essentially, that means business and property owners won't be able to plunk down cash for guaranteed spaces in the deck. The city, which invested about $4 million to help build the parking levels of the deck, has entered into a lease agreement with PARTA to manage the public …
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Monday, February 18, 2013
City is planning to install pay stations to manage less than one-third of parking spaces that will be available downtown when redevelopment is finished
Bill Arthur shared the concerns of his retail tenants with the Kent Parking Action Committee recently about the new paid parking program coming to downtown later this year. Arthur, a member of the committee, also owns TransOhio Properties, which owns several buildings downtown and rents to multiple retail and commercial businesses. "I don’t know if it’s different in other parts of the city where we’re going to be implementing these parking (stations), but I have yet to find someone who thinks it’s a good idea," Arthur said. "There’s a lot of concern out there from different tenants that this is going to be a bad thing simply because other cities our size typically don’t do this." Patch reported in January about the new parking pay stations…
Monday, February 11, 2013
Change approved by parking committee part of long-term parking plan
About 30 free, unrestricted parking spaces will be added to downtown Kent on Gougler Avenue. The Kent Parking Action Committee voted Thursday to change the existing restrictions on spaces on Gougler Avenue north of Park Avenue to offer free parking with no time limits. Prior to the change, many of the spaces were either limited to a 2-hour time restriction or required a permit. “We feel that area is very underutilized," Kent Service Director Gene Roberts said. The change is similar to one made in 2011 that added free, all-day parking spaces on Franklin Avenue near Summit Street. Changes to Gougler Avenue's on-street parking to add more free spaces are part of a long-term parking plan being developed by city administrators and property …
Sunday, February 10, 2013
PARTA plans grand opening of Kent Central Gateway later in 2013
Drivers will be able to park their cars in PARTA's new Kent Central Gateway transit center and parking deck some time next month. The transit agency is on track to open the parking portion of the transit center, with its 365 public parking spaces, by the end of March. Bryan Smith, director of planning for PARTA, said exactly when next month the parking deck opens will depend on the weather. The 10-bus bay transit element of the Kent Central Gateway won't open until later this year after the reconstruction of Erie Street between Haymaker Parkway — where a new intersection will be built — and South DePeyster Streeet. "And that requires asphalt," Smith said. PARTA also didn't want to open the transit portion of the new center before the end …
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/articles/transit-center-to-open-in-march-for-parking
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Friday, December 14, 2012
Developer Fairmount Properties plans to use PARTA's Kent Central Gateway for parking for residents, patrons at new "Building C."
People looking to live in downtown Kent's newest apartment building will have to park in PARTA's new Kent Central Gateway transit center. The site plan submitted to the city for Fairmount Properties' Building C, which will be built at the corner of Erie and South DePeyster streets, shows the building's tenants will most likely have to park in the new deck under construction on the opposite corner of the same intersection. A site plan for the building presented this month to the Kent Architectural Review Board shows no parking on site. "The proposed parking plan for this building is to utilize the multi-modal facility for the residential needs and restaurant parking," the city building staff report on the project states. The building will …
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Spaces downtown are at a premium until the new Kent Central Gateway transit center opens in March
Last week Portage County officials closed the future site of the new Kent courthouse to parking. Since then, it's seemed as if other parking places around town have become busier — with spaces harder to find. What do you think?
Friday, October 19, 2012
Demolition of former Jimmy John's, construction on new courthouse expected to start next week
Some workers in downtown Kent are looking for a new parking place today now that Portage County officials have closed the future courthouse site on East Main Street to cars. Portage County Commissioner Chris Smeiles said the county sent an employee Wednesday to post fliers on cars parked at the empty lot, formerly home to Jimmy John's, advising drivers that the lot would be closed Thursday. The sudden closure, Smeiles said, was due to the commissioners' recent awarding of the contract to demolish the former eatery and prep the site for construction of the new courthouse. "The contractor wants to start next week, which includes fencing off the site for security reasons and the demolition of Jimmy John's," Smeiles said. "In anticipation of …
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Matt Fredmonsky
9:37 am on Tuesday, April 9, 2013
The university trustees resolution approving this parking lot specifically states the $1.45 million will come out of the Kent State Parking Services budget, which as Jon and Jim alluded to get some revenue from parking passes and parking tickets. more ›