Downtown Parking Management Strategy Action Plan adopted by The Dalles City council

“These changes highlighted the need for an updated parking strategy to support current and future growth while maintaining accessibility for residents, businesses, and visitors,” the plan notes.

Community Development Director Josh Chandler had presented the plan at the city council’s last meeting Feb. 28, but the council did not vote to adopt it due to the absence of Councilor Ben Wring, who was unable to attend. Wring notified the council that he had two concerns about the study.

For months, parking consultants with Rick Williams Consulting and a local advisory committee have worked to study the city’s parking and construct the plan, which debuted at a public open house last fall​.

The strategy outlines a series of recommendations ranging from better, branded signage to new enforcement measures, all geared toward ensuring a “successful downtown” where parking supports commerce without overwhelming streets​.

While councilors broadly supported the vision, the council delved into agreements for off-street parking, lighting and safety upgrades, enforcement of parking rules, and improved signage before approving the plan.

Public parking on private property?

A centerpiece of the plan is forging partnerships with owners of private parking lots to make better use of underutilized spaces. Currently, the majority of off-street parking in the downtown area is privately owned.

Wring worried that “88% of the approximately 1,200 parking spaces identified in the study were on private property and therefore not truly available for public parking.”

Currently, only 12% of public parking is owned by the city or urban renewal agency.

In asking the council to delay their vote at the previous meeting, Wring urged the city to reduce the emphasis on private off-street spots in the plan and even suggested removing a city-owned lot on Fifth Street from the analysis due to its location​.

City staff and consultants addressed Wring’s concerns by emphasizing a collaborative approach rather than omission.

“Removing private off-street parking from the management plan would be short-sighted, as it plays a crucial role in balancing the system,” said Owen Ronchelli, a consultant with Rick Williams Consulting. He said that using existing underused lots means less need to build new parking in the future.

Downtown is not running out of spaces any time soon. Weekday surveys in the Downtown Parking Study (2024) found more than 800 empty spaces in off-street lots during peak hours.

Under the newly adopted plan, the city will pursue formal shared-use agreements with willing private lot owners to allow public or employee parking in those areas during off-peak times. The goal is to shift long-term parkers, like downtown employees, off of prime curbside spots needed for shoppers.

“Most of those private lots are an overflow resource we haven’t tapped,” noted Ronchelli, “but if we remove them from the equation, it doesn’t greatly change our overall capacity.”

Improving safety through lighting

Data in the study showed that four city-owned parking lots along E. First Street often sit largely empty, even during busy times​.

One reason, as members of the Downtown Parking Advisory Committee pointed out, is that residents report these lots feel dark and unsafe at night​.

Councilor Rod Runyon voiced “strong support for improving lighting in public parking lots,” even saying he’d be willing to allocate city funds specifically for this purpose​.

“Better lighting would help promote [lot] use,” Chandler concurred​, suggesting that the plan re-categorize this improvement for earlier implementation, within a year.

City Manager Matthew Klebes said he would confer with the Public Utilities District on prioritizing lighting to implement this upgrade more quickly.

New parking time limits, future enforcement

While the city has enjoyed free access to abundant parking, the plan also implemented measures to reign in potential misuses of parking zones.

Chandler noted​ “98-99% of the downtown parking system was unregulated, with no timed parking restrictions except for [a few] ADA spaces and a few reserved spots at the courthouse.”

This laissez-faire approach has upsides (convenience for residents) but also downsides. It makes it easy for an employee or resident to occupy a prime spot on Laughlin Street all day, for example, which can frustrate customers looking for a quick errand stop. As downtown activity increases, many see a need to ensure turnover in the most sought-after spaces. Especially in the area known as the “High Occupancy Node” on Second and Third Streets between Federal and Jefferson streets.

The new plan stops short of immediately imposing time limits or meters, but it lays the groundwork for “reasonable” enforcement down the road.

The consultants found that average stays downtown are under 3 hours even without time limits, indicating many visitors naturally come and go, but a notable 17% of cars stayed more than 5 hours​.

The plan suggests eventually introducing 3-hour time limits in the busiest core zone (once alternative parking options are in place) and coupling that with stepped-up enforcement of the rules​.

Runyon asked who would enforce these new rules. “Who’s going to go around and chalk tires?” he said.

One option in the plan is to contract with a third-party parking monitor for just a few hours a week, a model successfully used by other Oregon cities​. By randomly rotating those hours (as Hood River does), the city can create “a climate of compliance” without a full-time parking cop on the payroll.

The council decided on a messaging campaign through the chamber of commerce for downtown businesses, encouraging employees to park in less prominent spots.

For more information about The Dalles Parking Management Strategy Action Plan, visit the city’s community development page on their website.