Just Park It

(This is an updated TOTA post taken from a Tustin News column August of 2005) For anyone with a wager on how long it would take us to write a column about the parking situation in Old Town, the winning ticket is ‘column #3’. From all the feedback received from shoppers and shop owners alike over the past year, this topic is likely to fan a few flames. What makes this issue important to local business is store accessibility. All too often, a bad parking experience is translated into a bad shopping experience. Something none of us can afford.

In last week’s column we made a case for attracting an “anchor” franchise to draw more shoppers and diners to the area. It would be irresponsible not to discuss the parking ramifications that increased traffic would bring with it. In fact, the recent development of the old Utt Juice property into the highly anticipated Prospect Village complex will indeed force the issue on parking regardless of whether a new Starbucks or Rite Aid would want to put down roots in Old Town.

Let me start off by saying that almost all the customers I’ve talked to like the angled parking that the City recently installed on El Camino Real a couple of years back. It beats parallel parking any day and the spaces are plenty wide, even for big SUV’s. The only complaint is that there never seem to be enough of them.

There is good (side)street parking within a block of El Camino Real. But most days that is already at capacity (and beyond during the Farmers Market on Wednesdays). The public Waterworks lot at Main and Prospect is rarely full now, but it’s quite a distance from either end of Old Town, and it will soon be completely engulfed by visitors (friends and shoppers) of the Prospect Village tenants.

Stephens Square is rarely at capacity. But it has two things not in its favor:

• The lot has no access to el Camino Real making it inconvenient.

• Who really wants to go inside the dark, decrepit and dank first level?

That leaves private lots – most of which are provisioned, understandably, for tenant employees. In many cases they are also posted as off limits to anyone except the customers of those establishments. This leads to a occasional unfortunate towing incidents (curiously even after business hours). While that’s certainly not in the best interests of Old Town merchants in general, it’s also the best evidence yet that there’s a real need for additional, convenient, parking to service a vibrant, healthy and growing shopping district.

So what’s to be done? Send in your suggestions to me or post your comment below. We’ll feature your feedback along with some ideas of our own in a future column.

Until next time. See you on Main Street.

Comments