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MORGANTOWN - The last time the Morgantown Parking Authority commissioned a complete assessment of the city's parking infrastructure and policies Ronald Reagan was in the White House.
Morgantown City Councilor Mark Downs said that's about to change.
Downs, who serves as council's representative on the parking authority, said members of the authority are in agreement that it's past time the body hired a third party to conduct a deep dive into all things parking in Morgantown.
"The last parking study that the parking authority did was 1985, believe it or not," he said, later noting 41 years is too long to wait.
"The parking study would be an assessment of the parking authority's parking supply and how it's used, the turnover, on-street parking, off-street parking, occupancy rates, use during different times of day, walking distance, demand mapping," Downs told The Dominion Post. "Then I think revenue and kind of rate benchmarking would probably be the last things that it would really look at."
Downs said the authority is interested in seeing data driven recommendations regarding capacity, rates, technology and best practices in the industry.
"The parking authority is a very well-run organization. They know their businesses and they do it well. I really think they do a great job. They take care of their infrastructure. The parking garages are well cared for and maintained. That's not what this is about," he said.
Ultimately, Downs said, a parking space is not a destination, but a means to an end for people looking to live, work and recreate in the city.
"This is an economic lever as much as anything, right? To me, this is about driving business downtown. It's about finding our most desirable, highest priority parking spaces and asking, are we turning those over fast enough and getting people in and out of businesses fast enough to really drive the downtown economy."
There currently isn't a timeline as far as when the authority will initiate the study, likely through a request for proposals from outside consultants.
"This is kind of a big deal. It's a bigger deal than just, hey, we're going to do a study," Downs said. "For a long, long time so many people have talked about downtown revitalization. Well, this is part of what that work looks like."