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City of Morgan Hill
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after the completion of the future development projects identified above. See the
Recommended Improvements chapter for future parking solutions once the Downtown
achieves an 85% or higher parking occupancy rate.
Parking Enforcement
As Downtown continues to grow, the amount of readily available parking will decrease, and
to help patrons, visitors, and residents find the available parking spaces, it is important to
have a parking strategy. A good parking strategy should encourage parking turnover and
get the right people in the right parking spaces. For example, the two hour parking zones
have been created to ensure there are available parking spaces throughout the day for
visitors and patrons along the main street of Downtown (primarily located on Monterey
Road between Main Avenue and Third Street). The on-street parking demand in the two-
hour spaces show these spaces to be fully occupied during the peak hours of the day.
Enforcing the time limits would free up these spaces and redirect patrons, business owners,
and employees planning to stay longer than a quick two-hour trip to park within the public
parking lots.
Another parking strategy is to work with the downtown businesses and owners to identify
logical unified valet parking stations. This would allow patrons visiting any business the
opportunity to drop their vehicle off at one location, and pick their car up at any of the
valet stations downtown. This option could go one step further and offer free valet parking
for downtown employees to help free up parking spaces in prime downtown locations.
Parking Toolbox
Recommendations to alleviate locational parking shortages from the 2016 Hexagon study
and other parking management tools are:
•
Conducting a marketing campaign to advertise locations of available parking,
such as the parking garage
•
Monitoring the parking supply and demand on a regular basis by conducting
studies to assess changes in parking characteristics
•
Introducing resident parking permits may alleviate some parking needs for
downtown residents on residential side streets