Preliminary Parking Count Data Report for Multi-Family Projects in Monrovia Completed

Counts were taken at the Paragon and other projects in town. – Courtesy photo / Paragon at Old Town

By Susan Motander

One of the concerns voiced by several people attending last month’s meetings about proposed new apartment complexes was parking. There was concern that there would not be enough parking contained within the complexes to provide enough spaces for all their residents. That led to concerns about street parking.

During the meetings city staff members indicated that a parking study for the already completed projects was underway. City Manager Oliver Chi’s update reported that the raw data from the two-month study shows that in the existing complexes the demand is between 1.01 and 1.21 spaces per unit.

The report from the city traffic engineer included a review of the parking counts for Areum (Fifth Avenue south of Huntington Drive), and the Paragon and Colorado Commons on Myrtle Avenue in Old Town.

The parking counts were taken at 2 p.m. (assumed to be the off-peak demand period as most residents were presumed to be at work) and midnight (peak demand as residents would be at home). These preliminary numbers do not take into consideration the guest parking spaces. It should be noted that all three of the existing complexes are at least 93 percent rented (Colorado Commons is totally rented out).

City staff has estimated that when the guest spaces are taken into consideration the need per unit will increase by 0.1 – 0.2 spaces per unit, raising the per unit need to 1.2 to 1.31 units. Chi pointed out in his report that the new complexes in the process of the entitlement process will be providing parking in the 1.7 – 1.8 spaces per unit range.

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