Where Will Customers Park During Mandel Apartment Construction?

Alternative solutions

The Mandel Group has been surveying the usage of parking across the business district, and has identified several lots that may be of use during the construction period. The following proposals have not been agreed upon by the other party, but were brought up as ideas under consideration:

• 44 spaces are available in the Aurora Clinic parking lot, which would only be utilized on evenings and weekends.

• Only half of the 19 permitted parking spaces at First Church of Christ Scientist are occupied by permit holders.

• Employee parking in the St. Monica parking lot, particularly during the school's holiday break.

• Turning the under-utilized parking meters on the north side of Silver Spring west of Santa Monica into 10-hour permit stalls.

• Adjust the two-hour time limits on the north and south side streets from Birch Avenue to Lake View  Avenue and Bay Ridge Avenue to Lake Drive. 

The Mandel Group had already proposed a Silver Spring employee shuttle service that transports workers from the Bavarian Soccer Complex near I-43 to the downtown area. Lincoln said that idea got poor reviews in a survey sent to Silver Spring business owners.

Reaction from businesses

Schwanke-Kasten President Tom Dixon said he is particularly concerned about the lack of parking during the holiday season. He suggested a valet parking area be created near Fox Bay Cinema that would take cars to the open parking lot behind the Starbucks building – an idea that won approval from Lincoln and others at the meeting.

Josh Welsh, the chairman of the Business Improvement District, said he wanted to see more concrete plans from Mandel. He said the BID should have been involved in parking discussions earlier in the game, considering the developer's intention to break ground nearly two months ago. 

"Despite the BID Board’s urging over the course of several months, the developer is just now, nearly two months later, holding a meeting with our business owners to communicate a plan for the period of construction, particularly as it relates to parking for employees and customers, which will be significantly affected," Welsh said. "Unfortunately, what was communicated today wasn’t a plan, but rather some general thoughts and ideas about what that plan might entail, in spite of the fact that they now anticipate construction starting in less than two weeks."

After the meeting, Lincoln said he talked with several people at the meeting and agreed to create a working group of village management and business owners that would work cooperatively toward developing solutions for customer parking, employee parking and delivery schedules.

The Mandel Group also plans to have a full-time employee dedicated to communicating with business owners, writing weekly construction updates and writing community-wide updates every one to two months.
"It’s a process that we’ve all got to get through," Lincoln said. "We have to figure out how to best accommodate it."