Downtown’s Popularity Raises Demand on Parking
With a growing list of Zagat-rated restaurants (15), tasting rooms and performing arts venues, it’s no surprise that more people want to spend more time in downtown Napa. The upside of this renaissance is easy to see – more business opportunities, jobs, prospects for increased tax revenues to fund City services – but some are challenged when finding a place to park. Ongoing construction for the Flood Project and other development will continue to cause temporary parking losses at the same time downtown’s attractions bring more people and their cars. In the short term, parking will become scarcer before the situation gets better. What’s the long term outlook for downtown parking?
It’s clear that the downtown will become more densely used in the future. Hotels, office buildings and mixed use developments are in the pipeline, and more urban uses are likely as the Flood Project moves toward completion. There’s general agreement that large surface parking lots are a poor use of limited real estate. Parking solutions for downtown Napa will come primarily from the use of parking structures, both under and above ground.
Each approved project comes with specific parking plans or pays a parking impact fee that the City pools for future parking solutions. The City looks ahead to using some of those monies to satisfy demand on the south side of the downtown area in partnership with the County of Napa. As part of a City-County agreement signed in 2003, the City and County of Napa are cooperating to build a new parking structure providing about 450 spaces on the so-called “County superblock.” Bounded by Fifth Street, Coombs Street and Main Street, the new garage will serve as daytime parking for County employees with some public parking. Providing a place for County employee vehicles promises to free up spaces on-street and in existing parking facilities. The new garage will be available for general public use at night and on weekends. Owners of nearby private developments are also part of the planning and funding process. An informational open house for this project is planned for Thursday, September 7th , at 6pm at the Napa City-County Library.
How much of that money has been syphoned off for other “important and related projects?” Also if you go downtown you’ll notice that it can be impossible to find a parking place. And what garages there are, where designed by idiots. You can park in them… but I’d love to see the totals on how many accidents they cause, how much damage is done, and how many more spots could correctly designed garages fit. The closest garage to actually be correct, and they’ve had to “tweak it”, is the clay street garage for the Town Center/Mervyns. And I won’t even comment about flood damaged cars.
Changes are coming on the northern side of the downtown area as well, and the Redevelopment Agency is planning for the future. With most of the parking lot adjacent to the CineDome to be lost to the Flood Project’s bypass channel, a replacement for those spaces is needed, as well as new capacity for future development. To that end, the Agency is working with private property owners in the area and the Napa Sanitation District to facilitate new mixed-use development including parking.
The parking for the lone theater left in town has kept disappearing and disappearing. It’s no wonder that between that and the flood control, they are moving to the South Napa Marketplace.
There is no easy, inexpensive or “one size fits all” solution for downtown parking. A thriving downtown creates an infrastructure challenge, and each successful new project brings new demands. The City’s approach, building partnerships and pooling resources for creative solutions, looks to foster an economic environment for increasing success.
The City of NapaInsider Says…Visitors to Napa think we’re a quart low in the nightlife department. So says the long-anticipated “Visitor Profile” study (conceived by a Leadership Napa Valley practicum group and brought to term by the Conference and Visitors Bureau and a raft of other nurturing mothers.)
The Insider ponders: is this perception reality? Let’s review the scorecard.
Q: Is there any live music in downtown Napa?
A: Yes indeedy. Beyond the big three (Napa Valley Opera House, COPIA and Jarvis Conservatory) there are at least six restaurants and watering holes featuring live music. The list includes Uva, Downtown Joe’s, The Depot, Caffé Cicero, Piccolino’s, and the Headfeathers courtyard. And then there’s Chef’s Market and Friday night concerts at Heritage Park during summer months to add to the mix.
I will attest to the great number of great restaraunts, and the variety and quality of the live music. And going downtown at night I was shocked how many people are wandering around down there, it’s great.
Q: What about live theater?
A: The Opera House fills the bill (literally) with name acts of all types, and Jarvis features Zarzuela.Q: OK, but everything closes so early. Is there anywhere to go for the real late night crowd?
A: Actually, yes. Try Cuvee (open till midnight Fri-Sat), Bounty Hunter (open till 1am Fri-Sat), or the bar at n.v. restaurant (open till midnight on weekdays and till 2am Fri-Sat). And then there’s Zuzu, Henry’s Lounge, and Downtown Joe’s, too. The “Napa rolls up the sidewalks at 9” story is yesterday’s news, bub.
They just comment on the performances downtown. Leaving off the Dreamweavers Theatre goiong strong down at River Park, the Napa Valley College Theatre doing a number of great performances, and the number of performance troupes using the Napa Valley for their performances.
Q: That’s fine, but I’m looking for a real nightclub – cocktails, dance band and all that.
A: Well, we may be a tad light in that category. The “Night at the Roxbury” scene has not found fertile ground in town. Napa tends toward the long dinner and lingering over the good bottle(s) at this stage of the game. Maybe the Copacabana West is in our future.Conclusion supported by subjective opinion of the Insider: There’s really a lot shaking in formerly sleepy downtown Napa, and likely a lot more to come. Maybe the disconnect is in helping our visitors know what’s happening and where—or understanding what people mean when they say “nightlife”….
I will agree that nightclub wise there isn’t much in town. And a nuumber of the great bars to hang out has dropped as a number have been damaged during floods (Tom Foolery’s and River City being two). But there still are a few here and town, and hope springs eternal that a bank will go out of business where it went in on the old Tom Foolery’s site and a new bar/restaraunt/nightclub will go in. But for the mean time there are a number of places you can go depnding on your tastes.
And speaking of that Visitor Profile Study: you’ll find no earth-shattering revelations (people who visit Napa are older, whiter and wealthier than the average—who woulda thunk it?) but the research gives some insights and a reality check for those who want to make a living in the hospitality biz. Namely, people come here with expectations. They’ve typically been here before, maybe many times. The Insider thinks about places she/he has visited multiple times and attempts to ascertain why—what are the attributes that motivate that second, third, seventh trip?
Answer: specialness-wanting to be part of a style of living-compelling landscapes-people are nice and seem to be happy to have visitors there-exceptional customer service. (Insider personal feelings here, your mileage may differ.) What does it all mean? It means the whole brand strategy process is dang important. People have a lot of choices about where to spend their travel and leisure budget, and they don’t come back to Napa for another visit by accident. Cause and effect, Watson, it’s elementary.
Everyone wants to come to the Napa Valley except the teenagers that want nightclubs for 18 and older and singles wanting a nightclub for dancing. Once you are 21 and older the Napa Valley becomes more intersting place to be. And the older you get the more you appreciate the slower lifestyle that Napa leads… but it’s no way as slow as Hawaii.
Soscol Gateway Plan Moves Forward
Earlier this year, the Napa Redevelopment Agency began the process of creating a Redevelopment Plan for the Soscol Gateway. Technical studies are now underway for the proposed Project Area, roughly bounded by the Napa River and Soscol Avenue on the west, Imola Avenue on the south, Soscol Avenue and Silverado Trail on the East and Highland on the north. Street. These studies will be available for public review in late 2006, with more stakeholder meetings and a workshop to come in early 2007. Information on meetings will be provided in mailings, newsletters, and through the local media. A plan will be presented for approval by the Redevelopment Agency Board of Directors in the spring of 2007.
If a Soscol Gateway Redevelopment Plan is adopted next year, funding will be available for work within the Project Area to:
- Pay for new infrastructure and street improvements
- Help existing businesses to upgrade
- Provide new housing and housing assistance programs
According to Ernie Glover of GRC Redevelopment Consultants, “The Agency’s goal is to improve what is already here, not to start over.” Glover points out that the Agency will not have eminent domain authority on residential uses.
Source: The newsletter of Redevelopment
Yay! Yet another Redevelopment project that is going to kill an area of Napa. Well I hope they’ve learned about the Downtown redevelopement process of remodel and charge more until no one can afford to have a shop on First Street. Drive down it some time and count the number of empty windows. If Altamara can even afford to keep Merrills closed and empty for almost 2 decades… but enough of that.
I just hope they meet there goal of cleaning up the entrance (Soscol) since for a long time the signs said that was the only way into Napa. And I wouldn’t mind some money spent to make Soscol into more a divided street/Boulevard. They look better, but since they squeezed in the 2 lanes each way as it is, I’m not sure how they’d be able to fit in a median and turn lanes.
Tags: Interesting, Local, Napa, News, OpEd
