URD approves $5 million parking strategy; parking pilot, data collection underway

The Bozeman Downtown Urban Renewal District board confirmed an allocation of $5,000,000 to support downtown parking infrastructure and public–private partnership planning, staff told board members at a June meeting.

The URD is moving to pair the funding with a data-driven strategy. “We have specifically gotten $5,000,000 approved, through the downtown URD,” said Ellie, economic development staff, adding that the team is collecting a month of parking occupancy and use data and expects a full month of results by early July. “We think we'll have a full month of data by June, early July.”

Why it matters: the URD money is intended to buy or subsidize parking infrastructure and to create public–private partnerships that could fund and operate parking assets downtown. The board and staff said legal counsel and city administration are involved to shape the program and that the URD intends to solicit input from developers and the parking working group before finalizing terms.

Board members pressed for clarity on next steps and documentation. “John is working very closely with Ben Bailey and Nick Fokin, the parking management team,” Ellie said, identifying Assistant City Manager John Henderson’s role in the effort. Staff said they will draft a vision-and-action plan and a scope of work for legal review; the plan will be used to engage developers on possible partnerships and revenue sharing.

Short-term steps include a marketing-and-branding consultant to help produce the outward-facing vision and an internal action plan to guide implementation. The staff said they will share the working documents with the group and that legal counsel will review proposed partnership agreements.

Pilot projects and related work already underway were also discussed. A “pedlet” pilot (a temporary pedestrian/sidewalk structure) ordered for South Wilson is expected to arrive in July and will be installed in partnership with Bitterroot Bistro and city transportation staff. Ellie said Bitterroot Bistro has obtained required sidewalk-cafe permits and the business will manage the café fencing for its area; the URD will store the pedlet at city shops at season’s end.

The board also discussed staffing and capacity constraints. Ellie said the URD has legal support but that the city’s legal team is “strapped on time,” and the URD intends to secure additional civic/legal advice to draft the partnership plan. “We do have support from legal, as well as numerous city admin,” she said.

Next steps: staff will circulate an updated working document to the parking working group and the URD board this summer and expects to bring draft partnership approaches to legal for review before engaging developers.