Consultant: waterfront on‑street stalls are full; off‑street supply underused — council asks staff to bring management options

Hood River — A two‑season parking analysis presented to the City Council on Aug. 10 found the city’s on‑street waterfront supply is functioning at or near capacity in peak hours, while large off‑street inventories around the district remain underutilized.

Rick Williams, senior partner at Rick Williams Consulting, said the firm completed high‑season (July/August 2025) and low‑season (November) counts and a full inventory of on‑ and off‑street stalls. He said the city controls 161 on‑street stalls; those stalls reached 95–100% occupancy at peak hours in the study. By contrast, the off‑street supply—including port and private lots—contained hundreds of empty stalls during the same windows. Williams described industry benchmarks: “When a parking system… is constrained, it's generally parked for some significant period of time at a level of over 85% occupancy,” and he noted opportunities to better integrate supply through pricing, signage and partnerships.

Council discussed equity and political sensitivity to adding paid parking, asked staff to analyze options for directing visitors to underused off‑street areas and to report back on financial, operational and equity tradeoffs. Council directed staff to return with a parking-management recommendation that considers seasonality and equity in the waterfront district.