Parking Garages are a Good Thing, Right?

Knoxville Urban Guy·
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Proposed site for Parking Garage: Locust and Summer Place

How many years have we heard “there’s no parking downtown?” It comes up repeatedly anytime the center city is mentioned,mostly by people who don’t frequent the area. Previously we answered the concern replacing buildings with parking lots. Hopefully we’re past that.

Recently it’s been a topic for people who live and work in the city. Kimberly Clark and Recovery Corporation of Knoxville both mentioned it as they departed. “Full” signs have been illuminated on the various garages during some major events this spring. TVA forced the parking issue with its neighbors. Parking continues to be easy for me in the Locust Street Garage, though I no longer get the perfect spot every night.

The State Street Garage is slated for expansion and a new proposal would have the city buy property bounded by Locust Street, Summer Place and Walnut for a new parking garage. TVA would bear the cost of building the garage and make it available for free parking on nights and weekends. It sounds good, right? Everybody gets something.

The proposed location isn’t a bad choice in one sense: It’s currently an eyesore. One end of the property features a hole which used to be a basement. Most recently it hosted a car that flew off Locust, sailed through the air and landed in one corner. On Walnut sits a former TVA building which is not quite as ugly as the Bell South building on Magnolia, but certainly isn’t attractive.

 

Building to be Demolished on Walnut

 

So, what’s the problem? I have a couple of concerns. I’m no urban planner, banker or developer, so I’m open to any reasoned arguments from those who are, but I’ll lay out what worries me.

We have a very small downtown area. We have nature to thank for the river, of course, which cuts downtown off to the south. But we have short-sighted development to thank for the thoroughfares that segregate downtown in every other direction: James White Parkway to the east, Summit Hill and the Interstate to the north and Henley Street to the West. In recent years we’ve pumped more rapid-fire traffic onto Henley via the tunnel from the Interstate.

Notice what all those barriers have in common with the buildings we lost to parking lots a generation ago? Cars. The automobile. The mode of transportation Americans have welded to our insistence on personal freedom. So, when we talk about more construction and use of extremely limited downtown real estate to further accommodate personal vehicles, it makes me a bit nervous. That’s how we got into this mess.

Additionally, the placement of this garage seems troubling. A walk down Locust and then to Market Square illustrates the point: The Hilton Garage segues into the Locust Street Garage and cross a parking lot to site of the new garage. That’s three consecutive garages – but wait, there’s more. Turn right on Summer Place to walk toward Market Square and the new garage would be on your right. On your left? The Summer Place Garage. In front of you? The Market Square (or Walnut) Garage. Welcome to the Garage District.

Can we afford to give up so much of our very limited downtown space to more garages? I’m not proposing light rail from west Knoxville, though that would be great. I’m not even suggesting that people could ride a bus downtown, though they should. Would it not be possible for arriving suburbanites to park in a garage just outside the center city and take shuttle buses into downtown? Is it conceivable that we might restrict new downtown construction to multi-use buildings? Even the Walmart next to UT campus is building parking underneath it.

Of course, there is a middle ground: Build a parking garage that incorporates retail/office space or residences. The precedent is set in the Locust Street and Market Square garages, though the results have been mixed. Pete’s Coffee Shop has done very well in the Locust Street Garage for years. On the Clinch Avenue side of the building businesses have struggled. The office/retail space on the south side of the Market Square Garage languished for years, but now seems poised for great success and the Residences at Market Square are full.

Downtown design ordinances require new construction to be “pedestrian friendly,” and the mayor has indicated that would be respected. No blank concrete walls in other words. For me, that’s not enough. Joe Petre was quoted as pointing out that it is simply not a viable commercial district. The same could have been said four years ago about Union Avenue. Yet, there are a good many people living within two blocks of this street at the Daylight and Pembroke buildings and at Kendrick Place and Crown Court. Additionally, the garage will generate additional foot traffic and will be within half a block of the Union Avenue development.

Any discussion of construction downtown needs to be guided by a larger vision. Jack Neely hinted at this in a piece last year about the need for Knoxville to find its soul. Do we want to be a Disney version of a city covering Market Square and a few blocks of Gay Street surrounded by garages or do we want to expand the footprint of downtown and grow into a vibrant city? Do we simply want to fill office towers or do we want more people to make downtown their home?

This parking garage and the design it ultimately takes will be a statement of our vision. I hope we are thinking further down the road for our center city than we were when we allowed those various highways and traffic arteries to dissect and isolate our downtown.

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18 Responses

  1. Urbanguy, have you been reading my comments every time Josh Flory posts on this subject? I agree wholeheartedly that someone needs to question this proposal. We have too many garages concentrated in such a small space. Moreover, to hear a high ranking city official dismiss an area of downtown as a viable commercial district is disheartening. If I am not mistaken, the longest standing restaurant in downtown is sitting right there, Chesapeke’s. This is the type of foolish urban planning that got downtown where it was in the late 80’s and 90’s. We can do better.

    On another note, I wouldn’t get too comfy with the notion that we are beyond tearing down structures for surface lots. The Walnut St. row houses are still on the chopping block to become a sidewalk and grass.

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    1. I have seen at least one of your comments, John, and intended to give credit for the “garage district” which you or another person leaving a comment first used. It sounds like we are on the same page – at least mixed use if they have to build another garage. I know, of course, about the houses. I’m hoping that is a wrong-headed, last gasp example of our sordid past.

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  2. Ideally we’d see better trolley runs (maybe a line going to Happy Holler?) and shuttles from carpool lots/garages, and garages incorporating retail and residences, like you suggested. I also want to see surface lots turned into buildings with parking underneath. I think it’d go a long, long way to making our city better. (Also I had a suggestion during the Old City design review, to put a garage on the lot under the viaduct and raise it to street level and put a small park on the top with a playground. I still love that idea.)

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  3. From what I know about that “proposed site”, it’s pretty doubtful anything will happen there soon, if at all, especially concerning a parking structure. Seems a bit on the small side anyway, doesn’t it?
    It would seem that the Market is the biggest draw to downtown due to the numerous events that go on there. Knowing that, it still seems to me the best idea was the large garage proposed many years ago that would fill the largely unused area (a big hill) between Jackson and Vine running along the front of Immaculate Conception and the back of the Crown Plaza. This idea offered ingress/egress from both Vine and Jackson, and seemed to be the best idea I’ve seen proposed since I’ve been down here, but for some reason fell short. It also had less detrimental effects to the downtown landscape unlike many of the other proposed ideas. TVA was going to be involved in this as well, in fact that’s where the meeting was held years ago discussing the idea.
    I can see your point about parking outside the city and shuttling in, but if you work down here like I do, this is a really time consuming option, twice every day, minimum. Considering that businesses down here are competing with other areas of Knoxville outside of downtown that offer parking right outside the front door, and suddenly owning or working at a business downtown is less compelling, especially so with retail.
    I don’t know, just seems to make more sense to fill gaps, not knock down buildings. By doing so it would seem you could actually extend the downtown area. I would imagine that if the garage idea I’m talking about had happened, a lot of area along Jackson Ave. would be prime real estate for all types of business opportunities.

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    1. According to Josh Flory and the city officials he quoted it sounds more certain than you seem to think, Mr. T. I like your other suggested site, as well. As for competing with suburban parking convenience, I don’t think we can win that game. We seem to want to have it both ways – a cool urban environment with parking at the door and I’m not sure that’s possible. If you worked in Chicago but lived outside it, for example, would you think your best plan would be to drive in every day. I would like to see us challenge the mindset of driving to our front door and improve transportation alternatives, but I know I’m wishing for the moon on that front. I agree with “filling in the gaps” but I would like to see us fill them in with buildings, not garages, within reason.

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      1. Perhaps things have changed, I certainly don’t know all the goings on, but you can’t acquire property if you don’t have a willing seller, right? The article seems to brush over this as it’s a non-issue, which it has not been what I’ve witnessed.
        In all fairness, this is East Tennessee, not Chicago, so the cultural environment that exists there is totally unlike here in Downtown Knoxville. They have had mass transit for years, and therefore don’t face both the financial/physical challenge of putting such an infrastructure in place, but also the challenge of acclimating their citizens to use it. Look at the trolley’s, not to mention the buses! I watch them daily drive by my office window, mostly empty. I’m not trying to be argumentative, just point out what I see personally. It would be great if existing structures had parking facilities under them, but they don’t. Since most things down here are retro fit, it is impossible to go in and add a sub-level garage to an old structure, so what do you do?
        I believe in order to function here, you need to be able to walk no more than three blocks to your destination. I didn’t mean to indicate front door parking was essential, that’s simply not practical, as you point out. Sure there are some things that could be done, but I still don’t think there is adequate parking, especially if the city hopes to continue growing the residential sector. Every morning I drive in I see cars parked in the most unusual of places, some of them look like they are going four wheeling off in grassy areas. Cars lined up Vine with parking tickets on them, blatantly parked in no parking zones. If that doesn’t indicate a parking problem, I don’t know what does. Perhaps it’s just stupidity, I don’t know. Then there’s the other side, the Summer Place Garage sits mostly empty every night, only to fill up again first thing in the morning. As challenging as it would be, it seems there would be some option for hourly/overnight parking in the off hours.

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        1. I wonder why we don’t do what they do in big cities that I’ve been to in France. When I lived in Caen, I noticed that all of the parking garages were underground. Usually they had parks on top of them. With the karst geology here, there are bound to be some big caves under town that we could fill with cars.

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  4. I agree with you too. I find it impossible to believe there’s a true parking shortage downtown. Sure, a few of the garages fill when there are big special events. But has there ever been a day when every garage filled? Knoxville already has more garages than any downtown I’ve seen (seriously). Print out a satellite map of downtown and color all the garages and parking lots red … they use up about half the land area. Reserve remaining land for residential uses.

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  5. Is another parking garage needed? Possibly. But what is not needed is just “another” parking garage. It truly needs to be a multi-use building. We need to think to the future, and not just address current needs. Why not have commerical space on the bottom floor(s), and residential/office space on the top few floors? Certainly, any space with a view of downtown/mtns would be in demand.

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  6. I agree that the garage needs to be multi-use. For a city official to be quoted as there being “no pedestrian traffic” on that block is very disheartening, especially since the same could have been said for Union Avenue three years ago. I live with a view of the current lot and building, yes the building is ugly and yes people park illegally in the private lot when the garages fill on the weekends. But a parking garage alone seems counterproductive to the strides that the next block over has made. Also, if TVA can build a garage and open it for evening and weekend parking why can’t they do the same with Sumner place garage? And, is this new garage is not going to be available to residents if it is (presumably) day parking by pass only? What about people who park in the garage then end up taking a cab home, or get a ride from designated driver, what happens when the garage the next morning is TVA parking only?

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    1. Good points and questions. I’d love to hear a response to some of these suggestions and concerns.

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  7. Thank you for your blog! This is very interesting. I think Knoxville would be blown away on how a light rail from Turkey Creek to Downtown would change this town, but that is for another day. I would prefer that a parking deck not be built at this location and we look forward to a multi use project that expands our amazing downtown.

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    1. Thanks for the nice words. I can’t imagine us getting light rail, though it makes sense in a number of ways. I have very little hope this parking garage will be multi-use. Unless one of the local heavy-hitters takes up the cause we’ll probably just build a garage.

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  8. ” you can’t acquire property if you don’t have a willing seller, right?”

    Yes, you can. It’s called Imminent Domain. It works for building schools in West Knoxville. Why wouldn’t it work for building multi-use parking/office/residential spaces downtown too?

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