KentNewsNet.com

Issue date: 3/31/09 Section: News

WATCH a video about the parking problem downtown.

Go to down town Kent and park it! That is if you are able to find an open parking space.

Architectural manager Alan Mountjoy is in charge of renovating the Downtown area. Mountjoy thinks parking should be shared amoung those downtown.

"It was very important that all of the parking the city helps to create is viewed as a common resource for the entire downtown," Mountjoy said.

Mountjoy plans to add more than four hundred parking spaces on several different blocks to benefit all those who visit.

One of the ways Mountjoy plans to add spaces is through a parking garage.

Members of the community have had mixed feelings about the appearance of a garage.

Co-Owner of Woodsys Music Paul Braden likes the new parking renovation ideas.

"We need more parking," Braden said. "We could always use more parking downtown. I think that the opportunity of having both is a good thing. No question about it."

Europe Gyro employee Andrew Schneider thinks the garage could cause problems.

"It will be an eyesore it will be congested down here," Schneider said. "I mean we don't have you know… we don't have four lane roads coming down here so if we have six to eight hundred people at a time trying to in and out it will be pretty crazy."

Mountjoy and his architectural crew have devised a solution to the problem by building part of the garage underground.

"It also makes sense from a design point of view because it fits into a very steep hole in the topography, and there for it has the minimal negative impacts for a garage out of any location downtown," Mountjoy said.

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