MONROE — As the city continues to study an issue that never seems to go away completely — downtown parking — it is getting help from a group of college kids for whom Monroe has become key to earning a good grade come year’s end.
And while the three students — Kadin Matheson, Chase Werner, and Nate Martin — are not from this part of the state, they are working on a University of Wisconsin-Platteville civil engineering study that aligns with an ongoing city-wide effort to ensure adequate parking downtown.
The downtown parking issue has only picked up steam with continued economic growth on the square in the years following the 2017 demolition of a downtown parking garage/ramp — an aging structure that had as many as 200 spaces within walking distance of the square.
City Administrator Brittney Rindy helped recruit the students for the project. Halfway through the semester — and the project — the students have completed an inventory of existing downtown parking stalls, as well as an “occupancy” survey to go with it.
From that data, they have concluded early on, that with some flexibility, the city does have options to ease its parking woes. Some of the data is literally “high-level” — in that it was acquired, in part, by a series of drone video passes at peak and off-peak times.
The students had assistance with the drone work by Monroe’s own Synqronus Communications, whom they praised for obtaining extremely high quality images.
“This kind of shows that the center square does have some parking left,” even during peak periods, Warner assured Monroe Public Safety Committee members who discussed the issue as part of the agenda for their October 14 meeting.
The students also are gathering final data from surveys sent out to the public. The response to the survey request has also provided early insights into parking here — such as one respondent who said it is only a problem during major events on the square; or another that said the appearance of one or two large commercial trucks on the square can cause headaches for motorists trying to get in and out.
“This is just really good data to make more informed decisions as we move forward,” said Martin.
He added that the city distributed surveys on Facebook and via email on October 6, and the responses flooded in.
“By October 9th we had over 300 responses, from visitors, business owners, you name it,” said Martin, who added the deadline for returning the surveys was last Friday, Oct. 17.
Another respondent noted a big difference in perceptions between those who are downtown on the square for work and those who are there for social activities.
“Definitely you want to have a high turnover,” in parking spaces, said Werner.
By the time their work is finished in December, Monroe officials will have a final report that includes a parking plan “that meets the needs determined by the study.”
