City of Albuquerque looking for input from business owners about downtown parking
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – There might be plenty of high-rise parking garages, but there are still plenty of complaints about a lack of downtown parking. Now, the City of Albuquerque is asking for ideas on how to fix it. 'That's kind of a big debate amongst the public and our businesses. Some folks think there's not enough parking and some think there's too much,' said Director of Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency Terry Brunner.
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The city hopes to soon settle that debate by getting answers about what is or is not working with downtown parking. Now in the middle of their first major parking survey in almost a decade, the Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency said there are plenty of gaps the city needs to fill in for drivers. 'They want to know about pricing, they want to know about safety. About convenience and when parking is available and where it's available,' said Brunner.
The action comes as part of the Downtown 2050 Redevelopment Plan. There are at least 21,000 parking spaces downtown, but the city said a big part of the issue comes down to how and where people like to park. 'We're looking at also trying to understand what people's desires are around walking and parking to understand how far away they're willing to park from a place that they want to go,' added Brunner.
After conducting a public survey, next week the city will get feedback from downtown businesses and organizations virtual meetings on Monday June 16 at 4 p.m. and Tuesday at 12 p.m.
It's something local performing arts center, FUSION, hopes to weigh in on. 'The more parking we have, the more people will come downtown. We have parking, we just need to better utilize it,' said Executive Director of FUSION, Dennis Gromelski.
Another priority, adding more way-finding kiosks downtown to help get people to places they can easily park and eat. There will be another meeting next week about that topic.
The downtown parking study should be done by summer.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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