Developing a parking plan for Grants Pass, Oregon proved to be a case study in how quickly conditions on the ground can change, and how effective parking planning must adapt in response.
The motto of Grants Pass, a city of roughly 40,000 in southern Oregon, is “It’s the Climate.” Unfortunately, that slogan turned out to be a bit of a troll in our case. Our initial data collection weekend coincided with one of the worst wildfire events in local memory, dramatically affecting travel behavior and parking demand. As a result, we pivoted quickly, adding an additional data collection effort and conducting what was likely a first-of-its-kind analysis of wildfire impacts on parking patterns.
That would not be the last surprise. A key assumption in the study involved a major planned downtown redevelopment. Dutch Bros Coffee, the city’s largest employer, was preparing to build a new headquarters on the site of an existing commercial property that was significantly overparked, while the proposed project itself would be relatively underparked. Late in the study process, those plans were put on hold, forcing the parking plan to remain flexible enough to address either scenario.
The final plan focused on identifying and leveraging one of downtown Grants Pass’s greatest assets: a clear, consistent, and genuinely beautiful system of signage and branding for its public parking lots. Each lot is named after nearby public art or murals, creating an intuitive and welcoming parking experience that we later highlighted as a best practice in the Oregon Parking Management Jumpstart Guide. The plan also coordinated restroom placement with parking demand to activate underutilized lots and support a “park once and enjoy downtown all day” experience for visitors.
Brian Davis led this work while in a previous position.