ELKINS — Elkins City Council has voted unanimously to approve a contract with GAI Consulting to conduct a parking study.

The contract will allow GAI Consulting to gather specific information regarding parking location and the amount of available parking, and conduct a high-level parking demand analysis, as well as compare existing parking conditions to state and federal standards and determine if compliance with these standards is being met.

During City Council’s most recent meeting, City Clerk Sutton Stokes told council that, to his knowledge, there has not been a formal parking study conducted in Elkins in recent memory.

“There have been a few times where some people who know something about planning and whatnot have taken a look and have counted parking spaces and we’ve made maps,” Stokes said. “But I don’t think the type of study where they try to apply formulas about types of businesses and that kind of thing have been done yet.”

Currently, the study is planned to take place in downtown Elkins; however, city council members will be allowed to suggest other areas of focus during an initial discovery meeting with GAI Consulting. Stokes also clarified for council that, if the city has any issue with what is discussed during the initial discovery meeting, it will be allowed to walk away from the agreement set forth in the contract, no fault.

According to a Scope of Services report sent by GAI Consulting to Stokes, the cost of the discovery phase, the parking analysis and the final report for solely the downtown area would be $16,500.

When asked by Second Ward Council Member Lisa Severino if the parking study was being done because of complaints of lack of parking or future projects, Elkins Mayor Jerry Marco and Stokes said it was all of the above.

“We certainly hear anecdotally from some businesses and people visiting downtown,” Stokes said. “They certainly feel there should be more parking. There’s also obviously disruptions for expansions of who might be visiting that are on the horizon on different projects. There’s a major business that’s about to reopen after doing renovation that’s going to have a lot of employees downtown if possible… It seemed like a hinge point to try and understand where we are now.”

Marco also mentioned that, with the completion of another section of Corridor H in 2025, its hard to know what to expect. 

In the Scope of Services report, GAI Consulting laid out the three-step process they would take for the study. The first step, the discovery portion, will involve a start-up meeting, a summary of background data and field visit documentation. 

The second step will see GAI Consulting identifying existing parking spaces in the city as on-street public, on-street restricted (including meters, handicap parking, etc.), off-street public and off-street private. They will also conduct a “high-level parking demand analysis will be performed using industry accepted standards to project the necessary available parking to accommodate existing conditions.”

The final part of the second step will include comparing existing parking conditions to state and federal standards. GAI Consulting will look into parking space dimensions, pavement marking type and color and relative signage for parking regulations to determine if “compliance with these standards is being met.”

The third and final step is the final report to the city, which will include an executive summary, a breakdown of existing conditions and parking availability, a parking demand analysis, the conformance to standards results and findings, and recommendations for the city.

Fourth Ward Council Member Andrew Carroll said he thought the study could become a good planning tool, using the abundance of unused parking lots in modern metropolitan cities as an example.

“Parking lots don’t pay the same taxes as a nice, mixed-use development building,” Carroll said. “So, if we can be really smart in making sure that we just don’t end up with a bunch of parking lots in the middle of the city, and this helps us really put that demand in a really meaningful way and plan really strategically, I think this is great. I think this is super cool.”

When asked if the council would able to make any suggestions or decisions regarding parking after the study is done, Stokes said it could be possible that no changes have to be made, but it’s better to have a professional check.

“I think it’s entirely possible that a professional parking study may tell Elkins that it has plenty of parking,” Stokes said. “That doesn’t mean it’s in the spots where everyone wants it, but it could also be that a study like this could say there’s every argument for some kind of garage or, if there’s this much more visitation expected because of Corridor H, combined with the Events Center or things like that. Even though parking garages are very expensive, it’s probably better to know that an expert says, ‘You should plan on this in the next 10 years,’ or to hear that they don’t think there’s a need for that.”

The Elkins City Council will meet next on Dec. 5 at the Phil Gainer Community Center.