Reply to S/O What should MoCo do about parking in downtown Bethesda

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The minimum parking required by the Montgomery County planning board does not come close to match the actual parking spots needed for the density being built. For example, 600 units, 35% of which are two and three bedroom units, 800 parking spots. Guess what, there's going to be families, roommates, Etc, and more than 200 of the 600 units will have more than one driver, with a car. And yet that's what's encouraged (this actaul example is for the 2 high rise buildings at the Pookshill Marriott site).

As far as Bethesda, [b]I live less than 2 miles from downtown Bethesda, and we rarely go there.[/b] Why? Because parking sucks, and I don't want to spend 30 minutes driving around looking for parking, or getting stuck in a long line in a garage. There are plenty of places to go where I can easily find a parking spot, and that's what we do.  Limit the parking, you'll have even more families like us just avoiding the area.[/quote]

Downtown Bethesda seems to be doing fine without you as a customer, which suggests that the system is working.

[b]Also, there are plenty of places for multi-car households to live that are not downtown Bethesda right on top of the Bethesda Metro station[/b] and future Purple Line station. If you must have multiple cars per household, and it's difficult to park in downtown Bethesda, it is rational to live in one of those places, rather than in downtown Bethesda.

In 2011, 26% of households in downtown Bethesda didn't have a car.

It doesn't all have to be about you - or about me (we're a multi-car household in the upcounty). I'm not saying that to be snarky. It's just a fact.[/quote]

PP lives two miles from downtown Bethesda.  That's not in downtown Bethesda or on top of the Metro station.  She lives exactly where you are suggesting someone like her should.

But, it is important that people like PP be able to park relatively easily in downtown Bethesda.  Although the area has gotten denser in recent years, I significant portion of people who work, shop, eat, etc in downtown Bethesda live relatively near, but not in downtown Bethesda --- say 1.5 - 5 miles away.  Without parking available, most of those people simply are not going to come in and support downtown businesses.

Now, I happen to disagree with the PP that the current parking situation is inadequate.  With the new, big lot by Silver, I think there is enough parking and I think someone like PP who now avoids the area because of parking is in the distinct minority.  Having said that, if parking were to be significantly reduced, as some people here are advocating, then I do believe that you would have more people like PP who would avoid downtown Bethesda and that would be very bad for Bethesda businesses and the area in general, which can't rely only on folks in downtown Bethesda itself to survive.[/quote]

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