Downtown Parking Improvement Plan

The City of Poughkeepsie, in partnership with the Dutchess County Transportation Council, initiated a parking analysis of Poughkeepsie's extended downtown area in 2017. The purpose of the Parking Improvement Plan is to ensure that the City's parking system is being operated and managed in an efficient, sensible manner that is consistent with the City's redevelopment goals for the downtown. The Transportation Council identified the following goals and objectives for this parking analysis:

  1. Capacity: A quantitative assessment of the supply and demand for downtown public parking, to include a determination on the need for additional parking or whether there is excess parking capacity; if excess supply exists, the feasibility of consolidating parking so that lots might be repurposed for other uses.
  2. Maintenance and Management: Strategies to improve the maintenance and management of City-owned surface parking lots, garages, and on-street parking stalls, to include an evaluation of staffing (i.e. deployment and organization).
  3. Operations: An evaluation of the days and hours of parking enforcement, current parking restrictions, and associated parking signage effectiveness.
  4. Safety and Convenience: Ways to provide safe, convenient daytime parking for office and commercial uses on weekdays, and evening parking for cultural and entertainment venues on weekends.
  5. Pricing: A determination of the need and feasibility for demand-based pricing or changes to current parking rates for garages, surface lots, and on-street parking.
  6. Design: Recommended design improvements to increase the efficiency of City-owned parking facilities, to include improvements to parking-related signs and other wayfinding, circulation, and parking layouts.
  7. Zoning: An evaluation of current parking standards and requirements in the City's zoning code, to include an assessment of parking impacts resulting from current efforts to rezone the City's downtown.

This planning project was funded through the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) as part of the Transportation Council's metropolitan planning program. The final project report was completed in July 2018.