City Council has awarded a $40,000 contract to Trans Associates Engineering Consultants of Pittsburgh to study parking issues in the downtown.

The effort is critical, so that a shortage of parking doesn’t inhibit additional development, and it became more critical recently with the closure of the Gables Building parking garage due to structural concerns, said Councilman Dave Ellis and others.

“The timing is perfect,” given the loss for now of the Gables garage, whose users have migrated to the Altoona Transportation Center garage, said Mayor Matt Pacifico.

Typically, cities deal with parking issues when it’s an emergency, and, “I think we’re there,” Councilman Jesse Ickes said.

The available spaces downtown have been “pretty full” during the day in recent times, said Councilman Ron Beatty.

There were four responses to the city’s request for study proposals, City Manager Omar Strohm said.

Trans Associates’ was the most comprehensive in terms of covering stakeholders and the community concerns, and it calls for a “tight timeline,” Strohm said.

The company provided outstanding references, and other references sought by the city were likewise outstanding, Strohm said.

The price matches the top end of the range outlined in the RFP, Strohm said. The other three proposals were all within a couple hundred dollars of that amount.

The tools that the plan may provide will be “key” as downtown development further ramps up, Beatty said.

The company will evaluate current conditions, project future needs and make recommendations.

The study will take account of currently available spaces, the location of those spaces and of potential new spaces and the cost of creating them, according to the proposal.

The study area comprises Seventh to 18th streets and 10th to 14th avenues.

There are currently 2,000 to 3,000 off- and on-street spaces in the study area — 700 of which the Altoona Parking Authority controls, according to the proposal.

The company will devise a “customized strategy” that would take advantage of technology to manage parking issues and that would seek to optimize existing spaces through sharing with private lot owners, according to the proposal.

The firm will review prior parking studies, including those within the city’s comprehensive plan and a 2018 housing study for the downtown.

Company representatives will meet with city staff, the Planning Commission, the Parking Authority and council, and they will survey business owners, employees, students, residents, visitors, developers and major users like Penn State Altoona, UPMC Altoona and Blair Senior Services, according to the proposal.

The study should take about 16 weeks.

The city will pay the cost of the study from the contingency line in the 2022 budget.

The owner of the Gables building has contracted with a firm to analyze the attached garage and prepare a report on its condition, Rebecca Brown, director of codes and inspections, said.

That will give the owner an idea on how to proceed — whether to demolish the structure, repair parts of it, repair it level-by-level or repair it all at once.

Brown doesn’t know what the owner intends at this point.

It’s good that the owner is in communication with the city, however, said Councilman Dave Butterbaugh.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.