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(27 spaces),the Cole Memorial Building(14 spaces)and the lot south of Sibley Street on W Front Street(12 spaces). The proposed plan will offer a total of roughly 675 spaces.625 of the spaces will be on street public parking spaces,with a bulk of the spaces coming from defining parking spaces along Sibley,Butler,and Oriole Streets and making more efficient use of current parking spaces.For instance the number of parking spaces currently available along Government Drive is roughly 114. Through better design and expansion of the parking locations the proposed plan will increase the number of spaces by over 80 spaces,resulting in nearly 200 parking spaces along Government Drive. The proposed plan also reflects the loss of over 100 parking spaces.Seventy of the spaces that will be lost are along Main Street. Whether or not Crow Wing County reconstructs County Road 11,Main Street,to accommodate the projected increase in demand over the next ten years,these parking spaces will likely need to be eliminated both to expand sidewalks and improve traffic flow. The remainder of the lost spaces is the result of removing the parking along Washington Avenue. The proposed plan is to remove all automobile traffic from Washington Avenue to create a pedestrian mall. More details on Washington Avenue can be found in Section XX of this plan. The proposed parking increases will only satisfy the current demand in downtown and as the number of downtown businesses increase so will the demand for parking. The City will need to explore methods to provide additional parking in an efficient manner.The following strategies are offered: ltilize unused parking lots that can be used for overflow parking during peak times: The parking lots of public lildings such as City Hall and the Pequot Lakes School sit relatively unused on Saturdays and Sundays, specially during the summer. Using these lots as well as other parking lots that are not used on weekends j would help accommodate increased traffic without having to develop new parking lots that are costly to acquire and construct and will often sit vacant in non-peak times. As the plan is implemented and pedestrian infrastructure installed this will become a more viable option. I Construct new parking lots:The proposed plan identifies the potential location of more parking. Locating and developing parking lots within the downtown need to be considered carefully.Placing parking close to the center of downtown can provide much needed parking,but it can also occupy valuable land that might have a better use.It also creates voids in activity that will affect pedestrian traffic. Locating parking off the main streets of downtown will help reduce this affect. However,when locating parking off the main street it often pushes it back along the borders of the downtown area where it could have negative affects on surrounding residential uses.Landscaping and design can be used to minimize these impacts. Work with the City of Nisswa and area resorts to develop a centralized parking location and a circulator system to connect Pequot Lakes,Nisswa and other locations.There is some momentum building area-wide for this approach,as the City of Nisswa has included the concept in their Comprehensive Plan,and the resort cities of East Gull Lake and Lake Shore have discussed creating a resort shuttle in their plans. The combined energies that would be created from such an approach would build on the strengths of each community to the benefit of all involved. Commented[HP231:Is this still a reality'? Pedestrian Improvements Increasing the profile of downtown and improving the parking situation are keys to increasing the activity in downtown,but the real success will be in how welcoming downtown is to people once they arrive.The following improvements will ensure that downtown is safe and welcoming to all. Pequot takes Staff Report August 21,2014 2