Parking Study Selection Moves Ahead

It's been awhile since we posted an update but rest assured we have been very busy, diligently continuing our lengthy and sometimes exhausting research. A huge Thank You goes to Jim Goodin (ORCA President) for his contribution! He read all five parking study proposals and gave us his opinion, which helped us to clarify our evaluation.

We also have been meeting and speaking with City Staff and Council members regarding the bidding process for the Parking Study, which will be completed per our lawsuit agreement.

Today TAPS met with City Staff to give our opinion of the Parking Consultant Companies that submitted their bids for the Parking Study. At the meeting we were told that the Process of selecting a company will go like this:

• On April 25th, the city will have a panel interview the Five Companies that submitted properly completed bids . TAPS will be allowed to submit questions but not be part of the actual interviews.

• Following the interviews, city staff will go through a checklist of vetting procedures with other departments in the city. There will also be a "protest period" of 10 days for those Companies that did not meet all the application requirements and may still want to be considered for the job by the city.

• After all of this has been done, the City will let TAPS know which Company has been selected. After that, Staff’s recommendation will be sent off to City Council for final approval.

TAPS’ lawyer reiterated to city staff that per the lawsuit settlement, TAPS was looking for a company that will provide solutions, not just justifications of current city policies. TAPS remains committed to the belief that real data for Long Beach must be collected and followed where ever that data goes.

We remain hopeful that City Staff and ultimately City Council will stand with their Constituents in choosing a Parking consultant company who will compile data and information for our city. To do otherwise would just continue to justify current dataless city policies and not provide any meaningful solutions. As these 33 new short-on-parking developments are built, that would be a great disservice to the future growth of our city…not to mention a huge waste of everyone's time and money.

Lowered parking requirements are coming to other areas of Long Beach, too.

Please continue to check here for updates and contact your City Council members for all of Long Beach. (You can find your councilmember here.) Let them know you support a parking consultant who will, "follow the Data, NOT city policy that’s based only on theory". It's ALL about the Data!

Thanks for you continued support and participation, it DOES matter.