Rochester May Need 16,000 More Parking Spaces

Rochester, MN (KROC AM News) - An update on Rochester’s transportation future will be presented to the DMCC Board at its Thursday meeting and there are some eye-popping figures included in the report.

The report shows a preliminary analysis of the various DMC transportation concepts being looked at puts estimated costs at $400-million to $1-billion.

The report shows 16,000 new parking spaces will be needed to accommodate projected growth related to the DMC initiative.

Some of the scenarios that were analyzed include a transit circulator system that would handle up to 25,000 rides per day. This could include a Bus Rapid Transit service, light rail or an elevated system.

The report also shows IBM is involved in an autonomous vehicle pilot project for Rochester that could possibly supplement a circulator system.

The DMCC Board is also scheduled to attend the groundbreaking for the planned Discovery Square building that will be constructed south of 4th St SW, between 2nd and 3rd avenues. The event is scheduled at 1:00 PM Thursday.

Here is the breakdown of the parking space analysis:

Approximately 4000 spaces will be needed for customer, visitor and patient parking growth and this should be accommodated in the District.

Approximately 3000 spaces will be needed to handle future residential growth in the District.

Approximately 9000 spaces will be needed for future employment growth and those spaces to the greatest extend possible need to be located outside of downtown to provide sufficient patient/visitor parking downtown and avoid severe congestion during peak travel times

Three locations have been identified as potential priority sites for 6000-7000 structured parking spaces on the periphery of the District; these include a site along or over TH 14 west of TH 52; future redevelopment of the K-Mart site south of downtown, and the County Fairgrounds.

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