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The city study was conducted to gather information as part of city planning, said Scott McPherson, city planner.

Some residents and downtown businesses are concerned about a lack of parking downtown. The concern arose because the city waived ordinance-required construction of parking spaces for the One Water Street developers. City zoning ordinance, Article 24, requires developers and business owners to provide a certain number of parking spaces to accommodate new residences and shops. But the city planning commission has the authority to waive that ordinance requirement.

The study was conducted from July 24-Aug. 31 for a total of 22 counts of the number of cars parked at various times. The study included private as well as public parking spaces. The area counted encompassed Lake and State streets, down to Pine Street and then from the waterfront out to East Street, McPherson said.

During the count period, Front Street was under construction, 220 Lake Street was undergoing renovation and Garrett's Restaurant was closed.

The average of all counts shows that 268, or 47 percent, of the 574 public spaces were occupied, and 101, or 28 percent, of the 361 private spaces were occupied. The total of public and private spaces is 935.

The study identified a need for employee parking guidelines so that employees of downtown businesses refrain from parking downtown. It called for enforcement of reasonable parking limits, agreements with private lot owners and creation of new onstreet parking areas. It also suggested that data continue to be collected.