While the city of Kirkland is looking to find a way to improve the parking situation in downtown, they’re now asking downtown residents and business owners for their take on the proposed options.

The draft of a new study, developed by Rick Williams Consulting, provided some preliminary options for parking in downtown, as previous studies revealed nearly all the stalls are filled for most of the day. After a discussion at the City Council’s Jan. 6 meeting, the public works department is now going to the business owners to get their suggestions.

Although the study has yet to be finalized, a Dec. 11 city memo contained options that fell into one of two solutions. One was increasing the number of parking stalls available by building more parking lots or partnering with developers to build public parking, as well as provide more on-street parking. Another is to improve the use of existing parking stalls through a variety of means such as expanding pay parking and improving security and cleanliness at the downtown library garage.

Transportation Engineering Manager David Godfrey told the council at the meeting that the study was intended to find easier and direct solutions as opposed to long-term projects involving significant amount of money.

Some of the inexpensive options, estimated to cost $50,000 or less, would be to create time limited parking at Lake Avenue West for up to 45 stalls, possibly selling monthly leases for stalls not utilized. Moderate priced options would be to improve operations at the library garage by opening permit-only stalls to all users after 5 p.m. More expensive options, a half a million dollars or more, include creating a new lot south of city hall, adding 144-166 stalls.

One of the easiest solutions would be to improve cleanliness in the library parking garage, according to Godfrey. During the council meeting, one of the council members mentioned that people often avoid parking in the bottom of the garage due to security concerns. In addition to improving its appearance, Public Works Director Kathy Brown said that the staff is already looking at options for improving parking security separate from the parking study.

Using on-street sensors to indicate stall vacancies through an app for smartphones has also been discussed, though it is considered to be a longer-term solution. This could complement an additional option involving a marketing brand logo to make the parking stalls easier to find and people more inclined to use them.

The consultant surveyed about 1,000 stalls in the study. It found that an extra 150 spaces would have to be supplied in order to satisfy the optimal percentage of 85 percent rule.

Business owners downtown have a variety of attitudes on solutions, ranging from support for increased awareness about currently available parking, to recommendations that certain buildings be removed and converted into a parking stall.

Zack Thomas, who works at Smokin Hot Smoke Shop at 15 Lake St., supports the idea of more parking stalls, even if it requires leveling buildings.

Whitney Bi, the manager at Green E Juice at 219 Kirkland Avenue, said the biggest problem her customers have isn’t finding spots but knowing that the parking exists. She said most of them are unaware of the nearby retail parking garage.

“They should make it more obvious where parking is,” she said.

At the same time, Bi also said that parking is usually filled, especially on Sundays and in the early morning.

“My employees have difficulty finding spots,” she said. “It’s hard for even me to find parking.”

The city memo notes that it will probably need more than 150 stalls, since not all parking stalls were surveyed by the consultant.