January count finds downtown Anchorage street parking peaked at about a third full

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has sent the Anchorage Assembly a strategy for managing cars parked and stored on city streets for its Oct. 6 meeting. It is anchored by counts taken on two winter weekdays, Jan. 28 and 29, 2025, that found downtown street parking peaked at 33% full. Those winter counts are the only parking counts in the documents sent to the Assembly.

Counters tallied cars downtown and in Mountain View, Tudor Hills and Airport Heights. Downtown's peak came between noon and 3 pm. Only 7% of downtown blockfaces, the stretches of curb along one side of a block, ever reached 80% full, and when they did, open spaces were within a block or two, according to the strategy. Nearly every residential block stayed under 50% full at all hours, including overnight. EasyPark staff estimate downtown public parking is no more than 40% occupied at peak, and about 34% of downtown land is parking lots or garages.

The strategy also says open spaces aren't always easy to find, and it calls for better signs, wayfinding and information to point drivers to them.

The strategy, by Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, says parking duties are split among city staff, police and EasyPark, with limited enforcement resources. Its eight recommendations, none of them adopted, include a new municipal parking administrator, winter parking pilots and license plate readers.

The strategy follows the Assembly's November 2022 repeal of minimum off-street parking requirements for new development. Long-Range Planning Manager Daniel McKenna-Foster told a Sept. 21 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting that "every new development we've seen still provides parking."

Assembly Member Erin Baldwin Day said at a June 17 work session the study would "illustrate whether we actually have parking challenges in Anchorage, and if so, where."

The memo, prepared by McKenna-Foster and approved by Planning Director Mélisa R. K. Babb, calls the strategy "not a plan but rather a study."