Houston City Council Move Could Improve Parking In Montrose

Anyone who spends time in the Montrose area knows how difficult it is to find a parking spot. You want to go out to dinner, the lot at your favorite restaurant is full, and the streets around it are clogged. What to do?

Houston City Council members hope the plan they approved on Wednesday is the answer.

The body passed a so-called special parking area provision that was put forward last year by the Montrose Management District that district officials think will improve the situation.

"We think this is the beginning of doing some great things as it relates to parking," Tony Allender, the district's head of special projects, told the Houston Chronicle. The plan allows the flexibility to address "complexities or unique features of a particular area. We have within the Montrose area a pretty substantial parking deficit in our commercial areas."

The devil is in the details, however. The special parking area plan allows merchants to park as many as 80 percent of vehicles belonging to their customers and employees as far as 800 feet away from their place of business in off-site parking and 1,000 feet away with valet service. Regulations had limited the number to 25 percent.

In addition, businesses will be able to maintain off-site parking within 500 feet of their properties, as opposed to the previous 250 feet.

Allender told the Chronicle that the district plans to increase its security services and is investigating adding parking garages and improvements to intersections and pedestrian zones.

— Image courtesy Montrose Management District