Name: Watry Design, Inc.
Price range: $

Amidst growing concern from residents that quaint, charming Downtown Manhattan Beach was in danger of losing its small town feel, city leaders resolved to create a specific plan that would set goals to preserve the City's local flavor, support future development and create active street fronts that catered to pedestrians.

One component of the City's vision was to address parking challenges. The City currently experiences a shortage of parking year round, especially during the summer months when tourism is at its peak. Existing traffic congestion is magnified due to the street circulation patterns, co-mingling of vehicles and pedestrians and inefficient parking.

In an effort to help address parking related issues in the Specific Plan, Watry Design, Inc. conducted an extensive survey and review of the downtown. The firm also participated in a series of three community meetings with downtown residents and business owners in order to understand the constraints that the City currently faces. The feedback from the surveys and meetings was then used to conduct a parking, access and linkage study, along with identifying appropriate parking management strategies that speak to the future goals and interests of the City, its residents, and its business owners.

Utilizing the results from the study, the project team created a "complete" streets design that accommodates all forms of transportation aimed at reducing conflicts and congestion between vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles and other transit modes. The "complete" streets design will help address the congestion created by the existing street circulation and co-mingling of vehicles and pedestrians.

Watry Design also reviewed the City's 2008 parking management plan and created new parking management strategies that address current and near-future parking issues the City faces such as parking permits, pay parking, and residential and business parking restrictions.