GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Downtown has more than enough parking spaces, according to consultants hired by the city.

On average, more than 40 percent of the city’s 8,615 public parking spots downtown are unoccupied, consultants say. During the middle of the work day, about two-thirds of downtown’s public parking spaces are full.

“There is currently not a supply problem,” said Scott Page, a consultant with Interface Studio in Philadelphia. “That does not mean that people do not feel there is a supply problem. There’s the reality of how many spaces there are. But then you add in the aspects of ‘Are they convenient to where people would like to go? Do they know how to get to where the available parking is?’

“When people say ‘I look across the street and see that parking lot full,’ they’re right. Now, less than five minutes away there’s a parking garage that’s empty."

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Interface was hired to lead a new downtown planning process and, as part of that, Desman Associates has been contracted to analyze downtown parking.

An initial analysis completed last month found that both on-street and off-street spaces are more than 40 percent empty – except on weekend nights when on-street spaces are mostly full.

The study found parking spaces more than 80-percent full in the city’s Market Avenue, Area 4 and Area 5 lots south of Fulton Street, and more than 90-percent full in the Area 3 and Area 6 lots south of Fulton.

North of Fulton, only the city’s Ionia-North and Area 7 lots were more than 80-percent full.

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Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc. plans on Friday, Oct. 17, to open a storefront studio at 50 Louis St. NW for the public to learn about the downtown planning process and give input. Here are some other notes from a presentation consultants made to a planning committee last month:

Matt Vande Bunte covers government for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at mvandebu@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter and Facebook.