Parking still a hot issue downtown

Large employer creates wellness program aimed at easing congestion
Employees working at SoFi are part of a wellness program that encourages them to park on streets outside of Downtown Healdsburg to make more parking available for local residents and visitors.
San Francisco-based SoFi is a provider of student loan refinancing, mortgages, mortgage refinancing and personal loans. The company houses about 200 employees in offices on Healdsburg Avenue, above Bear Republic Brewing Co.
“As far as we can tell, the majority of our employees park on streets outside of the square,” said VP of PR & Communications at SoFi Debra Jack, adding that normal parking locations for the employees include Grove Street, Fitch Street and areas further out from North Street and the Plaza.
“I spend a lot of time in that office; I have a house in Cloverdale,” Jack said. “I think folks are really excited to be giving up those spots. They love being in the town, but they also didn’t want to take over the town.”
Employees track their steps to and from the office and enter contests to win prizes for reaching high amounts.
“Folks work in that office from Petaluma through Cloverdale, so wherever possible we’re asking people to carpool and be really practical, efficient and creative in terms of how to get to the office,” Jack said. “Whatever we can do in town to help be good citizens of the town we want to hear.”
Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Carla Howell explained one of the main areas of limited parking is the west Plaza parking lot where the farmers’ market is held on Saturdays.
“I think SoFi is really trying to get their employees to park farther and farther away from the downtown and walk because having a car parked all day in a parking lot is an impact where customers should be able to park,” Howell said.
Howell applauded SoFi for its efforts but said retailers on Healdsburg Avenue and around the plaza still feel an impact from limited parking, which she said is also due to other businesses’ employees.
“There are a lot of new businesses downtown and a lot of employees,” Howell said. “The employees take up a lot of the parking, and I think that’s the bigger issue. Where do employees park and where do customers park?”
Bear Republic Brewing Co. General Manager Marcin Furmankiewicz asks the same question, saying that the issue of parking has existed since SoFi moved to the area and that SoFi employees still fill the west Plaza lot.
“We’ve all been dealing with this parking issue since SoFi came,” Furmankiewicz said. “We get here in the morning and that parking lot is gone.”
Furmankiewicz added that most of his staff ends up parking in the Safeway parking lot, which he said has recently been filling up more often. “Pretty much all my employees commute,” Furmankiewicz said. “We remind everyone in the morning shifts to come early and find parking. One of the biggest things is that if it is a busy weekend, my workers are walking late at night to their cars parked far away. It could be unsafe.”
Furmankiewicz himself can usually find a space in the west Plaza lot because he arrives to work so early, but said there have been instances when he arrives at 7 a.m. and there are only a couple of spaces left.
“I do believe people don’t come (to the restaurant) because parking is so horrible,” Furmankiewicz said. “I would like to see the city of Healdsburg’s solutions.”
Healdsburg Public Works Director Brent Salmi said that the city recently extended a contract with a consultant to restart a project that will update plans and add approximately 37 spaces to the west Plaza lot, which he expects to take place next summer or fall.
“We continue to look for places to add parking,” Salmi said. “We added 29 spaces there on Vine Street a couple months ago, which all got filled and really surprised us. Now that we’re far enough along with the roundabout, I may be able to add a few more spaces on Vine. We continue to look and try and find more spaces all the time, but it’s only going to be one or two here or there.”
Furmankiewicz reflected on the upside of having a parking issue. “The biggest problem in Healdsburg is it’s expanding so much that parking is shrinking,” Furmankiewicz said. “It’s good for business but not good for parking.”
The parking issue has spread past the immediate downtown area. Merchants in the Healdsburg Center on Center Street (where CVS is located) posted on Facebook last week that they will begin towing cars that do not belong to their customers.