Parking Public: a Tour of Parking Lots and Utopias : Municipal Parking - Downtown Champaign, IL

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The Travel Office's Parking Public tour of municipal parking lots in Champaign, IL was created for Mind in Matter, an exhibition at Opensource Art in downtown Champaign (October-November 2005).

download a map of parking lots visited on the tour (PDF)

For they account it a very just cause of war, for a nation to hinder others from possessing a part of that soil, of which they make no use, but which is suffered to lie idle and uncultivated; since every man has by law of nature a right to such a waste portion of the earth as is necessary for his subsistence. - From Sir Thomas More's _Utopia_

WAYFINDING

In the 1960s, the city of Champaign, IL began a multi-million dollar downtown parking improvement project that ended up creating the landscape downtown visitors see today. The history of municipal lots extends almost to the beginning of parking itself, as many cities struggled to maintain business districts during the Great Depression, and later during the migration of capital to growing suburbs.
By the 1940s (when 1 of 5 cities with a population of over 10,000 operated downtown parking facilities), the need to regulate parking became apparent, and cities like Philadelphia would develop ordinances that would govern design and maintenance of lots.
Champaign, in its attempt to save its urban core, initiated a metered parking program in 1947, not coincidentally, the same year that suburban malls were opening outside of town. The resulting diminished occupancy of downtown buildings, due to relocated businesses, provided available real estate that would eventually become parking lots.

The economic streamlining and social engineering of the post-war period was also put to use in the development of urban parking mechanisms. In nearby Chicago, experiments in lot location were carried out with the construction of "fringe lots," revealing that psychological proximity was often more important than physical proximity when it came to drivers' choices for parking. Lots that had a good view of the destination, in this case downtown Chicago, were regularly chosen over lots that were closer, yet lacked a view. Such psychological aspects of parking have continued to play a role in how lots are designed and maintained - such as lots being designed for 85% capacity, never empty, never full. Just right.

This tour focuses on surface, or open-air, lots - the parking facility of choice for 80% of all parkers. These parking lots may not look very different from one decade to the next, but they have undergone regular changes that reflect larger social phenomena. An average parking space in the 1950s was 7 feet wide, but grew to be up to 10 feet during the height of car sizes in the 1960s. We are now at an average space width of between 8 and 9 feet, with lot costs averaging 5-10 dollars/square feet.

Of course, the public operation of parking lots did not go uncontested by those who believed they could profit from privately run ventures. In 1951, at a convention in Chicago, the National Parking Association would form to represent the interests of privatisation in the growing parking industry.

As in Los Angeles and other urban centers, private and state interests converged in Champaign. The municipal parking program begun in the 1960s operated economically through the Champaign Development Corporation, a group of businessmen and bankers who purchased property to sell back to the city to develop parking facilities. There are currently both metered and permit lots operated by the city, and drivers can park for $0.25/hour or $120/3 months. Most of these lots are free during off hours and Sundays.

Currently, downtown Champaign is going through redevelopment efforts, again a condition occurring across the US. Champaign's Redevelopment Incentive Program - ironically R.I.P. - gives grants to entrepreneurs and developers to renovate existing buildings, and is often paired with a redevelop liquor license. There are currently more bars in downtown Champaign than in neighboring Campus Town (the retail district attached to the University of Illinois) and Urbana.

Construction surrounding the deconstruction of municipal lots N and HS (Hill Street). In the late 1960s - early 1970s, the City of Champaign began a multi-million dollar effort to convert the land here to parking lots. Many of the business owners who were located here were removed by condemnation orders of the city, though most settled out of court.

Currently, the city is going through another kind of development, one where the parking lots built during the 60s - 90s are valued as available, and cheap, space for infill construction projects. As in many cities across the country, many of these projects are attempts to make themselves more attractive to the "creative classes" - those with disposable income and information management jobs. Lots N and HS have become the site of M2 on Neil, a mixed use facility housing retail, offices and condos. M2 is a $40 million project by the local property development company, One Main.

As a construction effort desirable to the city's redevelopment initiative, the project is receiving not just affordable land, but $5.5 million in additional financial incentives to complete the building. One Main is also responsible for the other major urban project in downtown Champaign, just across Neil St. from M2, known as One Main - it's address. One Main was also built on a former municipal lot, one that was only operational for 12 years. The company is undertaking 3 similar projects in another Illinois mid-sized town with a prominent university, Normal that are worth over $75 million. Parking will still be a feature of the development, only in the form of a privately managed 500 space architectural facility.

The city is developing other plans for its many other lots, which currently represent 1/3 of all parking in downtown, including turning one of the more prominent ones into a landscaped plaza for gatherings and outdoor events. Beautification projects are high on the list of desires.

One Main's descriptions of their desires and actions towards a new "creative" downtown equates its current state as a vampire to be slain, and the weapon in development: "To take development back from the edge of the city and drive it deep into the heart of thriving downtown."