Businesses along s.w. Avalon Way, commonly referred to as Luna Park, have been in conversation with Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) and King County Metro (KCM) officials since July of 2010 over the implementation of a RapidRide C bus line, scheduled for completion in 2012.

Tuesday, Feb. 2 was the latest meeting between concerned business owners and city officials. SDOT and Metro officials told business owners where the plan stands now: 15 parking spaces will be removed from Avalon Way’s east side (north of s.w. Bradford St.) to make room for a BAT (business access and transit) lane. After peak transit times (from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.) parking will be allowed in the area. In addition, a center turn lane will be added north of Bradford. South of Bradford to s.w. Yancy St. 15 parking spots along the east side of Avalon will be maintained.

That part of the plan, according to Paul Roybal with KCM, is set in stone.

What remains fluid at this point is whether more parking can be created in the nooks and crannies of unused property on the west side of Avalon Way to accommodate visitors. Both city and county officials and Luna Park business owners threw around ideas on creative ways to create more parking but no official plans have been made.

Christine Alar with SDOT has said the changes are needed to provide as much unimpeded travel time for the buses to keep to the ten minute pickups and quick transit times. This means alteration of the route from Westwood to the West Seattle bridge, often times taking out parking, bike or current traffic lanes and converting them to BAT lanes, which will be dedicated bus lanes.

The response from businesses such as Avalon restaurant, Luna Park Café, Java Bean Organic Coffee and Avalon Glassworks is that the removal of parking will drastically hurt business in an area where parking is already perceived by the public as sparse.

“I think that only time will tell and the businesses here are either going to survive or their not,” said Shannon Felix, co-owner of Avalon Glassworks with her husband Jon. “I think its going to be really disappointing when you’ve got 150 people on this RapidRide going by an entire neighborhood of boarded up storefronts and that’s going to look really bad.”

Roybal, a transportation planner with KCM, responded to Felix’s concern in citing a one-day parking use study they did in January. From 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. city officials evaluated the 15 spots slated for removal. Roybal said 22 cars parked in that area during the study. Seven cars were there for a quick stop and the rest were there for an hour or more.

“I don’t want to dispute that that need exists, and you guys know how it’s used more (than us), but just to put it in perspective that was the data we were able to gather in our one observation,” Roybal said.

“I find that our customers suffer from the perception of lack of parking,” Felix responded. “So even if there is plenty of parking, everybody in West Seattle still thinks there’s no parking at Luna Park and so they just don’t come here at all. So now their going to perceive there is even less parking at Luna Park.”

City officials hope the addition of a center turn lane and more parking solutions on the west side of the street will make Luna Park more inviting to customers.

Another issue of contention is that the RapidRide stop on Avalon Way is planned at the corner of Yancy, far south of the Luna Park business stretch to the north. Business owners would like to see the RapidRide stop moved north to the Charlestown junction (to put transit users closer to businesses) but based on use studies, SDOT and KCM believe more people will use the Yancy stop.

“The thing I think is unfortunate is … I understand the idea of people wanting to get to work faster but the impact this can potentially have on peoples lives – their livelihoods – is tremendous,” said Tony Hoyt, owner of Java Bean Organic Coffee. “Much more so than if someone can get to work a few minutes faster.”

“You know it’s almost more about getting to work on time than it is getting to work faster,” an SDOT official said. “The reliability piece of this is huge. I mean we’ve watched buses regularly be backed up for several minutes and when people are five to ten minutes late to work that impacts lives as well.”

To read more on RapidRide, visit http://www.kingcounty.gov/transportation/kcdot/MetroTransit/RapidRide/A…. and check out this earlier article by the Herald.