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ST. MICHAEL AND ALL SAINTS EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SCHOOL
Religious / Dallas, Texas The services of DeShazo Group were retained to review the parking lot design, access design, and the traffic circulation for the St. Michael-All Angels Episcopal Church and School campus located in the northwest quadrant of the Douglas Avenue-Colgate Avenue intersection in Dallas, Texas. The proposed 1.5-bay, 102-space surface parking lot, located immediately north of the existing building, will replace approximately 17 unmarked surface parking spaces. Access to the new parking lot will be provided via a private alley that bisects the site and extends between Douglas Avenue and Lomo Alto Drive. DeShazo collected traffic and parking data on the campus during typical church and school activities. The greatest traffic and parking impact occurred on the Mother’s Day Out event during the drop-off period and during the Sunday morning church services. Additional parking will improve existing and future traffic and parking conditions during all peak periods by reducing the need for remote and on-street parking and by reducing the need for curbside parking during loading /unloading for the Mother's Day Out event. The new parking lot will have good access from the internal private alley. This alley is located immediately north of another private, internal alley. While it is, ideally, undesirable to locate street intersections in such close proximity (e.g., on Douglas Avenue), we acknowledge that this is a preexisting condition. DeShazo considered recommending that the existing internal streets be converted to a “boulevard” (convert both alleys to opposing one-way flow with a center median), however the grade difference that exists between the two alleys is prohibitive for this concept since proper median openings cannot be created to allow adequate internal site circulation. Hence, maintaining the existing access and traffic flow is recommended. DeShazo developed three alternative design schemes for the proposed parking lot that are intended to improve traffic access and circulation and to optimize the parking supply. Each scheme has unique advantages and disadvantages, DeShazo Group made other recommendations to the site to enhance circulation: They are: (1). islands within the parking lot should not extend further than 16 feet from the front of each space in order to allow convenient access to the adjacent parking spaces; (2) (Scheme A) add a double-yellow centerline striping along the north alley between the easternmost parking lot access point and Douglas Avenue – this is intended to reinforce the two-way traffic flow and discourage parking along the alley that occurs for passenger loading/unloading for MDO (that parallel parking should not be necessary once the new parking lot is constructed); (3). eliminate the on-street parking on the north side of Colgate Avenue between the circular drop-off lanes (i.e., no parking along the north side of Colgate is recommended); (4). encourage enforcement of No Parking within a safe distance of the Douglas Avenue-Colgate Avenue intersection to maintain proper visibility and safety (not shown on the attached exhibit); (5). consider designating some parking spaces on site during Sunday AM church services for “special needs” parkers (e.g., elderly, etc.) — these are in addition to the standard accessible parking spaces |
