Study: Krieger’s Parking Lot Would Suffer Net Loss of 19 Spaces in Proposed Widening Project

Results from an analysis conducted by an outside engineering firm regarding the impact of a proposed ODOT widening project along Graham Road were recently sent to members of Cuyahoga Falls City Council and the .

In this study, Wade Trim Engineer David Neumeyer said the “negative impacts and loss of parking spaces” to the parking lot would be substantial.

Neumeyer was hired by Mike Krieger's attorney team to look into the current design for the widening of Graham Road and determine exactly how many parking spots would vanish as a result.

The attorneys representing the longtime market’s owner plan to address Council Monday night during the miscellaneous business portion of the meeting.

While Krieger's attorneys only have three minutes to address City Council,  the same goes for members of the administration, who are second in line and plan to respond.

Calls to the city law director’s office, engineer’s office and the Robert Hager, Krieger's attorney, were not immediately returned as of 4 p.m. Monday, but Cuyahoga Falls Patch plans to follow-up with both parties this evening.

Study Details

Neumeyer was hired by Krieger’s attorney to create a design exception request, which would exclude the section of Graham Road from Wyoga Lake Road and Oakwood Drive to 7th Street from the proposed project.

Based on the latest designs for the project, Neumeyer’s findings show a net loss of 19 parking spaces.

“The proposed widening would result in a total of 14 allowable front parking stalls, including two required handicapped stalls. Your business will suffer a net loss of 19 parking spaces to your front lot.”

The design exception request is expected to be sent to ODOT within two weeks, according to Hager.

Mentioned later in the report: If a tree and cart bin are not removed, an additional parking space would be lost due to the widening project.

The parking lot currently allows for 33 parking spaces.

In a Sept. 19 letter to Krieger’s Health Food Market, Neumeyer said to Krieger in the report that “because the impacts to your front parking are severe, we believe there is sufficient engineering and economic justification to submit the request.”

In addition, Neumeyer said the Wyoga Lake access point would be changed from an entrance and exit to an entrance only. As a result, he said customers from the front parking lot would not be able to exit the lot without driving through a third parcel located to the west of the store.

As noted in the report, the analysis by Wade Trim was based on the standards published by the parking industry, including Guidelines for Geometrics, Dimensions of Parking, Fifth Edition, Automobiles, Roads, and Parking  Principles.

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