Many residents consider downtown parking convenient but more spaces are needed as the area continues to grow, a recent survey found.

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About $350 million has been spent in the downtown in the past 15 years, but some leaders believe that perception of a parking problem have kept more people from coming downtown. That’s one reason the city is looking for money to build a parking garage downtown.

According to the survey administered by the Center City Association, people also have a hard time locating parking spots, Executive Director Maureen Fagans said.

“We all need to make certain that as we attract business into our downtown, that we’re also cognizant for the need of more convenient parking,” Fagans said.

More than 130 responses were collected between May 24 and July 13, and 71 percent of the participants noted being downtown during the day daily or several times per week.

“The respondents still believe we have convenient parking with the recognition that it’s going to become a problem in the future,” Fagans said.

Center City shared the survey with the city, Clark County-Springfield Transportation Coordinating Committee, Downtown Business Alliance and Springfield Moving Forward Downtown Task Force. The organizations will use the survey in grants applications for projects to improve parking.

When asked how they would define convenient parking, free and close to a destination topped the list of answers for 65 percent of responses, while unlimited/unrestricted time was third with 49 percent. Respondents could select more than one option on the question.

Fagans expected some negative comments, but was also surprised at the number of positive remarks. She believes a more robust survey may be in order in the future.

“We’ve heard so many anecdotal comments that parking is a problem that we expected we’d hear those comments in the survey,” Fagans said. “Really, overall, the comments were positive.”

Bryan Heck, the city’s planning and zoning administrator, said the survey is in line with City Hall’s belief that more parking will be needed in the downtown. The city plans to do a count of downtown parking spaces in the near future.

“We definitely feel as we continue to develop downtown businesses, both retail and office, that we do need to add parking into the downtown to meet the need of those businesses,” Heck said.

City staff members are seeking grant money and other funding opportunities for a planned parking garage on the corner of Fountain Avenue and Columbia Street. The city has acquired the land it needs for the garage — including razing the former Doughty and Doughty Law Firm and purchasing a parking lot on West Main Street — but is still looking for funding. The proposed three-story, 450-space parking garage could cost between $5 million and $10 million.

“The next step for us for right now is to turn it into a surface parking lot with the goal being, four to five years down the road, to finish the completion of a parking garage,” Heck said.

About two dozen respondents mentioned that some type of parking garage is needed downtown, even though it wasn’t a question on the survey.

“It’s on a whole lot of people’s minds,” Fagans said.

The next step for Center City, Fagans said, is to improve way-finding signs downtown. Businesses believe most people unfamiliar with downtown are unaware of free parking that’s available. The association is in the initial stages of researching signage.

“We’re not approaching this as improving the parking signs, but rather a way-finding project,” Fagans said.

Transportation Coordinating Committee Transportation Director Scott Schmid said the group will do its best to work on low-cost solutions like signs and parking maps.

“It’s the little things that I think are most important, especially since resources are so tight,” Schmid said.

More parking is needed for employees who work downtown, he said.

The people who have had issues parking downtown are a vocal minority, Fagans said. She believes improving someone’s first impression of downtown will go a long way to changing the negative connotation surrounding the parking issue.

“One negative experience can grow exponentially and that’s a problem for us,” Fagans said.

Nancy Feinstein, the owner of Bloomingdeals, 42 W. High St., said the business pays to park its moving truck in a gated lot because they’ve had issues with vandalism in the past. They have no customer parking and rely solely on street parking.

She said downtown parking has been somewhat of a problem in the past, but not recently. The two buildings next to them are currently unoccupied and leave plenty of parking.

She also said parking hasn’t kept customers from stopping in.

“If they want to come here, they’ll find a place,” Feinstein said.

Feinstein also feels a downtown parking garage would help businesses downtown.

“If there was free parking, I’m sure it would help,” Feinstein said.