A consultant hired by the city of Billings is finalizing a study that confirms what many downtowners already knew: There's a shortage of parking in the central business district.

The city's consultant was in town last December, held a series of stakeholder meetings and conducted online surveys.

"All respondents concurred that there was inadequate parking overall," according to the executive summary of the parking report delivered to the City Council earlier this month. Surveys revealed that 96.4 percent of downtown employees drive and park downtown.

The parking plan executive summary says:

•Parking demand is projected to grow by 544 parking stalls by 2014.

•Development will result in the loss of 393 surface parking slots.

•In 10 years, downtown is projected to have a shortage of 1,452 parking stalls.

•About 44 percent of downtown parking is available to the public, which is below the consultant's benchmark of 50 percent.

•The city has "identified" two new future parking structures that would provide 1,204 parking stalls.

The city hasn't identified specific locations for Park 5 or Park 6, according to Bruce McCandless, assistant city administrator. However, the parking consultant is required to identify potential sites, site plans and cost estimates in the final report.

With the federal government's purchase of land for a new U.S. courthouse, the city of Billings gained and regained money that can be used to start addressing parking shortfalls. The city had allocated $800,000 in tax increment funds to subsidize land costs when it appeared that General Services Administration wanted a private developer to build and lease the courthouse to the government. However, last week GSA bought all the land itself, including sections of city street for which it paid the Billings about $250,000. So the city has about $1 million it didn't have a year ago to address parking.

Why is action important now?

•Stockman Bank put planned construction of a new bank at Fourth Avenue North and Broadway on hold pending city parking decisions because the city owns the adjoining property.

•When new owners refurbish and reopen the historic Northern Hotel property, they may have additional parking needs.

•The new federal courthouse will create a need for parking as will a second new federal office building that GSA has said it plans to build.

The City Council and administration should proceed with a sense of urgency to address downtown parking shortages.