As part of the continuing effort to improve the parking situation in downtown Sandy, the City is currently operating a program designed to entice people to start parking in the underused free public parking lot on Pioneer Boulevard. The “Pioneer Parking Lot Incentive Program” began in October of 2012.

The program works like this: once a week the City picks a parking space in Pioneer Parking Lot at random, and whoever is parked in that space will win a prize redeemable at City Hall. If the space is empty, another space will drawn until one that is full is selected. The idea behind it is simple – the more people (particularly downtown business owners and employees) that park in the free lot, the fewer non-customers we have parked on the street. This means more and better street parking available for patrons of downtown businesses, which will hopefully translate into more business activity in the downtown core.

Sandy's local businesses have stepped up to the plate with donations of goods and services – between $10 and $40 dollars in value – for the City to use as weekly prizes. The response has been great - one business alone gave enough prize material to keep the program going for several months! As it stands right now, this incentive program will continue at least through the spring of 2013 and possibly even longer.

For more information about the Pioneer Parking Lot Incentive Program, contact Dave Snider, the City’s Economic Development manager at (503) 489-2159 or at dsnider@ci.sandy.or.us.