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As the city prepares to advance its “restriping” project next spring, which will add 55 parking spaces along Ingersoll Avenue, business owners are exploring different options to address the parking concerns of today.

“I sort of look at it from a macro standpoint,” said Ted Irvine, owner of The Mansion, an interior design and fine furnishings business at 2801 Ingersoll Ave. “You hope you have parking issues. It means people want to come here.”

Irvine said the sheer amount of traffic in the area offsets any negative effect of insufficient customer parking. And as the Ingersoll district grows and becomes more popular, he said, and more mass-transit users, pedestrians and cyclists arrive via something other than a car, parking will become less of an issue.

He added that business owners will find ways to address parking issues as they arise, similar to successful retail and entertainment districts such as the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. “Everyone is dealing with having more customers down here,” he said. “People tend to find a place to park.”

More than 150 businesses are located on an approximately 2-mile stretch of Ingersoll between 40th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, which is zoned as a Neighborhood Pedestrian Commercial District (NPC). The zoning, which is conducive to pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, cuts the number of parking spots required by the city for property owners in the area by 40 percent, said Mike Ludwig, a city planning administrator.

However, even with NPC zoning, which also allows property owners to count on-street parking adjoining their properties toward meeting the city’s overall requirement, some are still facing roadblocks to development.

Andrew Lee, who owns three properties at the intersection of 37th Street and Ingersoll, including the former Ingersoll Dinner Theater building, hopes to lease that space to a Cuban restaurant. But the city’s requirement of 11 additional parking spaces for the business is stalling the venture, prompting Lee to search for an alternative option. Lee has considered converting a former gas station on 37th Street to the east into a small retail establishment, providing enough shared parking to accommodate that business and the restaurant.

Most recently, Lee has proposed rezoning a residential property he owns at 614 37th St., just north of the dinner theater building, to NPC from low-density residential. Not only would rezoning the parcel to NPC provide some of the required parking spaces, but it would also open the property up for commercial use, such as a small office.

But the Des Moines Plan and Zoning Commission last week recommended that the City Council deny the request, citing concerns that it would extend commercial zoning into an existing residential-zoned area, Ludwig said.

“We believe it is inconsistent with the comprehensive plan to do so,” he said. The City Council will consider the proposal in November.

Kimberly Hansen, co-chair of Restoration Ingersoll, the organization behind the first phase of the district’s recently completed streetscape improvement project between 28th and 31st streets, said a community approach by Ingersoll businesses is a better way to go.

“I hope the businesses around the Ingersoll Dinner Theater kind of look at a collaborative approach,” she said, referring to an NPC zoning guideline that allows owners of adjoining parcels to enter into shared parking agreements. By sharing excess parking spaces through leasing agreements, the number of city-required spaces for individual businesses can ultimately be reduced, Ludwig confirmed.

One example of how property owners have banded together to expand their parking capacity is a cooperative among five businesses on the northwest corner of 28th and Ingersoll. Badowers, Star Bar, Advanced Logic Systems Inc., Drew Law Firm P.C. and Irving’s The Mansion recently partnered to eliminate the curbs in the lot behind their properties. The reconfiguration added about 20 percent more parking in the lot, Irving said, turning it into a “common parking area.”

Irving said that as new businesses come into the area, such as Jeff Stickel’s nearly completed Adio Building at 2925 Ingersoll, which will house his chiropractic practice, a restaurant and a residential or commercial tenant, they are being more proactive. “As these things are developed, they are addressing parking,” he said.

Following the completion of the Ingersoll streetscape project’s first phase in June, the City Council asked Gary Fox, the city’s traffic engineer, to take a more comprehensive look at safety issues on the street.

According to his staff’s study, between 2006 and 2008 there were 152 crashes in the area, including two fatal accidents and three that caused major injuries.

Compared with the statewide average for accidents occurring on municipal streets, Fox said, the analysis found that Ingersoll had a 35 percent higher rate of crashes. Further analysis showed that 70 percent of the accidents were types that could have been reduced or avoided by changing to a three-lane from a four-lane configuration, which next spring’s complete street restriping project will accomplish.

In a 24-hour period, Fox said about 5,000 to 6,000 vehicles pass between Polk Boulevard and 42nd Street, about 10,000 to 11,000 pass between 42nd Street and 28th Street and about 15,000 pass between 28th Street and MLK Parkway.

Based on current traffic volumes, he said, the city is confident that the conversion to three lanes “could work well from an operation and capacity standpoint.”

“There was quite a bit of concern over increased traffic,” Fox said, adding that some businesses and property owners worry that they could be hurt if congestion diverts people away from Ingersoll. But according to traffic-modeling studies, Fox said, “we certainly don’t expect that at all.”

The city also plans to do a follow-up survey with Ingersoll businesses and residents six months after the restriping project is completed. “The promise was pretty much made by council,” he said. “If it’s not working, we’ll change it back.”

“I think the best solution is businesses and property owners working together,” Hansen said.