Over $600,000 in grant funding was awarded to the City of Glendale to make significant improvements to downtown Glendale’s parking wayfinding system. New signs showing real-time parking space availability will be installed at key intersections in downtown Glendale and at the entrances to the Orange Street, Exchange and Marketplace public parking structures. Drivers should expect to see these improvements sometime in late 2015 to early 2016.

A comprehensive wayfinding and parking sign program for downtown Glendale was approved by Glendale City Council in 2011. This program was to be funded by the City’s Redevelopment Agency, but because the State of California dissolved the Redevelopment Agency in 2012, the funding was lost. Since then, staff sought alternate resources to fund individual components of the program and was awarded the Advanced Wayfinding and Guidance System Grant through Metro’s Call for Projects Grant program. The grant awards $694,026 for the installation of a comprehensive system of parking signs in downtown Glendale. It will include installing directional signs to downtown parking facilities and updating identification signs for public parking lots. However, the most significant part of the program will be the installation of signs containing real-time availability of parking spaces.