Historic Folsom parking lot is redesigned, reopened

The Traders Lane parking lot improvement project in the Historic District is finished just in time for the holiday season, the city of Folsom announced Monday. The $279,000 project to redesign the lot was finished early and under budget, Folsom city staff said Oct. 16. The parking lot upgrades redesigned the circulation within Traders Lane. The lot was re-striped to maintain a one-way clockwise flow, allowing for better ease-of-use and safety during parking and exiting, staff said. The 50-year-old fruitless mulberry trees all had to be removed. Many of the trees showed substantial decay and increasing patterns of failure, Folsom City Arborist Amy Nunez said. New features of the parking lot include drought-resistant trees, irrigation and future electric conduit installed, commercial loading spots, a dumpster enclosure, dedicated motorcycle parking spots, improved traffic circulation and parking lot resurfaced. Modern parking spot width standards and the trash enclosure reduced the parking capacity by 19, according to the staff report. To mitigate the reduction in spaces, striping was extended 120 feet along Leidesdorff Street toward 1 Riley Street to allow for up to eight additional parallel parking spaces. Also, the granite boulders that lined parking spaces along the northern edge of the lot were removed and replaced with wheel stops. The project was funded by federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, Folsom city staff said.