By Clarence Cromwell
Business owners agree that more parking is necessary downtown, but they're concerned about funding a new garage by charging for parking on public lots.
Downtown business people are so determined to improve the parking situation, however, that some 20 merchants, led by parking commissioner Rex Morton, volunteered during the Jan. 6 Town Council meeting to collect donations from local contributors to pay for an added level of underground parking, on the site where Old Town plans to build its new shops.
The town of Los Gatos waived an earlier chance to build the added level of parking. The town staff had proposed the idea and Old Town was willing if the town would pay the developer's $1.8 million price for the added level. But Los Gatos lacked the money.
Now, local merchants hope they can find it. Old Town developers now say they think $1.1 million is realistic.
They'll be phoning friends this week in hopes of collecting the $1.1 million in time to add another level of parking to Old Town's plans.
Morton said he will ask each member of the fundraising committee to donate and then send them to solicit money from five friends, and so on.
There's enough money in Los Gatos to pay for a garage, Morton said, and a later meeting with business people suggested that enthusiasm and commitment exists.
They have about two weeks to come up with the money, Director of Building and Engineering Services Scott Baker estimates, because Old Town is already drawing up final plans for the new building and underground garage. The shopping center may go on the Planning Commission's agenda in February.
If any additional levels are to be added, they must be added before Old Town covers the site with new shops this spring, making further construction on the underground garage impossible.
Meanwhile, the Town Council delayed a decision on whether to take proposals for the paid parking part of its downtown parking program.
The staff suggested sending out a description of the proposed parking plan and a request for bids to parking companies and manufacturers of fee-collecting equipment, to ask how much they want to enact the plan.
After merchants expressed numerous last-minute fears about the plan, councilmembers decided to wait two more weeks. They scheduled a Jan. 16 conference where merchants can meet with the city staff and ask questions about the parking plan.
If enacted, the plan will raise more than $700,000 a year. After paying the bills for fee-collection equipment, the town should have about $500,000 a year to pay for a new parking garage between Bachman Avenue and Royce Street, Baker said.
The town dropped lots No. 9 and 13 from the paid parking plan because they're isolated from other lots. The staff also decided to raise the proposed price for parking to 45 cents per half hour, rather than 35 cents, because a study conducted in parking lots over the summer indicated that people would pay more than the town expected.
Merchants at the meeting said they're concerned that delivery trucks won't be able to pass through the parking gates to reach loading docks inside the paid parking area, along Station Way. They also demanded to know how many of their customers would be driven away by the toll gates.
Businesses, homeowners and downtown employees all questioned employee parking permits: The groups said the high costs of parking permits will force minimum-wage employees to park on residential streets, rather than pay. Most shopkeepers said they can't afford to buy permits for their employees.
The council decided to include 24-hour permit parking for residential streets near downtown--if the parking plan is enacted--which would protect residents' street parking at a cost of about $30,000 a year to the town.
Almond Grove resident Nick Muhlhauser said he'd prefer no parking plan at all, because he doesn't want employees parking on his street, and he doesn't want to have to buy permits for his family and friends to park in front of his own house.
Baker said at least some of the employees and business owners must stop parking on the public lots, because they're using hundreds of spaces that customers could park in.
To make a pledge, write a note saying: I (name) pledge ($ amount) to 2nd level parking. Include name, address and phone number. Mail to 2nd level parking, 51 University Ave., Suite 1, Los Gatos, 95030.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 15, 1997.
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