Faced with a limited budget and growing demands for a second downtown parking structure, town officials are starting to think about a political hot potato that's never quite cooled over the years-- paid parking.
With about $3.5 million to spend, the town will be lucky to get one garage, but building a second is going to require millions more--and so far there's no consensus where that cash might come from.
After receiving the consultant's final feasibility report, councilmembers eliminated three of the nine options from consideration to narrow the field Feb. 16, and put the garage question on the March 1 agenda.
Councilmembers want to see how much support they can get for paid parking and if a two-story structure on W. Main Street--or any above-grade structure--is going to fly with residents.
At the next meeting, March 15, the council will decide on what private property it may be able to include in its plans.
The town is waiting to hear from a handful of property owners who own small parking areas behind the Eureka Building at N. Santa Cruz Avenue and Bachman Avenue. If the owners donate their property, it would allow them to keep the parking spaces that are there and make room for the town to build a bigger lot than it would be able to without the extra room.
On April 5, councilmembers will consider which additional financing options they'll be able to consider, and where the Chamber of Commerce stands on financing.
The council is aiming to make a final decision at its April 19 meeting, if no other issues come up to delay the process.
Councilmembers want as much feedback as they can get from residents and the downtown business community before making a final decision as quickly as they can.
According to Public Works Director Scott Baker, however, the project is already slipping behind schedule. And if the policy-making decisions don't wrap up soon, the construction on the garage, scheduled to begin in March 2000, could wind up disrupting the busy holiday shopping season later that year.
Photoillustration by Watry Design Group.
Photoillustration showing preliminary sketches of possible layout for Lot 2, seen from Bachman Avenue looking toward N. Santa Cruz Avenue.
The council eliminated the biggest, most expensive garage, a $10 million structure that would have required buying private property and demolishing buildings, and the two cheapest options for each site, which would have only added 67 new spaces.
The Chamber of Commerce has invited the business community to a presentation March 18 on the options open to the business, and is in the preliminary stages of preparing a recommendation on financing options. But before they do that, executive director Sheri Lewis says they're waiting for a decision from the council on which lot will be built up first.
In the meantime, they're sticking to their guns: Build it fast, build as many spaces as possible, and don't disrupt shopping.
The Parking Commission, at its Feb. 18 meeting, voted to recommend to the council that the town develop both lots, and picked two of the biggest options.
Mayor Jan Hutchins says he's going to push for making a decision on how to build the first garage, then think about raising the rest of the money needed for a second garage to avoid delays that could hold up both garages.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
