http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/...l_may_tri.html
Ann Arbor City Council may trim planned parking structure
by Judy McGovern | The Ann Arbor News
Friday February 13, 2009, 1:00 PM
A City Council vote is expected next week for financing Ann Arbor's first - and what many expect will be last - parking structure at a new location in decades.
The underground structure on the 300 block of South Fifth Avenue is on track to go forward.
However, there's apt to be one change: City Council members could trim an estimated $6 million from the Downtown Development Authority plan by eliminating a section that was to run under Fifth Avenue.
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"If the council wants to save some money and eliminate that, it's their call," said DDA board member Roger Hewitt, who's played a lead role in planning. "The reason we were going to do it was to increase the value and attractiveness of the city-owned property at Fifth and William."
The project site is now a surface parking lot at mid-block just north of the Ann Arbor District Library.
The stretch that had been planned for beneath the street extended from midblock to the property formerly occupied by the Ann Arbor Y. The city bought that property from the Y in 2005. And while city officials have all but abandoned the original reason for the acquisition, they do expect to make the property available for future development.
For Council Member Carsten Hohnke, $6 million is too steep a price for the value that might be added to the former Y property.
Hohnke's also ready to dial down the scale of the planned 785 parking spaces.
In a community promoting a multimodal approach to transportation, that big an increase in parking is just too much, he said.
"It's time to add some parking stock to the downtown, there's no question," he said. "But 500-plus spaces is consistent with what the DDA's consultant identified."
Hohnke is also among the city officials who've raised questions about the DDA's $56.4 million financing plan. With a 15 percent down payment in hand, the DDA board had planned to bond for the balance of around $47 million.
Together with a $9 million commitment to another smaller, parking project - a 244-space facility West Washington and South First streets - the DDA's budget would be tight for several years.
Still, the bond repayment plan is based on what's regarded as a reliable funding stream - parking revenue that totals more than $13 million a year. "I'm surprised at the concern," said Hewitt.
That's where potentially mixed motives come into play.
It's true that if the DDA can't make its debt payments, the city is responsible for paying bond holders.
It's also true that city officials have come to view the DDA - a city-authorized agency that gets a share of downtown property taxes - as a reservoir of cash, tapping it for everything from sidewalk work to an $8 million contribution to the new police-court building.
Yes, acknowledged City Council Member Leigh Greden, scaling back the Fifth Avenue plan would leave the DDA with money that the city might be use to cover some of its expenses.
It's also simply a more conservative approach, said Greden, who'd previously had reservations about extending the parking under Fifth Avenue. And any future developer could act on the plans that have been drawn up and already approved by the Planning Commission.
The City Council will discuss the project at its meeting Tuesday, moved back from its normal Monday schedule because of the Presidents Day holiday.
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"All but abandoned its reason for acquiring the Y property"
They needed no reasons. It was such a dumpy and fugly property, even before the Y moved to their shiny new building. The city removed a blight and made it more attractive to new, higher density development. It is a shame there may be no underground parking on this site. I know the city is committed to obliterating surface parking and hiding new spaces wherever they can, but maybe a future developer can accommodate their own underground parking on this site someday. I do love when city council talk about limiting parking numbers downtown though. It seems like this case is the opposite in most other Michigan cities.