City Council Study Session Agenda and Packet 2017 05 09

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SUBJECT: DOWNTOWN PARKING IMPROVEMENT FEE DATE: MAY 9, 2017 PAGE 4 OF 7 Parking lots require ongoing maintenance. This includes: surface repairs, lighting, plowing, enforcement, and administration. Assuming annual maintenance costs are 10% of construction costs ($250 per year), the net present value of 20 years of maintenance costs discounted by the City's cost of borrowing (4%), would be $3,400. In summary, assuming the above analysis, the real estate cost, construction and ongoing operating cost for a new surface space in the downtown area today is: Land Cost per space = Construction cost per space = NPV of Ongoing Operations and Maintenance = Total cost per space = $16,000 $ 2,500 $ 3,400 $21,900 Community benefits of making the Parking Improvement Fee available Providing an opportunity for new developments to pay a parking improvement fee instead of constructing private parking on their property has community and developer benefits. Donald Shoup, author of "The High Cost of Free Parking", is a planning professor at UCLA and published an article titled "Instead of Free Parking". Shoup, through review of 46 cities with in -lieu parking programs, notes several benefits of a Parking Improvement Fee program. 1. An Option. In -lieu fees give developers an alternative to meeting parking requirements on sites where providing all the required spaces would be difficult or extremely expensive. 2. Shared Parking. Public parking spaces allow shared use among different sites whose peak parking demands occur at different times. Shared public parking is more efficient than single -use private parking because fewer spaces are needed to meet the total peak parking demand. Parking that is shared among different establishments also allows motorists to park once and visit multiple sites on foot. 3. Better Design. Cities can put public parking lots and structures where they do not deter vehicle and pedestrian circulation. Less on-site parking allows continuous storefronts without dead gaps for adjacent surface parking lots. To improve the streetscape, some cities dedicate the first floor of public parking structures to retail use. Developers can undertake infill projects without assembling large sites to accommodate on-site parking, and architects have greater freedom to design better buildings in a more pedestrian -friendly environment. 4. Fewer Variances. Developers often request variances from parking requirements. These variances create unearned economic windfalls, granted to some developers but denied to others. If developers can pay cash rather than provide the required parking, cities do not need to grant parking variances and COUNCIL COMMUNICATION