City Council Agenda and Packet 2019 01 22

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SUBJECT: DOWNTOWN PARKING STRUCTURE DISCUSSION DATE: JANUARY 22, 2019 PAGE 3 OF 8 Recent Downtown Parking Additions Several actions have occurred after the 2014 Parking Action Plan. They include: • Constructing 28 new spaces on City property at the corner of Front and Elm Streets by expanding the parking lot adjacent to Lucky Pie and Sweet Cow • Acquiring 0.638 acres in the DELO redevelopment from Tebo Properties and contracting to construct approximately 68 parking spaces on that property as part of the DELO development. This new lot was available the summer of 2018. • Executing a lease with Koko Plaza to make the 50 off-street spaces in that location available for public parking after 5:OOPM. Because the tenants in the building have changed significantly since June 2015, the building's tenants are using the parking lot after 5pm more frequently. This has reduced the parking availability for the public, thus the parking lease was not be extended past June 2016. • Acquiring from the Blue Parrot their excess parking lot on the south side of that property, making an additional 25 spaces available for public parking. • Establishing a new Parking Improvement Fee rate to better reflect the cost of creating new downtown parking. • Approving a Land Exchange with 608 Studios to expand the City's parking lot in the 600 block of Main Street. The land exchange is contingent upon 608 Studios (Voltage) moving forward with constructing their approved building along Main Street. Future Parking Demand Projects With the square footage cap of commercial space in downtown of 475,000 square feet (by Ordinance #1341, Series 2000), properties can expand through redevelopment. There is approximately 140,000 remaining within the cap. Development projects will be challenged to provide all their required parking (1 space per 500 sf) on site and will likely need to pay the Parking Improvement Fee. Staff has heard from property owners interested in redeveloping that they are concerned no additional parking will be constructed with the received fees. Their lenders are also concerned there isn't a parking project identified to allocate future parking funds. The RTD FasTracks Northwest Rail project is also anticipated to bring a rail stop to Louisville at South Street, necessitating additional parking demand to downtown. The City acquired the former Post Office building at 637 Front Street partially to create additional parking to accommodate Northwest Rail. Northwest Rail has not come to town, and isn't planned to for some time, so pressure to achieve more parking supply to accommodate it has not occurred. The original Fastracks project identified a need for 440-470 spaces to satisfy demand. Some spaces already exist (Delo lot and Louisville ballfields parking), but more will be needed than currently exist. 42