City Council Agenda and Packet 2002 02 12 SP

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determined that it makes better economic sense to construct and own the parking lot than to pay the fee-in-lieu.) The City also has the authority to later charge a property owner a fee to park in the lot created by the fees that the property owner paid initially. All of this has made Downtown Louisville a place where the small business expansion is difficult and is therefore effectively discouraged, and large developments with strong financial backing are still possible. However, instead of shared public parking lots, private reserved parking lots, which are less efficient, utilize the valuable resources downtown, (land, and in some cases, the loss of existing buildings). In light of the loss of retail and restaurant business recently to the new developments outside of the City of Louisville, especially from downtown businesses, the DBA believes that the City should help to foster improvements and business expansion and retention in our historic downtown instead of discouraging development. Indeed, it has become significantly more difficult, and more costly to do business downtown than it was 4-5 years ago. As a trend, this can be very detrimental to the health of our Downtown. Proposal: We believe that a simple and effective change to the existing ordinances can be the first step to improve the vitality of Downtown. 'We believe that shared public parking lots, which are more efficient, with higher utilization rates, should be encouraged over private reserved parking lots. This will ultimately reduce the overall amount of asphalt required to house vehicles downtown, and will benefit the retail environment. We believe that the small business expansions should be encouraged downtown. To accomplish these goals, we propose the following revised fee schedule for parking fees in lieu of providing on-site parking: New or Expanded Building Area: o sf - 999 sf 1,000 sf - 2,599 sf 2,600 sf - 4,999 sf 5,000 sf - & over Reqd. Pkg.: 2 spaces 3-6 spaces 7-12 spaces over 12 spaces Fee per Parking Space: $0 $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 Square footage calculation for each property would be cumulative from the date of the ordinance. We believe that these are appropriate fees, due to the fact that the City will retain the land ownership, and the businesses effectively have no special rights to the parking spaces created with these fees. The costs of the parking improvements are more than covered by the proposed fees. Our research indicates that the average construction cost per parking space, (excluding land costs) for the metro area is approximately $1500. The City still has the ability to implement permit parking and charge fees to offset administration and maintenance costs in the future. We still believe that an Urban Renewal District, which includes downtown and the east side of the railroad tracks is an important concept to pursue also. The longer we wait, the less tax increment increases are available. We appreciate the consideration of this proposal by the City of Louisville City Council, and look forward to discussing this proposal, or other options with the Council on February 1ih.