Marks' parting gift: A downtown parking plan

Escalating costs prohibit both parking garage and emergency services center

By RICHARD HANNERS / Whitefish Pilot

Cost estimates for a new downtown parking structure and a new emergency services center (ESC) have skyrocketed over the past six months or so, threatening to gobble up the total bonding capacity of the city's tax-increment financing district (TIF).

Fortunately, a deal has been hammered out between the city and the school district that could provide downtown parking at a fraction of the cost and leave money available for the ESC.

There's a lot of synergy in this overall plan, which addresses the city's goal of moving city hall and selling its current site. Before the current site can be sold, however, fire, police and city court need to be relocated to the new ESC and a new city hall must be built, creating a Catch-22 funding situation.

Last year, Grover & Co. conducted a space analysis for the ESC and developed a concept for a 30,233-square-foot building that would cost about $8.8 million, including TIF bonding costs. That was the upper end of the range that the city could afford, Marks said.

City manager said he wouldn't be surprised if the price of the ESC reaches $11 million or more, and the cost for the downtown parking structure at the corner of Spokane Avenue and Second Street has climbed from $5.1 million to $6.6 million.

"This means that the TIF will not have the financing capacity to fund both projects," Marks said in his final council memo, noting that the TIF bonding capacity is about $14 million. "The city will need to decide if it wants to build the ESC or the parking structure."

Critics have argued the downtown parking structure is not cost-efficient. As designed, the $6.6 million garage would provide 177 net spaces at a cost of $37,288 per space.

Cost isn't the only problem facing the downtown parking structure proposal, which is considered a top-priority catalyst project in the city's downtown master plan developed by Portland-based urban planners Crandall-Arambula.

The city will begin reconstructing Central Avenue in fall 2009 and will need to make up for that missing parking, but there has been mounting opposition to the parking structure idea by the general public and city councilors based on aesthetic and cultural issues.

Marks' plan for downtown parking involves six elements:

1) Build a landscaped, 94-space, surface-level parking lot at the Spokane and Second site with 53 net spaces for $372,000 at an average of $7,019 per space.

2) A new parking lot behind the city library could create 245 spaces, with a net 182 spaces after a new city hall is constructed there. The estimated cost is $1.7 million, working out to $7,562 per space.

3) Whitefish Middle School staff could park in the lot behind the library, freeing up on-street spaces along Spokane Avenue north of Second Street.

4) Once the new city hall is built, city staff could park in the lot behind the library, freeing up the 50 spaces taken up by city staff and city hall visitors around the current city hall.

5) Changing 43 on-street spaces on Central Avenue across from the O'Shaughnessy from two-hour to all-day parking would help get downtown business workers and employees away from parking in front of businesses along Central Avenue.

6) Increasing the overtime parking fee from $5 to $20 would provide an incentive for downtown business owners and employees to use the 43 spaces across from the O'Shaughnessy.

"When contrasted against the exorbitant costs of the parking structure, the options described above provide a realistic and affordable strategy for downtown parking," Marks said.

But he anticipated opposition to his plan from supporters of the downtown master plan.

"If supporters of the parking structure continue to question the effectiveness of these and alternative parking options, I would recommend the city hire an outside parking consultant (not to include the city's present consultants or the Crandall-Arambula firm) to obtain an unbiased assessment," Marks said.

The linchpin of Marks' solution for downtown parking is the 245-space lot to be created behind the library. The plan calls for a property swap between the city and the school district that would re-align the play field and provide Whitefish Middle School with an additional 0.11 acres.

The plan also calls for abandoning the Columbia Avenue right-of-way between Depot and Railway streets and extending Depot Street east to Somers Avenue.

School District 44 superintendent Jerry House told the city in an Aug. 1 letter that, after consulting with Whitefish Middle School principal Kerry Drown and school board chairman David Fern, the school district supports Option 4A of Marks' parking plan.

"Previous concerns for student safety and use of playgrounds by our students before, during and after school have been properly addressed," House said.

House included a list of 13 conditions relating to Option 4A and requested that the city include input from Drown and the physical education staff when finalizing the design.