By Lookout Staff
July 1, 2009 – The City Council Tuesday took a major step in an ambitious $180 million plan to add 1,700 new parking spaces Downtown by voting to hire Morley Construction Company to tear down and rebuild the two smallest public parking structures along 2nd and 4th streets.
The new structures -- which could have as many as nine levels above ground and three levels below -- will each add 250 more spaces than the existing five-story structures built four decades ago.
Built sequentially to maintain the supply of parking Downtown, the new structures will be powered by solar panels on the roof and feature ground floor retail, bicycle storage facilities and public restrooms.
“The new parking structures will provide the opportunity for attractive retail space to activate the sidewalk at the ground floor level,” staff said in its report.
“Rebuilding the structures will also furnish the opportunity to enliven the alleys. . . and transition the alleys into desirable pedestrian environments,” staff wrote.
The $195,000 contract with Morley to provide pre-construction services comes after the three larger Downtown public parking structures are being renovated and seismically upgraded.
The third of the smaller five-story structures also is slated for demolition to pave the way for a larger structure that would include a state-of-the art theater.
In addition to renovating or replacing the existing structures, the City has been paving the way for building as many as two new structures on 5th Street.
Earlier this year, the council gave the go-ahead to purchase a property on 5th Street for $5 million. The 9,943-square-foot building at 1334 5th Street would be torn down to make way for a new public parking structure.
Adopted in 2006, the City’s Downtown parking plan calls adding as many as 712 new spaces when the smaller structures are rebuilt and building as many as two new structures to potentially add another 1,000 additional spaces.
City officials will periodically revisit the plan to gauge the demand for parking Downtown, which will be the terminus of the last leg of the Expo light rail line.
As part of the design process for the two smaller structures, City officials will work with Morley “to develop a series of alternatives and tradeoffs that will consider issues such as relationship of the structure and uses to the pedestrian realm in the alley and at the street.”
The design team also will address building massing, the number of spaces that can be accommodated, pedestrian and vehicle circulation and ground floor uses.
A schematic design is scheduled to be presented to the council for approval in October.
