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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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City of Flint adds free parking around mostly empty downtown ramp
Published: Friday, March 18, 2011, 8:16 AM Updated: Friday, March 18, 2011, 10:01 AM
By Kristin Longley | Flint Journal
Flint Journal file photoThe Rutherford Parking Structure is pictured just prior to its July 2009 opening.
FLINT, Michigan — The downtown’s new $8.1 million parking deck is now surrounded by a sea of free street parking.
The city added 200 free spaces in downtown Flint during its recent large-scale one-way street conversion project, even as the 388-space Rutherford Parking Structure sat mostly empty.
That is potentially a big problem for the city — since the Downtown Development Authority relies on paid parking at the deck to help make payments on the structure’s $10 million construction loan.
“It just doesn’t make sense to put (free) parking around a parking ramp,” City Councilman Joshua Freeman said.
When the DDA can’t make the full payment — which it hasn’t been able to do for the last three years — the cash-strapped city of Flint is on the hook for the balance.
So far, the city has paid $1.3 million on the loan, including interest, while the DDA has only paid about $326,000, according to the city Finance Department.
This year, the city will have to shell out just over half of this year’s $668,000 payment, said Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, who is also chairman of the DDA.
The city’s portion of the payment comes from its public improvement fund, which is strictly for capital improvement projects and debt payment — not the general fund, which pays for police, fire and other city services.
Councilman Delrico Loyd complained that the city is steering people away from a parking deck the DDA can’t fully pay for.
The parking deck opened in 2009 at Kearsley and Beach streets, one block off Saginaw Street. It was built in anticipation of a flood of new downtown parkers as new student housing and businesses located in the center of the city.
But the deck is only 40 percent full most days, officials said, and the DDA has struggled to pay off the loan.
The city council recently questioned the administration about the added street parking.
Walling said the street spaces provide a short-term option for an increased number of downtown visitors, Walling said. Parking is limited to two hours on the street.
Long-term parkers, such as people who work downtown, should be parking in the parking ramp, he said.
“It’s important to have adequate parking for all times of day and for events,” said Walling, who added that three- to five-year projections show even more spaces will be necessary to accommodate more businesses.
The DDA is working on ways to make more money so it can make the full payments on the bond, he said.
Part of the problem is that the previous city council approved extensions on tax abatements for downtown businesses, Walling said. The DDA would have captured a portion of that tax revenue for the bond payments.
Walling also said the DDA has always intended to put parking meters on the street parking spaces.
“Every single spot becomes a revenue-generating machine,” Walling said. “I’m pushing to get those parking meters in place as soon as possible.”
But that’s not soon enough for some city council members. Loyd said he wants the street parking “drastically” reduced.
“We can’t keep waiting and waiting and waiting for meters,” he said. “I’m getting just a little bit antsy. I want it fixed.”
But DDA officials said meters are already on the way. The DDA has picked a vendor and the meters could be in place as soon as six to eight weeks, said Gerard Burnash, DDA director.
Walling said the DDA will be able to make its full payments on the bond when the ramp is full and when parking meters are on the majority of downtown spaces.
When will that happen?
“We’re working on the projections,” Walling said. |
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Fri Mar 18, 2011 9:24 am |
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Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
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| Hey, Walling, can you project when Pigs will be flying over Flint? |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Fri Mar 18, 2011 10:27 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| Council knew when they bonded out the ramp that it could not make payments for at least 2 years. It was the city that changed the one way streets and created the free parking spaces. Council knew the DDA did not have money for parking meters after vandals destroyed the old meters. |
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Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:59 pm |
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