City Panel Picks Worth Lot for New Parking Garage

A city panel charged with selecting the best site to build a new parking garage decided on the Worth Lot Tuesday morning at City Hall.

Now the Parking Garage Site Selection Committee will forward its recommendation to the full City Council for review in October, and the first step will be a work session on Oct. 15 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

A week ago, the committee narrowed the field to three sites: the Worth Lot, Deer Street and the Thomas J. McIntyre federal building on Daniel Street.

Following a final read through of seven sites, the committee, which consists of City Councilors Anthony Coviello, Nancy Novelline Clayburgh and Chris Dwyer, settled on the Worth Lot. Principal Planner Nick Cracknell said this site would give the city 600 parking spaces with 490 new spaces and 400 net spaces if the council votes to move forward with this project.

A conceptual drawing that he produced for the committee last week showed a parking facility that would also include several retailers, restaurants and shops that would be located in a historic looking, red brick facade that would blend in with the downtown area.

City Manager John Bohenko said the city will have to meet with property owners in the area to see what they will support as far as any properties the city might want to obtain to make the Worth Lot design doable. At this point, those discussions have not taken place because Bohenko said he has not been given the authority to do that yet.

Coviello his recommendation for the Worth Lot is contingent on the acquisition of the Coldwell Banker property.

Dwyer said the recommendations should include two items where the city will continue to pursue the McIntyre and Deer Street sites for future parking garages even after a final recommendation is made.

Bohenko said the city has been trying to build a new garage since 1998 and made an addition to the High/Hanover Garage. The addition of the Portwalk’s surface lot gave them 205 spaces and provided some relief. The council rejected a proposed $12 million bond in June 2011 to move forward with a new parking garage on the Worth Lot so further studies could be made.

Bohenko said that if he is authorized by the council to proceed, he would begin negotiations with Worth Lot area property owners and the city would hire an engineer and architect to do a more detailed design. He said the City Council would have to have a public hearing on any future bonding and it requires six votes out of nine to pass.

“If we decide to go forward with the Worth Lot, we would want to have to a lot of the stakeholders involved,” Bohenko said.

A final design would happen if council approves bonding for a new parking garage, he said.

While it is very hard to peg when a new garage might actually be constructed, the committee indicated it could be by 2015. Some Worth Lot area business owners told the committee any construction project will create a great deal of economic hardships for them.

Coviello told business owners it is important for the city and the council to hear all of the concerns that they have if this project goes forward. “It’s helpful that we all work together on these type of projects.”