The West Florida Regional Planning Council presented its downtown parking study to the Pensacola City Council on Monday. The $30,000 study was commissioned by Mayor Ashton Hayward as part of his goals for 2016.
In a viewpoint published last January in the daily newspaper, Mayor Hayward said that more parking solutions for downtown Pensacola are needed.
“We will decide whether or not a new parking garage is needed downtown and, if so, where it should be located and how it can be financed,†he wrote in the viewpoint.
The conclusion of the WFRPC study: “Parking is a vital component to both new and existing developments, and this study’s assessment of current and future parking supply and demand shows a need for additional parking solutions, particularly in the Palafox Commercial Core (1,989 space estimated deficient in the future) and West End zones (1,557 estimated deficient in the future).”
The potential locations for a new parking garage, according to the report:
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The North Palafox Street Lot (Palafox Commercial Core) – This is a public surface parking lot (133 spaces) at the corner of Palafox and Gregory Streets, and is owned by the Community Redevelopment Agency.
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The Chappie James Parking Lot (West End) – This is a private surface lot owned by the State of Florida. It has 350 spaces reserved for employees of the Chappie James Building.
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Bayfront Stadium Parking Lot (West End) – This is a public, City-owned surface parking lot at the Community Maritime Park with 313 spaces.
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South Jefferson Street/Commendencia Lots (East Waterfront) – These are four public/private-use adjacent City-owned surface lots totaling 313 spaces. While these lots are within the East Waterfront Zone, they are one block from the Palafox Commercial Core, and adjacent to major future developments such as the new Holiday Inn Express and the Pensacola Bay Ferry Landing Site.
How to finance:
Privately-Owned Parking Developers usually provide parking to their tenants and pay for it through increased costs and/or lower wages. Developers could also lease, sell, or charge parking fees to those using the facility to pay for the construction and operation of a parking facility. Alternatively, the local jurisdiction can reduce parking requirements, provide density bonuses, or provide real estate tax abatements.
Reducing parking requirements can allow structured parking facilities to count more towards the parking requirement than standard parking lots. This allows the developer to operate at a more profitable rate. Density bonuses allow the developer to increase the floor area based on how many surface parking spaces are converted to structured parking spaces. Real estate tax abatements allow the developer to not pay real estate taxes on the property for a given time period. Real estate tax abatements with parking facilities provide an incentive to the developer, who may not want to take on the risk of insufficient returns, to pay for real estate taxes.
Publicly-Owned Parking Municipal bonds are most commonly used on publicly-owned parking structures. In order to benefit from a municipal bond’s tax-free interest income, 90% of the parking must be available to the general public, otherwise federal taxation rules apply.
Public-Private Partnerships The private entity can provide the needed sourceof initial funding that is often lacking in a public entity’s budget. The private entity can benefit from the tax-free interest income generated. Revenues from the parking facility can then be shared by both entities.
Lease Purchase Financing A private entity leases parking spaces to a public entity that makes payments, usually on a yearly basis, until repayment is reached. When repayment is reached the public entity will own the parking facility.
According to City Administrator Eric Olson, the mayor will be coming back to the city council to figure how to finance a parking garage at some unspecified date. Let’s hope the mayor develops the plan, rather than depending on the council to figure out what he should do.