News Releases
700 Vermont Parking Garage benefit district meetings scheduled
(Sent: 2012-09-12 11:05:28)NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Contact: Megan Gilliland, communications manager, (785) 832-3406
700 Vermont Parking Garage benefit district meetings scheduled
(Lawrence, Kan.) – The City of Lawrence will hold two public meetings to discuss the proposed special assessment benefit district for the 700 Vermont Parking Garage. The city is proposing a benefit district to help pay the cost of adding an additional 72 parking spaces to the voter-approved 250-space parking garage which will be built adjacent to the Lawrence Public Library during its upcoming renovation and expansion. The meetings will be held at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, September 18 and Thursday, September 20 at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire.
The additional 72 spaces have been designed but will require approximately $1 million in additional funding beyond the anticipated budget of $4.25 million for the parking garage portion of the approved project. Staff is proposing that the City Commission consider a special assessment benefit district providing that downtown property owners pay for the additional $1 million plus interest and issuance costs. The approximate example per parcel costs for the special assessment benefit district is $0.379 per square-foot. The 10-year cost is calculated below:
25 x 120 ft. parcel = 3,000 sq. ft. x $0.426 = $1,278; or $127.80 per year over 10 years
50 x 120 ft. parcel = 6,000 sq. ft. x $0.426 = $2,556; or $255.60 per year over 10 years
There are several reasons to consider adding additional parking spaces to the already approved parking garage:
- Construction, engineering and design costs are minimized by completing the project while the Library renovations and parking garage are under construction.
- If the additional spaces are added now, the cost per parking space decreases from $17,000 to $14,000.
- Parking continues to be in demand in downtown Lawrence. Even with the city’s addition of two parking garages in the past two decades, there continues to be a need for additional parking for special events and everyday traffic.
- Adding additional parking levels in the future would be disruptive to downtown and would require closure of the parking garage while construction was underway.
The City Commission will consider a resolution for this benefit district at the regularly scheduled City Commission meeting on September 25 at 6:35 p.m.
For more information, visit www.lawrenceks.org or contact the City Manager’s Office at (785) 832-3400. A fact sheet is available online at http://www.lawrenceks.org/assets/agendas/cc/2012/09-11-12/pw_benefit_district_fact_sheet.pdf.
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