City in talks to buy land for downtown parking garage
Council also approved mobile parking payment last night
Listed on Wednesday’s closed session council meeting agenda was an item under land acquisition in connection with a parking deck.
The deck in question would have been built on a piece of land located at the intersection of Bond Street and Bangs Avenue, according to city manager Terence Reidy [and shown in photo above]. Construction there was slated to include two levels of parking with a four-story building on top, but the developer defaulted and the bank now owns the land, which is on the market.
Reidy could not give more information on the topic, as the city is currently in negotiations regarding the land acquisition.
The lot sits close to a state-owned parking deck located farther east on Bangs Avenue. The city has access to some of the spaces in that deck, which is primarily used by workers in the state building across the street.
Also at last night’s council meeting, the city council approved a contract with Mobile Payment Processing Systems Inc. — a company that will enable motorists to pay for parking on their cell phones through the website at http://mpay2park.com. For a previous story on the program, click here.
The council unanimously approved the contract, pending the approval of Reidy and city attorney Fred Raffetto after they look over the final agreement. Mobile parking payment could be in place within 30 days, Reidy said.
Parking is currently “one of the city’s greatest challenges,” Reidy said today, “which is a great challenge to have. It means we have a lot of people coming.”
The city is actively working on its parking management plan, Reidy said. Metered parking was first instituted last year not only for revenue, but also to ensure the downtown parking spots were being occupied by customers and not just tenants or business owners, Reidy said.
“We’ve been able to really maximize on-street parking through the pay stations,” he said. “In addition to maximizing all the on-street parking, we clearly need to provide additional parking, and as the downtown becomes even more vibrant, that demand will grow.”
