Should We House People Or Cars?
Does building a massive concrete parking structure (current proposal is for 3-4 levels) fit with the values and needs of our community?
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Jump to our Garage Fact Check Page for facts on whether we need the parking or not.
Instead of building a parking garage that experts say we don't need, Measure O (section 4. A.) allocates any future excess
parking revenue to things we need:
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Construction of affordable housing - with the City's first regular annual revenue dedicated to this purpose
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Supplement Measure S Funds for Downtown Library Renovation
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Making improvements to a permanent location of Lot 4 for the Farmers Market and community space
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Continue current transportation benefits program, p. Eg bus passes
"Compare a bond debt estimated at $2.9 million per year with the $3 million the City currently has
in its Affordable Housing Trust Fund and imagine using parking revenue for affordable housing instead. And then the choice is really whether we should house people or cars."
- Rick Longinotti
Measure O also reserves 8 publicly-owned parcels downtown for Affordable Housing, instead of parking garages, etc...
“The space required to park two cars (including circulation space) is equivalent to the space required for a two-bedroom housing unit.”
- Urban Planning Partners, reporting to the Santa Cruz City Planning Commission on January 7, 2021
Snapshot of the Status of Downtown Parking
In May, 2016, the City entered a $100,000 contract with Nelson\Nygaard, to produce a strategic plan for parking Downtown. Their report, The Economics of Parking, Santa Cruz Strategic Parking Plan, concluded unequivocally that here was no compelling reason to build new parking.
Parking demand had declined in 2008 and future demand would remain stable. The City had hoped that this study would support their request for a new 400-space structure and, in spite of some pressure to change and scale down the report.
Parking demand Downtown peaked in 2008 and has declined since then, following national trends in central district parking mainly attributed to ride services (Uber; Lyft).
Patrick Siegman, co-author of the Nelson/Nygaard report said:
“Currently, downtown has a parking management problem, not a parking supply problem,”
and “Almost 30% of off-street parking in the Downtown remains empty
even at the peak of the peak times.”
Locust/Cedar Garage
6:51pm, Sat, June 16, 2018 - Graduation Weekend
And What About The Cost?
“The most fiscally prudent approach to accommodating additional demand:
Modernize parking management and better align parking prices
to the cost of building and maintaining the system.”
-Nelson\Nygaard
There are substantial financial risks and especially burden in building a new parking structure. The City plans to finance this through a 30-year bond debt that will be repaid with parking revenue, in spite of the conclusions by three separate consultants that new parking should be built only as a last resort. According to J.R. Parking Associates’ Janis Rhodes, “No agency will make enough on user fees to pay for that space.”