South San Francisco seeks downtown parking garage

While no decision was made at the meeting, officials weighed cost concerns against an interest to add more parking that will be needed to accommodate an uptick in development downtown.

“As surface parking lots become housing and the economy grows, downtown parking will be a bigger issue,” City Manager Mike Futrell said. “So this is definitely a worthwhile enterprise.”

At 400 Grand Ave., officials are considering building a parking lot underneath City Hall which could open the door to additional amenities built at the site as well.

A two-story underground garage could offer 230 spaces, an addition of 146 new spaces from the parking currently provided at the site. The development could also make way for construction of more office space in the annex building attached to City Hall, as well as development of a child care center and new park at the site.

A three-story garage below City Hall would yield 318 spaces, an increase of 234 spots, plus more office space in the annex building and a bigger child care facility.

Advocates for the three-story project see it as an opportunity to add the 220 new spaces which officials claim are needed to accommodate demand downtown, while also adding critical amenities such as child care facilities and open space in a neighborhood starved for such resources.

But critics balanced the potential benefits against the significant cost of building the project, which would require an initial $10 million investment plus a creative financing model to build and operate.

Officials favor a public-private partnership for the project, which would allow a third party to build, operate and maintain the facility at an annual cost to the city. Should councilmembers move ahead with the arrangement, it would likely take about 15 years for the garage to generate revenue for the city, according to a report.

Alternatively, officials anticipated building the garage at Baden Avenue which could offer 220 spaces, or 180 additional spaces than the current lot, would start generating revenue in about two or three years.

Officials imagine the Baden Avenue garage would be solely reliant on an automatic parking mechanism, which would allow for more spaces to be housed in a limited amount of space.

Considering the wide gap in price for the projects, Vice Mayor Mark Nagales threw his support behind the Baden Avenue plan.

“If the purpose is to generate parking spaces in the most expedient time and also generate revenue, I think the Baden lot makes the most sense,” he said.

Mayor Mark Addiego seemingly also favored the Baden Avenue location, noting it is in a part of downtown experiencing heavy development which could be soon grappling with a parking shortage.

Alternatively, he said City Hall is only a short distance from another city parking garage on Miller Avenue. And while he admired the vision of adding new open space downtown, he questioned the wisdom of building a new park in an area known for high winds and unfavorable weather conditions.

For his part, Councilmember James Coleman suggested a compromise might be officials advancing with construction of the Baden Avenue garage while continue examining the partnership opportunity for rebuilding at City Hall later.

Looking ahead, officials agreed to consider examining the matter and searching for ways to meet the variety of interests.

“We should continue on the journey,” Councilmember Eddie Flores said.

austin@smdailyjournal.com