Menlo Park: Parking garage choices: many, and costly Menlo Park: Parking garage choices: many, and costly (December 15, 2004)

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

Now that the Menlo Park City Council has chosen one plaza as a possible site to build a parking garage downtown, there are still many choices ahead: How tall? How many spaces? Should it include underground parking?

At a public meeting held on December 9 in the council chambers, consultants from Watry Design Inc. of Redwood City showed that the choices are plentiful -- and often costly. The consultants did not recommend one option over another.

Many residents and officials have said that they'd like the parking garage to be at least partially underground because the visual impact would be less. But the costs do increase, Watry Design principal Michelle Wendler said at the meeting.

The council has chosen to concentrate on Plaza 3, which is on the north side of Santa Cruz Avenue at University Drive and currently has 212 parking stalls.

According to a Watry cost estimate, a three-level parking garage with one story at street level and two above could contain 395 total stalls, at a cost of $34,340 per net new stall. A three-level garage including underground parking could contain about the same number of stalls, but the cost would be more like $46,000 per net new stall.

Another option is building a garage that includes commercial space. The space could be used for sales-tax-generating retail stores, but the garage would cost more to build, Ms. Wendler said. According to the cost estimate, a three-level garage of this type could cost $52,000 per net new stall in a 337-stall garage without underground parking and $55,000 in a 350-stall garage with it.
Desperate need

At the meeting, there was much interest expressed in building a garage, but also several concerns.

Margaret Clarke, the owner of Ross McArthur Salon on Oak Grove Avenue near University Drive, said her clients and employees -- who include 21 stylists -- desperately need more parking downtown.

"We have about 100 people going through the salon each day," she said, expressing concern that clients, who have to repeatedly circle on a parking search, would take their business elsewhere.

Ms. Clarke, though, voiced concern about the parking crunch being worsened by the construction tangle if the garage takes a long time to build.

A garage could take nine to 12 months to complete, Ms. Wendler said.

Anne Moser, a member of the city's Housing Commission, championed the idea of building housing units atop a parking garage, citing an ongoing lack of affordable housing.

Remarking on how expensive a garage could be, she said, "That's a lot of money for just cars."

Watry Design has been hosting public meetings to gather input as part of its city-sponsored, $50,000 study on parking garages. The consultants are scheduled to make their next report to the City Council on January 25.

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