Louisville, Colorado's City Council is scheduled to discuss options Tuesday for a proposed downtown parking structure, a controversial bid that some say will help ease the area's parking restrictions but others have rebuffed, suggesting its mass and scale are out of place with an otherwise "small town" aesthetic.
According to plans drafted by DAJ Design of Louisville and Desman Design Management of Denver, each design variation would sit roughly in the 600 block of Front and Main streets, next to Sweet Cow and the recently transitioned Blue Parrot Restaurant, now called The Corner.
The first design proposed: a four-level (with one level below ground), 407 parking space structure that would sit east-west between and Main and Front streets. According to estimates, the nearly 24-foot tall garage would cost upward of $11 million to build.
The second structure scheme would boast five levels at roughly 33 feet (with one floor below ground) and hold 292 parking spaces. It would sit north-south and cost nearly $9 million to build.
The third option would allow for a four-and-a-half-level structure with 1.5 levels below ground; the 28-foot building would host 280 spaces and cost roughly $10 million to construct.
"The focus has been on placing the structure within the possible orientations and considering height, setbacks, parking efficiency," Louisville's Economic Development Director Aaron Dejong wrote in a Friday staff report. "Aesthetics have not been the priority thus far in considering a current location and would come at a later date should additional plan discussions occur requiring more detailed design and facade concepts."
The city's downtown resurgence over the last decade has consistently burdened the area's parking infrastructure, officials say.
A 2014 study found the city's Old Town neighborhood has more than 300 fewer parking spaces than it needs "based on standards for residential properties in the Louisville Municipal Code," a staff report for the upcoming discussion reads. That study also found that evening parking demands at the time outstripped supply between 130 to 325 spaces.
The city has attempted to address the problem in several fashions: Most notably, through a traditional parking fee in-lieu program, allowing downtown developers to offset their parking requirements (one space per 500 square-feet of commercial development) at a cost. This year, the fee hovers around $18,000 per space.
The city has also looked into some more tactile efforts, expanding the public parking lot adjacent to Lucky Pie Pizza, adding 28 parking spaces; leasing evening-hour spaces at Koko Plaza; purchasing .638 acres in the DELO area to accommodate 68 new parking spaces; and most recently, the purchase of a 25-space parking lot from the now-defunct Blue Parrot Restaurant for $700,000.
And most recently, the city transitioned 74 downtown parking spaces -- including those on the property slated for the parking structure -- from all-day to two-hour time limits.'
A combination of continued growth and access to the area portend the city's issues only getting worse in the coming years, according to staff predictions.
"Staff has heard from property owners interested in redeveloping that they are concerned no additional parking will be constructed with the received fees," a Friday staff report reads. "Their lenders are also concerned there isn't a parking project identified to allocate future parking funds."
Additionally, the Regional Transportation District's FasTracks Northwest Rail Project is expected to bring a rail stop into downtown Louisville, likely necessitating a bevy of parking spaces for commuters, officials say. The original project indicated a need for 440 to 470 spaces to satisfy that demand, though plans for the railway stop are likely far into the future.
No official decision is expected at Tuesday's meeting, according to its agenda, though city council will direct staff on the project's future.
