Birmingham, Michigan, voters rejected a $57 million bonding proposal to finance parking.
Birmingham City Manager Joseph Valentine said that the city had no backup plan for funding the parking project.
"There was never discussion at any of the committees in the history of the project of a Plan B," said Valentine.
The city proposed to issue up to $57.4 million in unlimited tax general obligation bonds to fund the demolition and construction of a new parking deck and related street and site developments that was tied to a $140 million mixed-use development to be anchored by a flagship Restoration Hardware retail store. The bonds would have been paid off with revenues from the city's parking system.
The city of 20,000 is about 17 miles from downtown Detroit.
The bonds would have financed replacement of the existing 53-year-old parking deck to make way for a real estate development with 30 rental residential units, 25,000 square feet of office space and a total of about 65,000 square feet of retail space across multiple buildings. A much larger project was to follow on neighboring land. The new structure would have increased the city’s downtown parking by 400 public parking spaces.
Voters overwhelmingly rejected the plan Aug. 6 with 68% voting no. Opponents of the proposal questioned the public-private partnership the city proposed to bring new development into the area and the money that developers have allegedly poured into the campaign to gain voters’ approval.
"I'm gratified that all the hard work we did paid off, and I'm grateful that Birmingham residents saw that this wasn't a free parking deck," said David Bloom, a co-founder of Birmingham Citizens for Responsible Government. "This was about whether the residents or developers are running our town. There was a huge amount of money the other side spent to get people to vote yes, and our residents were smarter than that. The little people won.”
The city said the rationale for pursuing a P3 structure was to minimize the city's exposure to risk reduce overall project costs and engage in a more efficient delivery model.
"This ballot proposal did not pass and the lack of funding for the public elements will not allow the project to proceed," the city said in a statement. "As the City continues to work to address the growing demand for parking in the downtown, it will look to implement parking mitigation programs in the near term until a permanent solution is advanced."
Birmingham is rated triple-A by S&P Global Ratings, Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service. The city has roughly $14 million in outstanding general obligation debt.
