The Parking Web

From the CRA Transcript that we posted is this conversation:

City Manager McNees: And all of the parking needed won’t now necessarily be served by this particular project. Mrs. Saunders did agree at the time both she and the city were competing to purchase the old Verizon lot at the corner of Laurel and Orange, that if the city to some degree step aside at that point in time and allow her to acquire that land, she would lease it back to us, we could get parking without having to buy it, and then she would work with us to build public parking into her project when she eventually developed it. And, hopefully we can still do that. Her project as it’s currently constructed and for which she has submitted a site plan for approval does not include that parking.

Dir. Planning Robinson: And furthermore, I don’t know that there would be much that she could do for public parking, because her project is a big, land-intensive use project with office and residential.

This is quite interesting as all the CRA participants agree that Michael Saunders promised that puiblic parking would be available in her project if the city would back away from competing for the Verizon property that Michael Saunders bought. Apparently the city was very interested in some (or all) of the property to fulfill the parking requirement that had been identified, but then backed away from the deal. And, of course, now we know why.

Today it seems that maybe the city got snookered on that deal also. Now the story is that Michael Saunders did not really promise parking availability. Since nothing was written down, we are into a "he said, she said" mode.

It is also quite interesting that the Dir. of Planning seems to support Michael Saunders because her project is " big, land intensive... with office and residential." What the heck has this got to do with whether public parking could be available? We read this as "more profit can be made selling condos than helping the city with parking." It would seem that if a promise were made for parking, and the city took a specific action based on that promise, and that action likely resulted in a better bargaining position for the purchaser (Michael Saunders), why is there suddenly not "much that she could do for public parking?"