The future of public parking in Meadville is likely to result in a lack of downtown parking and an annual deficit in the city’s parking fund, which one official called a “social subsidy.”
The possibility was raised last week during a discussion at a meeting of the Meadville City Council’s Subcommittee on Infrastructure.
“It’s basically a bleak picture,” said City Councilor Autumn Vogel of the latest assessment of the current state of parking at Market Square. The Infrastructure Subcommittee, made up of Mr. Vogel and City Councilman Jim Loja, did not attend the meeting. Although no formal action was taken at the meeting, Mayor Jamie Kinder and City Councilman Gretchen Myers were also present as public participants.
City planner Peter Glera, who attended the meeting by phone, said there was “no option” for repairing the garage.
It’s not yet known how much it will cost: the city’s Magianno municipal administrator said a request for proposals soliciting bids for a formal structural analysis of the garage was ready to go public after Wednesday’s meeting.
However, an April 2022 letter from Ashley Porter, a city consulting engineer, provided an informal estimate of what it would cost to extend the life of the garage.
“As engineers, we can bring this structure back from near the end of its useful life or beyond, but this is going to be a multi-million dollar project.” Mr Porter writes.
Porter said the expected costs would not be a one-time expense either.
“If proper annual maintenance is not budgeted for and implemented, the deck will be in the same shape again in a decade or so,” he added in the letter.
Menanno said the deck was built in 2003.
The deck is in its current shape, of course, because proper annual maintenance has not been budgeted for and performed for years.
“A temporary repair was carried out in 2018. Our city engineer (porter) advised that continued investment is needed every year,” said Gurrera. “That investment didn’t materialize.”
Porter estimated the cost of necessary repairs in 2017 at $650,000. The next year the city council approved $200,000 for part of the construction.
In an updated assessment last year, Porter said repairing the parking deck would require removing and replacing nearly 100 percent of the metal and concrete that make up each level, before removing the electrical and stormwater systems. and said it needed to be replaced. later replaced.
Porter said the deck’s structural steel was in “serviceable condition,” but said all secondary steel components such as railings, guard supports and other items would need to be replaced.
Lack of maintenance exacerbated the unsuitable design for the area, Porter said.
“You don’t find much like this in our area,” he wrote.
Menanno told the Meadville Tribune that one of the design elements is that the deck will consist of “concrete poured over a steel pan.” Accumulation of water in the steel pan can lead to deterioration of the concrete.
When the city seeks proposals for a formal structural analysis, it could pay for a closer look at the multi-million dollar price tag for any restoration project. Mr. Vogel pointed out that asking for proposals does not guarantee that the city council will proceed with the evaluation. Menanno previously estimated the cost to range from $30,000 to $50,000.
The question of whether the city needs about 275 spaces available when the decks are at full capacity will be considered by early-stage parking studies, Guerrera said.
According to a recent congressional debate, about 220 net spaces would be lost if the decks were demolished and replaced with above-ground lots.
Determining the acceptable level of annual losses for the city’s parking fund will be one of the goals of the parking study, Glera said, calling such losses “social subsidies.”
The city’s 2023 budget sees the parking fund lose $38,000, the first loss since 2020 when the fund lost $88,000.
“Whatever option we ultimately choose, we must always expect losses from it,” he said. Greater benefits for cities. “
Mr. Vogel endorsed this idea.
“Providing parking allows people to park downtown, shop, and spend money even if we can’t recoup all of the losses we’re seeing, helping businesses can continue to exist,” she said. “I think there is something about it.”
