Council Turns Down First Street Parking Garage Proposal

A local real estate investment firm got an “A” for creativity from the Los Altos City Council for trying to fix downtown’s projected parking shortage, but failed in its attempt to create a shared underground parking garage between the First Street Safeway store and a new development at First and Main streets.

“I’m thrilled to see new and creative ideas,” said Councilwoman Megan Satterlee of the plan for more than 500 new parking spaces proposed by Passarelle Investment Company. “It’s an idea that I find intriguing.”

Intriguing, but too late in the planning process.

Officials from both Safeway and The Jeffrey A. Morris Group both told the council at its meeting Tuesday night that they wanted nothing do with the shared parking garage. By participating in planning to create a combined garage, it could delay the new store by at least six months.

Safeway officials made it very clear that its new refurbished store would be off the table if the project was delayed.

Safeway representative Deborah Karbo told the council that the company wants to coordinate reopening the new 44,000-square-foot Los Altos store in December 2012, with the grand opening of a 65,000-square-foot store at the new San Antonio shopping center development in Mountain View, just over the Los Altos border. 

Jeff Morris, who is in an option-to-purchase agreement with the city for its property at First and Main streets, also made it clear he did not want to work with Passarelle.

“It’s important from my point of view that Safeway moves forward,” he said.

A long-span underground garage stretching between the two properties would have created 514 underground spaces. City officials acknowledge that development of the First and Main property and other factors are leading to the city losing more than 100 spaces.

The Passarelle plan also would have created a new “in lieu” parking program, in which downtown property owners could purchase spaces when developing or redeveloping more dense projects requiring more parking.

While potentially helpful in creating more places for shoppers and workers to park downtown, the plan carried a hefty price tag of $25.7 million. The city would be required to chip in more than $16 million up front, according to Passarelle representative Jack Bariteau.

Bariteau said the city could earn more than $9 million in revenue from the in-lieu sales program over time, making the final investment about $7 million. Some council members balked at the price tag, noting that the city might have to make cuts elsewhere in the budget to accommodate the garage. 

Several downtown business and property owners spoke in favor of Passarelle plan, including Kim Cranston, whose father, Sen. Alan Cranston, was a forefather of downtown Los Altos.  He urged the city to “balance its parking budget.”

Mayor Ron Packard, while complimentary of the people involved in the long-span garage plan, said it was just too late to interfere with the Safeway and First and Main projects already in development.

“We need to be at the formation of a concept,” Packard said to the Passarelle team. “There are so many opportunities; let’s work together. Let's not work on something that derails something we’ve worked on for so long.”

Council members said they would continue to work toward creating more downtown parking. They pointed to a city plan now in progress to build new parking structures in city/private partnerships on the city's parking plazas.

Assistant City Manager James Walgren said it could be two to five years before those projects break ground.