The following story was first printed in Monday morning’s Daily Post. If you want to stay on top of local news, pick up the Post.
BY ELAINE GOODMAN
Daily Post Correspondent
The city of Los Altos is exploring the idea of moving parking from two downtown lots below ground and building a park at street level on top of the underground garage.
The City Council will discuss the idea during a study session on April 9.
The proposed park was also the topic of a recent meeting hosted by the Los Altos Community Coalition.
Planners are eyeing two cityowned parking lots south of Main Street for the project: lot 1 between First and Second streets, and lot 2 between Second and Third streets. Each is about an acre in size. There are 131 and 132 parking stalls in lots 1 and 2, respectively, for a total of 263 spaces.
A new underground garage would at the minimum replace the lost surface spaces, and maybe add more, on one or two levels, Anthony Carnesecca, assistant to the city manager, said during the community coalition meeting.
“We’re still going to provide the same vehicular parking – we’re just moving it below the ground,” Carnesecca said. “And (the park) could be a beautiful amenity that could draw a number of individuals into our town and hopefully provide a ton of benefits for our business community.”
Cost
Carnesecca said the city will have a better idea of the project cost after a feasibility study is conducted and decisions are made on what features to include in the park.
“We are looking at a very expensive project,” Carnesecca said. “The two-figure million (dollar range) would probably be my guess, at minimum.”
Nick Zornes, the city’s development services director, said a conservative cost figure for underground parking is about $80,000 per space. Based on that figure, an underground garage with 131 spaces, the number of spaces in lot 1, would cost $10.5 million. Moving all 263 spaces from lots 1 and 2 underground would cost around $21 million.
That price tag doesn’t include the cost for building the new park.
Zornes said an in-lieu park fund that developers pay into to provide park space contains around $7.2 million.
And Los Altos is expecting a steady flow of additional park funding from an in-lieu fee paid by housing developers, as the city works to meet its housing quota of nearly 2,000 new units by 2031.
Carnesecca noted that part of lot 2 is being considered as the site of a downtown theater. He showed a preliminary sketch of the proposed park covering all of lot 1 and about half of lot 2, including a plaza area in front of the potential theater site.
Other park amenities might include a central green area, a kids’ play zone, paved paths with seating, an elevator from the underground garage, and public restrooms. The garage would be accessed from First and Third streets.
The preliminary plan calls for maintaining alleys on two sides of the park.
The city is looking at undergrounding utility lines and building enclosures for dumpsters to further beautify the area.
Carnesecca said the sketch he presented was intended as “a starting point for conversation.” The city is planning community outreach on the project over the spring and summer.
One meeting participant asked how the loss of parking would be handled during construction of the park and underground garage. Carnesecca said the project could potentially be phased so that some parking is preserved, or the city could use a valet or shuttle system to help drivers trying to find parking.
Although there are other parking lots downtown, Carnesecca said lots 1 and 2 show the most promise for a new park and underground parking. Some of the other lots are irregularly shaped or aren’t entirely city-owned. Lots 7 and 8 are being eyed as sites for housing.
An alternative to a street-level park with underground parking would be an above-ground garage with a park on top. Zornes said that such a project might not qualify for use of the park in-lieu money. An elevated park would also present safety issues, he said, as police and firefighters wouldn’t be able to readily see what’s happening inside.