AgdaPkt 2015-10-12 Closed and Joint SA and PFA

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6.3.B. - Page 2 ANALYSIS The amount of the in-lieu fee involves balancing policy objectives: 1. Cost Recovery and Parking Flexibility. The in-lieu fee needs to cover the average cost of providing the parking spaces, while incenting a flexible public parking arrangement. When the City provides parking, it is typically available to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is in contrast to private parking garages that are available to the public on nights and weekends, or not at all. The cost for the City to build new parking spaces is typically higher than that for a developer, and often ranges in cost based on lot and parking garage size. Charging the highest potential cost per space could discourage developers from paying the fee, reducing City control over where and how parking is provided. 2. Just Enough Parking. Commercial projects downtown are required to provide 3 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of development when offering shared parking. Employers in transit-accessible downtowns such as Redwood City typically need 2.0-2.4 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of office space. Allowing projects to pay a fee for the difference between the needed and required spaces reduces the amount of onsite parking. This encourages tenants to seek alternatives to driving alone and funds public parking that can be shared at all times of the day. An oversupply of parking can also have negative consequences for Downtown — increased traffic, vehicle noise, and reduced safety and livability. Since the inception of the in-lieu parking fee in 2006 through 2013, six properties have paid the parking fee rather than build the equivalent of 41 spaces. During that time, roughly 75 additional parking spaces were added to the public parking supply, primarily through striping changes. Demand to pay in-lieu fees has increased since then. In light of the increase in requests to pay the in-lieu parking fee, the City commissioned TJKM Transportation Consultants to complete a study to review the City's program. The following outlines relevant findings with respect to the fee amount; additional detail is available in the attached study. Staff will return to Council in the near future with recommended changes to the program itself. Study findings: • 2012 Report by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission established the average construction (alone) cost for a parking space at $32,000 per space. However, this study included a San Jose garage that cost more than $80,000 per space. When removing this outlier (all other garages cost much less per space), the average cost was approximately $25,740/space.