City Council postpones vote on new downtown parking garage, requests public and business owner input

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Posted February 4, 2022 | By James Blevins
james@ocalagazette.com

The Ocala City Council decided to postpone voting on a contract to purchase six parcels in Downtown Ocala from Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church for the plan to build a four-story parking garage during its regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 2.

The initial purchase of the property would cost the city $1.765 million, and be funded from the city’s general fund reserve for projects.

Funding for construction of the garage would be addressed in the FY 2023 budget, according to city documents.

The property is located east along the right-of-way of S.W. 3rd Avenue on north and south sides of S.W. Fort King Street, in the Central Business District of Ocala.

According to Pete Lee, assistant city manager, the purchase price for the six parcels is 7.6% over the appraised value, which was appraised on Oct. 13, 2021 “as is” at $1,640,000 by Basset Appraisal Services, Inc. out of St. Augustine.

“The overage considers some of the site administrative costs that are related to the church relocating to its new site,” Lee said.

Councilmember Kristen Dreyer expressed dismay at discovering that public input, especially from downtown business owners, had not been gathered prior to the agenda item coming to council for a vote.

“I have spoken to some of those business owners, and they were kind of angry that they weren’t asked what their opinion was. I mean, they stand the most to benefit or lose at this point,” Dreyer said. “I think that there’s been plenty of time between November and now to at least have hosted something with our downtown businesses to at least get them on board with the site.”

If the purchase were to be approved on March 1, the city would not be able to take possession of the property and start construction for a year, according to Assistant City Manager Pete Lee, giving the church that length of time to fully relocate to its new location.

“We’ll finalize all that before closing,” Lee informed the council.

Due diligence on the contract is 90 days, according to City Attorney Robert Batsel Jr., adding that it didn’t preclude the city from looking at anything that may bear on the appropriateness of the property for its intended use.

City Staff analyzed seven sites over the last year and half, said Lee, choosing the Mt. Moriah site for its relationship to the western edge of downtown, which could open up opportunities for redevelopment to the north and southeast of the proposed garage.

“The feeling was that a lot of the other properties didn’t extend the city, the downtown area, in the same way over time,” said Lee, mentioning that the other six lot options were either too far south or didn’t resolve enough perceived parking issues brought on by such popular Downtown Ocala events as First Friday Art Walk.

Councilmember Jim Hilty addressed concerns over the proposed lot being too far from the Square, as well as concerns over poor lighting in the currently underdeveloped area.

“Women would not walk there at night,” said Hilty. “They will park in the parking garage because there’s a lot of activity going on around it, but the safety issue is probably one of the biggest concerns I heard from people about that particular area.”

Lee said that any concerns about lighting could be overcome.

“If it’s dark, we have streetlights. We can make that area full of light,” he said. “I would hope that we can resolve any safety issues and that people wouldn’t be afraid to walk out of that garage at that location.”

Public comment touched on the parking garage’s proposed amount of floors as well as possible new development being lured to downtown.

“Would it be prudent to go five or six stories?” asked a gentleman during public comment. “As opposed to three or four? Please take that in consideration. No matter where you’re located, make sure that you can beef up that foundation if necessary and save us from having to build more parking garages at the expense of the land.”

Kevin Sheilley, CEO and president of the Ocala Metro Chamber and Economic Partnership (CEP), took the podium next for public comment, assuring the council that the proposed site will be a boon for the city.

“I will tell you, as a person whose job it is to help develop this community, that I have come to believe this is a great site,” said Sheilley. “I believe it will be a catalyst for $50 million in additional investment in our downtown. I can tell you that because I’m already talking to those developers who are very interested.”

Sheilley estimated that if the parking garage was built and ready by 2023, that $50 million investment could happen to the city by 2024 or 2025.

“This is the best site and I would encourage your strong consideration,” Sheilley added.

Former Ocala Mayor Gerald Ergel said during public comment that he was amazed at how little the council members he spoke to prior to Tuesday’s meeting knew about the location of the proposed parking garage.

“Then I found out that there have been no public hearings,” added Ergel. “My focus now is not the location of the garage, but how did we get to this point tonight? That we’re going to buy the land, and there has been no public input on that location. I understand you may have to pay a little more if the word gets out—unfortunately, that’s government. And it wouldn’t be the first time government had to pay too much for something.”

Ergel’s final point concerned transparency on behalf of the city.

“If we’re going to operate and take care of the people’s business,” he said, “it needs to be done in the sunshine.”

Dreyer shared the former mayor’s concerns on transparency.

“I think at the end of the day it boils down to the transparency of government,” said Dreyer. “The public speakers that we’ve had, they think that we’re all doing this behind closed doors. Let me be clear, we have met about this, but it wasn’t in this detail. It was hypothetical. Not that it’s going to be on the Feb. 1 agenda.”

Lee conceded some of Dreyer’s points.

“No, you’re right,” said Lee. “We didn’t say that. But we did discuss how big this was and our preferred site based on the analysis we had done. We didn’t receive any negative feedback on that. But you’re right. We didn’t say, ‘Hey, we’re going to the Feb. 1 council meeting with a contract.’ No, we didn’t do that.”

Councilmember Barry Mansfield confessed a similar frustration on Tuesday over what he felt was a last minute agenda item that he had had no previous knowledge of.

“How does this come up…where does it ever come before us before somebody just hands us notices?” asked Mansfield. “Is there any workshops? Or did I miss them?”

“I think we talked to every individual council person about this,” said Lee.

“I must have missed that one,” replied Mansfield. “I don’t remember going over this. I just want to make sure that we’re picking the right spot. It’s a lot of money. Just want to make sure we’re doing the right thing.”

The council will revisit the topic at its March 1 regular meeting after City Staff has had time to collect opinions from the public and downtown business owners on the proposed site and plans for the parking garage.