City staff held public information sessions on a proposed new downtown parking garage last week

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Posted February 25, 2022 | By James Blevins
james@ocalagazette.com

Ocala residents and business owners last week raised a number of concerns ranging from public safety to financing options during a pair of public information sessions with city officials focusing on a proposed downtown parking garage.

The city envisions a four-story parking garage on property located east along the right-of-way of Southwest Third Avenue on the north and south sides of Southwest Fort King Street, in the Central Business District of Ocala. City council recently postponed a vote on purchasing six parcels from Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church for $1.7 million until public and council questions are addressed.

During the two sessions Feb. 16 at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, city staff reviewed its site selection methodology and discussed topics including location, size, value, projected parking capacity, infrastructure impacts and proximity to future development sites.

“We wanted proximity to the intersection of Broadway and South Magnolia Avenue,” said Assistant City Manager Pete Lee. “When we chose to build the first parking garage two blocks east of the center of downtown, it kind of dictated partly where we’d build a second parking garage.”

Lee said that the current state of parking downtown, compared to when the first garage was built, has become a problem.

“We need to provide parking, and we’re kind of in emergency mode right now,” he said, adding, “A lot of the events that we have, especially large events, draw major traffic into downtown.”

When picking a site for a second parking garage, the city looked at future development opportunities, said Lee, blocks that were either undeveloped or underdeveloped. Staff also looked at how easy it would be for drivers to get in and out of the parking garage.

Seven sites were considered, each of which had its own advantages and disadvantages. The current site was chosen for its closeness to downtown, the opportunities that it offered for future development and its proximity to major roadways.

“The location that we landed on provides relatively quick access to and from the garage,” Lee said. “It’s a block from (U.S.) 441 and a block from State Road 40.”

Infrastructural impacts are of large concern as well, said Lee, and would have to be addressed, including properly lighting the surrounding area near the parking garage.

“We know we have to address those issues moving forward,” said Lee. “We have to make sure that the routes are safe. We discussed this with the police and with our staff, making it brighter. City council will make a decision on moving forward. We will do preliminary due diligence prior to going back to the council, just to make sure that if we are directed to move forward in this contract that we’re ready.”

“And if we acquire the property,” he added, “we will have a series of meetings like this one to talk about design of the garage, all the considerations that need to be understood and undertaken, as well as citizen input.”

Public Concerns

Among the concerns members of the public raised were the homeless population near the proposed property.

“We have to address that,” said Lee. “It’s a multipronged approach: there’s a police portion to that. But it’s not only a police problem. It’s also a problem of how we handle issues with the homeless—how not just the city and the county handle it, but also private providers for those people experiencing homelessness. It’s difficult to deal with them, whether they’re recently homeless or chronically homeless. But, yes, we can do everything we can to address that issue.”

Some business owners adjacent to the proposed property were thrilled to see that more parking spaces would be available for employees, but other businesses near the site expressed concerns that the new parking garage would cut them off from downtown.

“I think we can all agree that we need more parking,” said one business owner. “But as a business that is going to sit behind this parking garage at the corner of Southwest Third and Broadway, we’re going to be cut off.”

One audience member asked if the amount of spaces the proposed parking garage would add to downtown would be enough after two or three more years of growth in the city by the time it’s completed. He wondered if the garage should be built to accommodate more growth by adding floors. According to the city documents, the proposed four-story parking garage would hold a maximum of 159 parking spaces per floor.

“I think it’s a consideration we can make,” said Lee. “Obviously, it’s going to cost more. It’s going to require a foundation that allows you to do that and probably some beefed up columns and things like that. But it’s definitely something that we’re considering. It doesn’t cost us anything to explore that option.”

Another important question to be decided, Lee said, is whether the garage would be public or private.

“We have to decide on whether we want to charge for parking in garage, or whether we want it to be another free garage,’’ he said. “It makes sense to at least explore all of that.”

Some residents raised concerns about crime near the proposed site.

“We’ve seen drug overdoses. We’ve seen the drug dealers,” said one business owner. “Thank God RaceTrac has taken it upon themselves to hire round-the-clock security. But in the evening, we can’t do anything because customers will not come down there at night. What we deal with every day is not safe.”

During the second public information session, an audience member asked if Community Redevelopment Area funds would be used to help finance the garage. Lee said they would.

“CRA funds are derived from not only the general population taxes but property owners within the downtown district,” he explained.

An online viewer on Zoom had concerns with the choice of site due to it being a “historic landmark of over 150 years.”

“It’s not a historic site,” said Lee. “I don’t know how long that church has been there. Forgive me, but it’s not a historic building nor a historic site.”