Committee looks at final sticking points in parking debate

CEDAR RAPIDS - City Hall's keen interest in being able to provide breaks on the cost of parking to lure businesses downtown is one of the last points of debate as the City Council moves closer to handing the management of the parking system over to the Downtown District.

The economic-development deal-making, which includes parking incen­tives, is not something Mayor Ron Corbett or City Manager Jeff Pomeranz have any interest in giving up, the two made clear in comments at a City Council Budget Committee meeting this week.

At the meeting, Pomeranz went into detail about negotiations with a firm considering a move to downtown and in need of a couple hundred parking slots. The firm, he said, is concerned not only about price, but is insisting on upgrades to the parking system that include improved lighting, security cameras and 'beefed-up' security patrols.

Pomeranz thought he and Doug Neumann, president/CEO of the Downtown District, could find language in the agreement that would not tie the city's hands if it wants to use parking as an economic-development incentive.

The Budget Committee voted 3-1 to move the pro­posed agreement on for discussion by the entire council on Dec. 14.

Corbett voted against the agreement. He has been a proponent of free monthly parking for a decade as a way to get businesses to move downtown.

Another sticking point in the agreement is the Downtown District's request that the city pay the district $4 million in a lump sum or over four years to cover all the ma­jor needed repairs.

Corbett and others on the Budget Committee said they didn't want to commit to selling bonds to cover the parking system's capital improvement needs until they know what else they may need to invest in elsewhere in the city.

Casey Drew, the city's finance director, said the city routinely sells $30 million in bonds a year to cover capital improvement projects, and that city departments already have submitted requests for three times that amount for proposed improvements.

In the end, Pomeranz suggested that any agreement between the city and the district simply note that the council acknowledges that the system has deferred maintenance needs for which the council can set some targets to achieve.