Title
Approving the actions necessary to establish the Snelling-University Parking Improvement District.
Body
WHEREAS: To mitigate the loss of 85% of the parking on University Avenue due to light rail development, on August 12, 2009, by Resolution 09-08/12, the Housing and Redevelopment Authority of the City of Saint Paul, Minnesota approved the Neighborhood Commercial Parking Pilot Program and allocated funding to improve off-street parking facilities; and
WHEREAS: On June 23, 2010, by Resolution 10-06/23 the HRA approved $1.325 million in funding from the Parking Program for 24 projects on University Avenue, including $250,000 to develop the Snelling-University Parking Improvement District in the block behind the northwest corner of Snelling and University; and
WHEREAS: Establishing the Snelling-University PID requires leasing land from private owners and developing a public parking lot with funding invested as tenant improvements from the Neighborhood Commercial Parking Pilot Program: and
WHEREAS: Maintaining the Snelling-University PID requires above-standard services that must come from sources other than the General Fund and the installation of pay parking in the PID will generate a new source of revenue for the City that does not now exist; and
WHEREAS: The property owners who will benefit from the PID will incorporate a business association to operate and maintain the public parking lot:
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the City Council of the City of Saint Paul, Minnesota hereby:
• Approves the Lease of parking from 6 owners in the block behind the northwest corner of Snelling and University in a form substantially similar to that shown in Attachment A, and authorizes the Director of the Department of Planning and Economic Development to sign it on behalf of the City; and
• Authorizes the Department of Public Works to install, and the Police Department to enforce, pay-parking kiosks in the Snelling-University Parking District; and
• Authorizes the Office of Financial Services to dedicate pay-parking revenues net of all operating costs to pay for the operation and maintenance of the Snelling-University Parking Improvement District; and
• Authorizes the Department of Planning and Economic Development to contract with the Snelling-University Business Association, composed of the commercial property owners who will benefit from the Parking Improvement District, to operate and maintain the public pay-parking facility.