On Wednesday the city-owned parking lot between the Willamette River bridges had been resurfaced.
A city-owned parking lot on the Albany waterfront has been reconfigured to improve its internal traffic pattern and increase the number of spaces.
The half-acre lot is on the south side of Water Avenue between the Lyon and Ellsworth Street bridges. According to a site plan approved by the city planning division in January 2022, it was resurfaced and restriped for 75 spaces, up from 63 before.
The new layout improves the internal traffic pattern of the lot, reduces access points on Water Avenue to one, and eases the connections under the bridges to neighboring lots.
I noticed the new surface on my usual bike ride along the riverfront on Wednesday. By Friday, the new parking space layout had been marked with white paint.
The website of the Downtown Association’s ParkWise program says spaces in the lot are leased but available after 4 p.m.
Improving this lot was part of the Albany Waterfront Project, the $21.5 million reconstruction of Monteith Riverpark and Water Avenue nearing its completion this fall.
This is one of three city-owned Water Avenue parking lots that Eugene-based Obie Companies has an option to buy for $1,710,000. The option runs out 18 months after the city council adopts a 10-year “multiple unit property tax exemption” (MUPTE) for the kind of residential projects that Obie might construct on the properties.
Why improve a parking lot that could become a construction site in the not too distant future? City Manager Peter Troedsson answered that question for me:
“While Obie does have an option to purchase that lot that IS still in effect, their plans aren’t developed at this point, and it’s likely that it will remain parking in the short-medium term.”
As for the MUPTE ordinance, Troedsson said it would come up for council consideration the week of Oct. 6 or 20. (hh)
And by Friday the lot had markings showing the new layout of numbered parking spaces.
What about the part of the lot that faces First Street? Will Albany Civic theater patrons no longer be able to park there on a Sunday afternoon to go to a 2:30 p.m. matinee? And, yes, Hasso, it is asinine, at best, to redo that lot when Obie Company might build on it in the near future? But, that’s to be expected from the half-a**ed plans of the City Council.
The reason the city redid the lot is, as you said, to add more parking spaces. The city makes a chunk of money off renting out every parking space in every city-owned lot in downtown Albany. Most of the parking spaces for customers and low-paid baristas, etc. are on the street. So, City does not level with you, Hasso, or with anyone. The truthful reason they re-surfaced the lot, when Obie may build on it in near future, is the city needs the revenue from the rented parking spaces.
As far as I know, the city gets no revenue from leased parking. The lease payments go to the Downtown Association’s ParkWise program, which administers the downtown parking regulations. Not every space in every city-owned lot is leased. The lots facing First Avenue are free to use.
Ok, thanks. So, the lot next to the Old First Round Tavern is open to the public, and also the lot across from Brick ‘n Mortar Restaurant, and the gravel lot on the site of the old bank building. But, the lot next to the gravel lot is private parking, I believe. And, the Downtown Assoc. is a governmental agency, so it is part of the mechanics of the city’s operations. It administers the downtown parking regs,. as you state. It does that for the city; not for itself. If my interpretation is wrong, and the Downtown Assoc. keeps all the money from parking space rentals to use to promote downtown area, then the city still redid the parking lot facing Water Street in order to add spaces and to add revenue.