Advocates Question Cost of Planned Bethesda Parking Garage
Ground could break on the lot at Bethesda and Woodmont Avenues as soon as July.
How much is too much to spend on a parking garage?
Eighty-six million dollars, according to some transportation and smart growth advocates.
That’s the current cost estimate to build Lot 31, a parking garage with 1138 public parking spots planned for the corner of Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues in downtown Bethesda. The project also includes retail and residential space at the intersection and additional private parking in the lot, and will be located close to a planned future entrance to the Bethesda Metro station and the proposed Purple Line light rail.
A tentative groundbreaking date of July is rapidly approaching, and with the impending construction, the project is in the spotlight once again. Recently, Washington area real estate site DCMud highlighted the lot and the residential and retail projects above it that will change the face of the intersection. The construction will also mean that a portion of Woodmont Avenue between Bethesda and Wisconsin avenues will be closed temporarily to traffic, and an about 270-space surface lot there will be taken out of commission, likely to cause traffic and parking headaches.
Concerns about the cost of the lot have been long-standing, but are surfacing again as the project nears. Cheryl Cort, policy director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said her group generally is in favor of the mixed-use development close to the Bethesda Metro. But she said the county’s approach to the lot “lacks imagination.” She urged the county to consider incentivizing parkers to use lots that are further away in Bethesda or using office parking during evening hours.
Ben Ross, of the Action Committee for Transit, questioned whether the lot would be used.
“To spend $80,000 per parking space on parking spaces that will be used for a few hours on Friday and Saturday nights (the lower levels may be vacant even then) is absurd,” Ross wrote in an e-mail to Patch.
The project is funded largely through Bethesda’s parking lot district — along with some money in developer contributions — which means that it won’t be paid for with general funds or compete for funds with other projects like schools or libraries, according to Ken Hartman, director of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center.
Chris
9:32 am on Wednesday, February 9, 2011
I think its smart. Bethesda on a Fri and Sat night is murder getting a parking spot. I've often gone lot to lot on a Fri night without finding a spot open. The level of aggression is astounding. This would encourage business in the downtown area.
Arlene K. Polangin
10:01 am on Wednesday, February 9, 2011
I never have a problem finding a parking spot, either in an existing garage or at a meter. This is an unnecessary garage, especially, given the outrageous cost,which will come back to haunt us, the taxpayers, and, in additon, there is already a above ground lot at that location....Lets use the money to improve roads, time traffic lights better and put back the two lanes for turning right at Bethesda Ave. and Woodmont. Cutting it down to one lane which means all traffic waits and waits and waits, was a ridiculous decision by some planner who doesn't drive the area!!
John Strongman
10:39 am on Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Parking in Bethesda is very tough so I support the idea of more spaces but hate the thought of the construction period when spaces will be even shorter than now
on the cost, the fair way to assess the cost of the public parking spaces is to separate the $86 million cost into the cost of retail/residential facilities without the public parking and then to say the incremental cost for [XX] public parking spaces is [YY] dollars and then see the cost per space