Recently, a small cadre of developers and their supporters cosigned a letter in this publication concerning the debate over Downtown parking and the proposed development projects. Their general point was to criticize the leadership—translation me—for not offering blanket support, dismissing the substantive concerns raised by myself and others.
The majority of their article focused on the history of the perceived parking problem and the associated math behind what they claim is excess parking. They then attempted to align this supposed surplus with the potential demand from new “Hallmark” projects, painting idyllic scenes of strolling families, hot chocolate in hand, dogs on leashes, and Christmas carols filling the air. In their narrative, my leadership is standing in the way, like an obstinate director with a clapboard yelling, “CUT—we can’t have this in our Downtown.”
This portrayal is utterly ridiculous in both form and function.
In response to this romantic backdrop, I nearly entitled this article “Everything I Needed to Know About Running the City I Learned in 5th Grade Math Class.” But given the seriousness of their claims and the potential ramifications to Downtown, I will rise above theatrics and address the matter directly.
Downtown Salisbury is not a movie set. It is a community as well as a delicate ecosystem. And while I welcome investment and creativity, I will not allow fiction to override fact, nor pressure from a few developers to outweigh the needs of the many who live, work, and depend on our Downtown every day.
In short, their finer point is simply, “numerically,” there are plenty of parking spots available, despite years of complaints from residents and visitors. Let us accept their premise to be true for the sake of argument.
From the standpoint of debate, they are trying to have — this is simply the wrong conversation. Whether the existing parking is ample, convenient, or attractive -NOW- the reality is that if the proposed projects were allowed to proceed, all of the current parking lots/spaces would be eliminated. Additionally, these projects would generate a herculean amount of new parking demand which is not in their portrayed formula.
They argue that -in place of the existing surface parking, a parking garage has been proposed to offset this loss. Yet even with such a structure, the math is simple and sobering. The deficit created would be enormous. That deficit would devastate Downtown, creating permanent and terminal access problems from which, in my view, it would never recover.
That said, even if we imagine a “parking fairy” sprinkling dust to cure the supply-and-demand issue, the Parking Garage itself presents another problem. The garage is being proposed at the City’s sole responsibility. Based on the current market for covered parking, the revenue from such a garage would not even cover the debt service on a $10 million bond, let alone the additional costs of operation. The collective loss to the city –based on actual history- would $550K per year—or about $ 11M over 20 years even with the parking permits and the new taxes from the projects which vest over the same 20-year time frame.
In short, this loss would be in exchange for 200 apartment units. That is a ridiculous use of resources for the City, not to mention the accessibility issues it would create for Downtown.
As Mayor, I am charged with doing my homework and when confronted with uncomfortable facts, I must communicate my concerns, stand my ground, make the case and not make it someone else’s problem to escape political heat. While I am very hopeful that Downtown has room to improve and develop, the present course being proposed is not grounded in even basic planning and is trading on the uniformed -too busy to worry about it to ignore the problem.
This problem evolved by the collision of zealous exuberance without the constraint of a calculator. I love Downtown Salisbury. I want it to succeed and prosper. Success must be built on a sound and responsible plan with the long-term mind’s eye towards its health, accessibility for generations to come.
Randy Taylor
Mayor of Salisbury
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at ci*******@****sa.org.
