The municipal parking garage on Thompson Place in downtown Derby is years past its expected lifespan and requires millions of dollars in repairs.
Officials don’t yet know precisely how many millions of dollars are needed to make those repairs, but say that once they have more specifics, the question will be put to city residents at an as-yet-unscheduled referendum.
Though the numbers aren’t finalized, the volunteer group that oversees the three-level, 340-spot garage discussed three “options” for the renovations last month, with price tags ranging from about $9.3 million — to replace the garage’s concrete “decking” — to $16.4 million, the estimated cost of leveling the structure and replacing it completely.
Click here to read the minutes of the meeting during which those numbers were discussed.
Joseph Moore, the chairman of the Municipal Parking Authority, which oversees the parking garage, stressed March 5 that the numbers being discussed thus far are approximate.
“The renovation option is one (question). That figure we will put together,” Moore said. “We really haven’t completed that yet, so we don’t have a number. It would be either to do the renovations or not do the renovations and build a new facility.”
The figures discussed thus far will be firmed up when an engineer visits the authority’s monthly meeting to make a presentation March 20 at 6:30 p.m. in the parking garage, Moore said.
“We don’t want to frighten anybody,” Moore said. “We are putting things together.”
The unscheduled spring referendum will also likely include questions about whether to replace roofs at three Derby schools and whether to spend tens of millions of dollars to repair the city’s aging sewer infrastructure.
Click here for a story about the school roofs.
Click here, here and here for more information on the WPCA issues.
The parking authority has been holding workshop meetings over the course of the last several weeks with a view to preparing for the referendum.
Moore said the parking authority is leaning toward asking residents two questions on the referendum ballot, asking whether they think a set of proposed renovations should be done, or whether the parking garage should be torn down and built anew.
Of course, Moore pointed out, any referendum questions would have to go through the city’s Aldermen and Board of Apportionment and Taxation, who could modify them.
“Another option that the Board of Aldermen may add is that they just knock it down if they don’t want it,” Moore said.
The Valley Indy left a message at Aldermanic President Barbara DeGennaro’s office March 4.
Mayor Anthony Staffieri said March 7 that he doesn’t think residents would approve of the cost of replacing the garage completely.
“Are they going to go for the whole enchilada or just do what they can do?” the mayor wondered. “In today’s day you have to be a realist. You have to know that the money is not out there. Do what you can afford, figure out how much money you can afford to pay, what the amount of your loan is. Then you scale it back to what work has to get done.”
At the same time, Staffieri said that the city can borrow money cheaply if it has to.
“Derby is in a prime position right now, because our bonding is so good,” he said. “We have the same rating that Shelton has, and look at their tax base. Right now we could borrow money almost for nothing.”
Staffieri also said that if bonding is approved for work on the parking garage, the parking authority would use its own revenues to pay back the loan.
“The parking garage, they would not be getting the money from the city, they would be getting money from their revenues,” Staffieri said, adding that the WPCA would do the same with sewer users to pay back the cost of sewer repairs, if approved by voters. “The only ones that we’re really going to be on the hook for is the new roofs for the schools. Just like anybody else with a home or business, when you’ve got water coming into your building, you’ve got to fix it before it causes greater damage.”
Keith McLiverty, the city’s treasurer, said in an e‑mail that once the numbers regarding the work needed on school roofs, sewers, and the parking garage are finalized, “a complete impact analysis will be performed and presented.”
Work Needed
The ailing garage has been a topic of discussion in Derby for years.
Moore said the parking authority spends the money it gets from people using the garage and the parking meters downtown just to keep it operational, with occasional “Band Aid” repairs.
“The City of Derby has not spent a penny of taxpayers’ money in this garage,” Moore said. “We’ve been maintaining the garage with the revenue we get from the parking meters and from the contracts and from the daily parking.”
“In trying to keep the prices down for the people who do use the garage, there really isn’t enough to put into a special revenue account for rainy days and things like that,” Moore went on.
But that has come at a cost as the aging structure has deteriorated, he said.
“Look up at the ceiling,” Moore said. “You’ll see pieces of concrete that are actually falling down. You can actually see the reinforcing bars in the concrete that holds everything together.”
“We know what we want to do,” Moore said. “We want to repair the concrete in there, sandblast and paint all the steel work that’s in there, make repairs in the stairwell that have be made, and upgrade the elevator. There’s quite a bit of work that has to be done in there.”
Another question — will the garage, which Moore said handles about 10,000 vehicles per month, be operational during the work?
“One person we spoke to said he thought we could do one side of the parking garage while we still operated the other side,” he said. “We’re not really sure.”
Does Derby Need A Parking Garage?
The question of privatizing the garage has also been raised in recent years, but Moore said nobody wants to buy it.
“We called several companies that operate private parking garages and nobody was interested in it,” Moore said. “Would you buy a garage if it needed 9, 10, 11 million dollars (of work)? How long would it take you to get your money back?”
But will voters approve the work needed to make repairs?
Moore, who lives off Route 34 behind Lowe’s on the city’s east side, is not so sure.
“I would bet if you took a survey, more than half of the people up here on the hill don’t even know where the parking garage is,” he said. “Would we expect those people to support this referendum? I don’t think so.”
Anticipating such resistance, members of the parking authority approved spending about $2,000 to produce a flyer mailed to city residents last month asking residents to “SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL PARKING GARAGE.”
But the flyer did not mention the referendum, or any potential costs.
“We tried to do the best we could with the brochure to let people know that the parking garage was operated for all those years without city assistance,” Moore said. “All I know is when I talk to people and they ask me about the garage and things like that, those questions come up. I know that they’re going to be surprised to know that we’ve been self-sufficient for all of these years.”
Mayor Staffieri said the garage helps economic activity by freeing up spaces on downtown streets close to businesses.
“For downtown it’s very important,” Staffieri, an Elizabeth Street restaurateur before becoming mayor, said. “When I owned Connie’s Restaurant for 30 years, what the problem ends up becoming is the owners of the businesses, the employees of the businesses will park on the street because they have no place to park.”
“Whether they’re going to Smile Dental Center or Archie Moore’s, if the customers don’t have a place to park the businesses will suffer for it,” Staffieri said. “Something is needed … just for the people who work here, or for the people who live here.”
The mayor pointed out that the parking authority has contracts with the State of Connecticut for courthouse employees to park in the garage. Many people who live in nearby apartments also use it, he said.
“Imagine all those people parking on the road,” Staffieri said. “It would look like everybody’s doing fantastic business, but in reality there would be no one in the stores.”
“If you’re not going to build a garage, you’re going to have to buy buildings, knock them down, and turn them into parking lots,” Staffieri said.
