Tagged: PARC

An additional 250 bike parking spaces have been created in downtown parking garages.

This bike parking was initially announced two years ago, when then-Mayor Jerry Abramson’s administration released a proposal to add more than 300 new bicycle parking spaces to downtown garages. A contract was supposed to be finalized within several months, but took two years to come to fruition.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer has resisted offers to privatize the city's parking despite pressure from out-of-town companies.

The mayor is selling two downtown garages for $10.7 million to the Parking Authority of River City to help balance the budget. But PARC is a quasi-government agency that operates several downtown lots and garages for Metro Government.

Council members have questioned why those properties are being sold to a city agency and not put up for competitive bid to potentially gain more for the structures.

Louisville Chief Financial Officer Steve Rowland says the city has had several offers to privatize parking since Fischer took office, but the administration isn't interested.

"If we were to sell all our parking garages to the private sector, we would lose control over what the rates would be and we would possibly drive out over time businesses out of the downtown area because parking is a key cost to their employees," he says.

Hearing testimony from Chief Financial Officer Steve Rowland, the Louisville Metro Council's Budget Committee began its review of the mayor's proposed spending plan on Monday.

Mayor Greg Fischer's latest budget balances the city's books without raising taxes, cutting city services or furloughing Metro employee. However, council members spent most of the time grilling the administration about the budget's reliance on the sale of two downtown garages to the parking authority.

The city is selling two downtown parking lots to the Parking Authority of River City for $10.7 million and selling two garages for $3.9 million. PARC technically purchased the garages from the former county government at merger nine years ago, but the payment was never received.

Budget Committee Vice Chairman Kelly Downard, R-16, says the mayor's agreement is unacceptable because PARC owes much more money for the garages after Metro Government paid bonds on the structures since merger.

"They’ve been taking income off this—net income—for seven to nine years, that’s our money. We’ve been paying the bonds down, good lord," he says. "I think PARC’s got a problem because they have been taking our money on a garage they didn’t pay for, on debt that we’ve been paying and I think there’s a serious problem here."