If Traverse City is going to build a parking deck in the west end of downtown it has to be done right the first time. Going halfway — or even 66 percent of the way — might save money but also could hamstring the very development the city wants to encourage.
Just last week some city commissioners said they would prefer a 271-space structure at West Front and Pine streets that would cost $8.7 million instead of the 407-space, $11.6 million deck first planned; that's 136 spaces or 33 percent smaller than the original.
The reason was simple — to save the nearly $3 million for use elsewhere. Commissioners said they wanted to use as little tax-increment financing dollars for the project as they could and didn't want to short-change other improvement projects by overspending on the deck.
Commissioners also said they thought a smaller deck could be expanded if necessary.
City Manager Ben Bifoss, however, pointed out that the smaller deck wouldn't even have enough spaces for an initial companion development that is making this whole thing possible, or at least plausible.
Developer Jerry Snowden is planning to break ground in the spring on "RiverWest," a mixed-use development that will include a movie theater. Property taxes created by Snowden's project were expected to pay about half the cost of a smaller deck, and the city hopes it becomes a catalyst for other development there.
Bifoss said the larger deck was a necessity.
"Nobody thinks that 271 parking spaces are going to be sufficient to fill the needs," he said. Snowden's development alone will need more than 300 spaces, Bifoss said.
Nobody has to be reminded that the city's Larry Hardy deck on the west edge of downtown often is not at capacity. That's hardly an ideal situation for the city. But it would be worse to spend big bucks for a deck only to realize it's too small and needs more work — and more money. If the aim is to not only offer parking for RiverWest employees but to also lure more businesses there, an under-sized deck won't cut it.
This appears to be the city's best chance yet to get things rolling on the west end of the downtown area, where there is plenty of room to grow and, according to some, lots of interest — but only if there's decent parking. Right now the area is essentially one big surface parking lot but little else.
Traverse City public housing officials also have talked about expanding the adjacent 10-story Riverview Terrace housing complex, which would create an even bigger demand for parking.
This appears to be an ideal chance for some west-side economic development. The city can't let it pass, and it can't let an under-sized deck slow things down.
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