On deck: $26 million in city parking
The price of dining in downtown Naperville could be going up soon to help pay for $26 million worth of parking decks.
The city council has long preferred to pay for the parking decks through a downtown-only increase to the city's food and beverage tax, and that could soon be a possibility.
The legislation allowing such a taxing district is waiting for Gov. Rod Blagojevich's signature or veto. If he does neither in the next nine days, it becomes law automatically.
"It's just still under review," said Gerardo Cardenas, the governor's press secretary. "I'm not aware of any problems he has with it; he's just reviewing it."
The city needs to raise money to fund a $6 million addition the Van Buren parking deck, a $16 million four-tiered deck in front of Nichols Library and $4 million for a deck at the proposed Water Street development.
Naperville's council meets at 7 p.m. today to discuss four financing options for those projects. Two of the options include use of a downtown-only food and beverage tax increase of 1 percent.
City staff is recommending an option that has the food and beverage tax increase taking care of 50 percent of overall costs with the rest being split evenly between city funds and money raised through a special property tax on downtown commercial properties.
"The driving force is to create a solution that matches the costs with the benefits," said Doug Krieger, the city's finance director. "That allows for each of the groups benefiting from the decks to provide a reasonable contribution."
Downtown Naperville Alliance officials were meeting with city officials late Monday afternoon and hadn't announced a preferred funding option.
Another option is instituting a parking fee on all downtown restaurants or just those with liquor licenses.
Some downtown commercial property owners that don't house eateries have complained they don't create as much of a need for parking as restaurants and therefore should pay less for the parking decks.
But city officials believe the parking fee for restaurants would create an development imbalance and make opening such establishments downtown less desirable.
The Van Buren parking deck addition is being partially paid for by a developer who is building condominiums and storefronts adjacent to the existing deck.
The library deck is solely a city project.
The Water Street project is part of a proposed tax increment financing district that would add shopping, condos and several restaurants along the block just east of city hall.
With these three projects in the hopper, the city has backed off a plan to demolish the deck at Chicago Avenue and rebuild a bigger and more accessible version for $30 million.