After delay, Glen Ellyn trustees set to revisit parking garage plans
After postponing a decision for two weeks, Glen Ellyn trustees on Monday will reconsider whether to proceed with plans for a five-tier parking garage that would replace the surface lot behind the downtown Civic Center.
Trustees put a board vote on hold so the village could finalize easement negotiations with three neighboring property owners along the south side of the site. But as of Friday, those talks were still in progress.
Officials have presented neighbors with a written contract and are awaiting their response, Village President Diane McGinley said.
McGinley, who is not involved in the discussions with neighbors, wants the board to advance the project to provide parking relief in the core business district.
If trustees vote against the proposal, McGinley said she would look to repeal part of the 1.5% food and beverage tax enacted by the village last March to help repay loans funding the parking deck construction and other projects downtown.
"If we're not going to be build a garage, then I don't believe we should be collecting that money," she said.
Officials also have acknowledged concerns with the roughly $17 million overall price tag. The first phase of the project encompasses utility relocation, build-out of the 277-stall parking deck and site work for a new pedestrian corridor that would give garage users easy access to Main Street restaurants and shops.
The vacant Shonkwiler real estate offices and a residential building to the east of that storefront also would be demolished to make way for the pathway.
Of the garage's five levels, one would be built below grade. Plans also call for 10 additional surface lot spaces on the west side of the entrance ramp off Duane Street.
"There are several factors making it a little bit more of an expensive garage, but there were several reasons that the site was chosen," Assistant Village Manger Bill Holmer said. "If we build here, where nothing else can really be built, you still have the opportunity to develop other catalyst sites throughout the downtown."
M.A. Mortenson Co., the project manager requesting zoning approvals on behalf of the village, has designed a parking garage facade that resembles the look of the Civic Center, originally a junior high built in 1927. Those aesthetic features have pleased neighbors, but come at a premium, Holmer said.
If construction is completed in early 2021, the structure would provide ample parking during a planned downtown streetscape project and the replacement of the Metra station, McGinley said.
"We need to move forward on the vote because we need to order all of the casting and materials," McGinley said. If the village doesn't make those orders soon, she said, work would be delayed significantly, but it's unclear for exactly how long.
"We're kind of against the wall for ordering," McGinley said.
The board also is set to vote Monday on establishing a guaranteed maximum price of $16.1 million for the project's first phase, but that doesn't include expenses related to the easements along the south property line; the purchase of the 423 N. Main St. property; and finishes for the pedestrian walkway.
A funding plan for four projects - already completed renovations of the Civic Center, the new parking garage, the downtown streetscape revitalization and the new Metra station - calls for using $4 million in village savings and borrowing roughly $25 million, Village Manager Mark Franz said. The village issued nearly $10 million in bonds in 2018 and could issue the remaining two series this year and in 2021.
Village officials say they would not implement new property taxes to repay the loans, but would instead use a combination of sources: the dining tax, parking fund revenues, downtown TIF funds and a portion of the proceeds from a drainage infrastructure fee on water bills.
Financial planners would refine the funding plan if the village secures additional grants for the Metra station rebuild or the new streetscape.