A key legislator says that a proposed parking garage behind the Garrahy Courthouse is still alive, and that the General Assembly could take a fresh look at the downtown Providence project during the 2003 session.
But Rep. Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence, chairman of the House Finance Committee, said lawmakers balked at the proposal during this year’s session because the financial underpinnings appeared weaker than legislators had expected.
For example, Fox said, one major stream of financing for the garage was to have been money the state already pays for government workers to park elsewhere in the city, shifting those outlays to the new garage.
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But some current state leases provide parking for rates much below the per-car level of $125 a month needed to support the new facility, he said. Thus, the state might end up spending more than it does now if workers’ cars were moved to the Garrahy garage.
Still, Fox said he knows firsthand how scarce parking is downtown – his own law offices are next to the Garrahy Courthouse and clients complain about the parking shortage at the facility – and he said the parking garage should be explored further.
"It definitely has our interest," Fox said.
Promoters of a revitalized "Downcity" have long thought that the Garrahy garage is the most feasible of several proposed parking facilities, and if built, would help ease the area’s chronic parking shortage. More parking, in turn, is believed to be a key to development of the area.
The garage would be built on the existing surface parking lot behind the courthouse, bounded by Friendship, Richmond and Clifford Streets, and by the court building itself, which fronts on Dorrance Street.
Tentative plans call for a four to five-story facility that could park between 900 and 1,100 cars, and that would cost $13 to $15 million. The project has strong backing of such groups as The Providence Foundation, an affiliate of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce.
Among the plusses: the state already owns the land; no buildings would have to be demolished; the garage could serve several state government departments, as well as entertainment and restaurants in the downtown area.
The administration of Republican Governor Almond proposed financing the facility with a kind of debt called certificates of participation. But when the Democrat-controlled Assembly approved the budget last month, the garage was not included.
In a recent interview, Fox said legislators were surprised to find serious questions about the project that had been studied for so long.
"For a proposal that you think was as vetted as it was, the concrete proposal, the actual proposal, was very loose," Fox said.
He said as the legislature began its "due diligence" process of looking at the financing, it questioned whether the money allotted for state employee parking would meet the project’s needs.
At the same time, devoting substantial space in the garage to employee parking might mean that there would not be enough room for another group of patrons who badly need parking – citizens using the courthouse.
Also a factor this past year Fox said, was the state’s growing budget crisis. The legislature was concerned about rising debt levels, overall.
But Fox, who as House finance chairman is one of the key decision-makers when it comes to state spending, said that parking is a major issue for downtown, and the state must play a role in helping to continue the rebirth of the capital city.
"We are very, very aware of the parking problem," Fox said.
And he noted that "we’ve all seen Providence become a happening place" and that the state shares responsibility, along with the city government and downtown businesses in increasing the parking supply.
For example, the University of Rhode Island has substantial need for parking for its downtown campus, he said.
An ideal solution to financing a parking garage at the Garrahy courthouse, he said, would be to use revenue bonds, which would be paid for with income from the garage itself, and would not add to the state’s debt levels.
But the proposal wasn’t advanced enough during the last General Assembly session, Fox said.
"Its time just had not come," he said.
