Boundaries of Parking District Limited; Minimal Charges for Night, Weekend Parking;
$30M in G.O. Bonds to be Issued
ROCKVILLE, Md., Feb. 17, 2004 - The Mayor and Council of Rockville have tentatively given approval to a comprehensive plan that would provide funding to build three public parking garages in the new Rockville Town Center. The plan creates a limited parking district; will impose market rate daytime charges and minimal charges for night and weekend parking in the new garages; and envisions issuance of $30 million in general obligation bonds.
At a worksession Thursday, Feb. 12, the Mayor and Council approved the plan that will become more defined over the next month. The proposal will create more than 1,600 publicly financed and approximately 250 privately financed spaces to support the redeveloped $300 million downtown. Groundbreaking for the project, which will include a mix of retail, entertainment, cultural, residential and office uses, is scheduled for spring. The opening of the first buildings, including the new Rockville Regional Library, is scheduled for 2006.
The parking district was reduced from its original design that included many areas beyond the 15 acres that will compose Phase I of Town Center. [This first phase will be called Rockville Town Square by private development partners RD Rockville, LLC and Federal Realty Investment Trust.] The Phase I area is bordered by Beall Avenue on the north; Middle Lane on the south; North Washington Street on the west and Maryland Route 355 on the east. Eventually, from this central start, Town Center redevelopment will expand to a total of about 60 acres.
In a parking district, commercial properties that benefit from parking structures are assessed a fee to pay for the parking spaces created. In the plan tentatively approved, only owners of business properties within the newly developed Rockville Town Square area, and the owners of the Foulger-Pratt Rockville Metro Plaza at the corner of Route 355 and Middle Lane, will be part of the parking district. A fee structure will be established at a later time.
The Mayor and Council had indicated a desire to not charge for parking in evenings and on weekends. However, in a presentation by the City’s financial advisors, Kathy Kardell and Wayne Burggraaff of Public Financial Management (PFM), the Mayor and Council learned that Rockville will be in a much stronger position to issue bonds and maintain its highly respected credit rating if some charges were imposed on nights and weekends to demonstrate an increased revenue flow in the early years of the project to help pay off the debt service on the bonds.
The Mayor and Council elected to tentatively impose a flat $1 dollar fee for parking after a designated night hour (yet to be determined) and on weekends. Regular weekday parking rates are expected to be $1 per hour to a maximum of $8 per day.
The total cost of the parking garages is estimated at about $30 million. It is estimated that revenue from the parking garages and from more than 500 parking meters around the City, the first of which were installed two years ago and will produce about $2.4 million per year in the early years of the project.
Some charges for nights and weekends, Kardell said, will keep Rockville in a stable credit position because the City has already established a solid rating in the credit community.
“Your debt to assessed valuation is barely over your policy guidelines,” said Kardell, “and that is because, as a community, Rockville—while it is not large in terms of population—is very, very, very high on the scale of its valuation per capita relative to a lot of communities 60,000 in size or there about.”
The Mayor and Council asked about several scenarios, including one in which there would be no parking charges on nights and weekends in the early years of Town Center, with charges later imposed if parking revenues were less than anticipated. But the financial consultants advised that it would be better to impose night and weekend parking charges early and then reduce or eliminate them if revenues exceed expectations.
“As strongly as I feel about not charging for parking on nights and weekends,” said Councilmember Susan Hoffmann, “I feel even more strongly about jeopardizing our bond rating.”
Mayor Larry Giammo and Councilmembers Hoffmann, Bob Dorsey and Anne Robbins gave unanimous approval to proceed with the proposed plans. Councilmember John Hall, Jr., was unable to attend the worksession.
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