the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, in the PDF on the Village website called “Hudson Street Parking Deck – Message from the Village Manager” . The Village manager makes the bold pronouncement that the “We have already confirmed the economics by commissioning an independent consulting firm whose work was studied and endorsed by the Financial Advisory Committee. ” . Sounds a bit bold given that the final garage decisions have not been made . The three garage options listed would involve different economic assumptions .
The three designs presented included the original structure, as depicted on VOR site, with 405 spaces (130,000sq ft), a modified version with 355 stalls (120,000sq ft) and the lowest profile version with 305 stalls (109,000 sq ft). The cost per stall decreases for each added level:
405 stalls @ $28,000 = 11.5 mil
355 stalls @ $29,300 = 10.4 mil
305 stalls @ $31,000 = 9.5 mil
You can see the higher you go the more efficient the project becomes IF, of course, those spaces are utilized.
While we have gotten many assurances that the garage will pay for it self ,Several funding options had been presented to the Council. Have decisions been reached on increasing parking rates, increasing hours of meter operation, adjusting rates for non-resident parking passes, and increasing enforcement times? Until such decisions have been made and trialed, how could we possibly have “confirmed the economics?” As they stand now, these are just assumptions made on paper by the consultant. Lets face it does anyone really know how much money the parking authority really takes in ? And what happens to all the money being currently used from the parking authority to subsidize other Village activities ?
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