A Flawed Plan
There are many reasons the downtown plazas may not be a viable site for high-density housing.
Legal - The parking plazas were acquired through assessments paid by downtown property owners specifically to support downtown businesses, creating unresolved legal questions about repurposing them.
Infrastructure - Water, sewer, traffic, and emergency access impacts remain unresolved in an area that is already heavily utilized.
Environmental - Decades of dry cleaners and other industrial uses have likely resulted in toxic soil contamination. High-rise buildings tightly squeezed between old commercial buildings would create a severe fire hazard.
Economic - The negative impact on our business district could result in significant losses in sales tax revenue. Meanwhile, developers are asking for impact fees to be delayed or waived—fees that would otherwise help pay for city services needed by new residents.
Financial - With the bottleneck on state funding, it will be difficult for developers to secure funding for this risky project. Furthermore, developers have admitted that affordable housing cannot pay for the replacement parking without the City contributing tens of millions of dollars. That’s money the City does not have.
All of those reasons add up to a project which may never get built. It will be too costly, in too many ways. It’s why one local analyst describes the project as “doomed.”
You know our downtown. Could this even work?
Image from a developer proposal. The four gray rectangles would be high-rise structures.