City Council Meeting — Vote to approve final construction costs for the new parking garage
Monday, August 7th — Eileen Dondero Foley City Council Chambers, Portsmouth City Hall
Parking in Portsmouth — a well-established challenge. Well, Monday night, the Portsmouth City Council will vote on one of the final steps needed to move forward on the new parking garage — specifically approving the $3M needed to cover additional construction costs and complete the garage as planned in 2018.
Why do they need another $3M for the project, you might wonder? One big reason for the increase is simply: delays. The council and the public have had many conversations, questions and hearings, some resulting in major delays (like this). Delays mean more time and money spent on the process, not to mention inflation as construction costs have increased 10-13% in the two years since the project was initially approved. Another reason for the addition funds required is that the initial budget was approved before actual design was in place. Based on public input and through the city process, design and environmental considerations have been updated, improvements added for the surrounding neighborhood infrastructure and for future cost savings.
And a fun fact about the new garage project: debt service repayments will all come from the Parking Fund, *not* from property taxes or the General Fund.
In short, we need this garage yesterday. Further delays on building the parking garage will continue to kick this can further down the road.
