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Deal to add downtown parking at Skyline Garage includes affordable units and $1.35M in building improvements
Summary
Council authorized staff to negotiate a license to secure roughly 80 additional municipal parking spaces at the Skyline Garage; the proposal includes a 10% set-aside of building units at 70% of AMI and about $1.35 million in interior and common-area improvements, and the council recorded a recusal by one member.
City staff told the Committee of the Whole July 8 that negotiations with the Skyline garage owner would secure roughly 80 additional municipal parking spaces by opening two additional levels of the privately owned garage for public self-park use.
The package discussed in the meeting includes three notable components the city described: 1) availability of approximately 80 additional municipal spaces beyond the current 38 ground-floor municipal spaces, 2) a covenant that 10% of the building’s units would be affordable at 70% of area median income (AMI) with New Rochelle residency preference applied through a city-administered lottery, and 3) about $1,350,000 in owner-funded interior and common-area improvements to address building maintenance and amenity concerns raised by residents and council members.
Staff said an extension of an existing pilot and parallel actions with the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) will be used to ensure revenue neutrality and durability of the public benefits; any affordability covenant would last 25 years from passage of the agreement. Council members praised the creative, leverage-based approach as a way to increase downtown parking without building a new municipal lot.
Councilman Tarantino recused himself from the vote on Item 27 because of his business interests; the council moved the authorization to negotiate and execute the license agreement to the consent agenda with the recusal noted.
Ending: Staff will finalize terms with the garage owner and the IDA, return with executed license terms and the affordability-covenant language, and implement lottery and administration through the city’s housing office once the agreement is completed.
