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Council hears downtown parking study proposal and staff plans to seek $4 million BUILD grant for NEPA
Summary
Councilors heard a briefing on downtown parking management and a staff notice that the city intends to apply for $4 million in BUILD funding to pay for the NEPA environmental review for the South Stage Interchange; councilors requested more detail on parking study deliverables and finances.
City staff briefed the Medford City Council on Nov. 5 about downtown parking management and a potential federal BUILD grant application for transportation environmental review.
Alex Georgovich, city engineer (filling in for Dan Worth), said the downtown parking fund currently shows approximately $1.3 million in expenses and about $700,000 in revenue, creating a structural deficit. Public works expects to request $100,000 (the transcript referenced seeking the money from urban-renewal/Muir) to hire a consultant to perform a parking-management study to evaluate pricing, turnover, potential charging, and long-term maintenance needs for two downtown garages.
Councilor Kevin Stein and other councilors asked how a $100,000 study would produce actionable savings and requested clearer deliverables. Georgovich said the study would identify where to charge for parking, how pricing affects revenue, usage patterns and garage maintenance liabilities.
Separately, staff announced a new federal BUILD notice of funding opportunity for which rural jurisdictions can apply without a local match. Staff said the city intends to request $4,000,000 to cover the NEPA/environmental-review work required for the South Stage Interchange; councilors indicated no objections to pursuing the grant and staff said next steps include coordination with ODOT and partners.
Neither the parking study nor the BUILD application represented an immediate council appropriation in the meeting record; the parking study funding source and consultant scope will be clarified before any formal council appropriation or contract.
