Plans for City Hall Automated Parking Structure Move Along [VIDEO]

The city’s plans to build a new, five-story are moving along.

The structure, which the City Council appproved unanimously at its , would use an automated system to store vehicles in parking berths using motorized lifts, conveyers and shuttles. People would drive in and drop off their cars to be stored, similar to a valet service.

Since there is nothing like this automated structure west of the Mississippi River, the city met with the Los Angeles County Fire Department in mid-October to go over the plans.

“We had to vet the design with the Fire Department,” said Oscar Delgado, the city’s director of public works. “The Fire Department had concerns about the height of each floor and placement of the automatic sprinklers.”

While the Fire Department has not given its final OK to the project, Delgado says they are “up to speed on everything about the structure so far.”

The public review period for the automated structure ends on Nov. 10. Residents wanting to review the project documents and/or make comments should contact the Community Development Department.

Late-summer 2012 start date

Construction was originally scheduled to begin in June 2012, but the start date has been pushed back to late summer 2012. Construction will take approximately one year to complete.

The structure will have space for 200 cars, up from the 66 that are currently available in the City Hall lot. It will provide much needed parking for the entire mid-city area. Currently, most city employees use the Kings Road parking deck two blocks away. City officials say the Kings Road deck is completely full on week days.

Delgado said the final cost of the project is projected to be $13.3 million. That includes $2.6 million for the purchase of the technology from Unitronics, as well as construction of the building and creation of a 27-foot-wide courtyard area between the City Hall building and the parking structure.

Delgado did not have a breakdown of the exact cost of each aspect of the project, but estimated the cost of the technology and the construction for the facility would be $8 million to $10 million.

If the construction cost winds up being $10 million, that breaks down to $50,000 per parking space. By comparison, the 400 parking spaces built for the new library (the 333-space parking deck and adjoining 70-space library garage) cost $16 million, which averages out to about $40,000 per space. That $40,000 is considered the standard cost of a parking space these days, said Delgado.

Some wonder why the city is building this automated parking structure when a conventional parking deck would be cheaper per space.

“It’s not an apple to apple comparison,” said Delgado. “If you build a conventional deck, you have to take up the entire footprint. You’ve got to build a retaining wall, ramps, and have setbacks from adjoining properties. Plus, it’s difficult to fathom that city services would not be disrupted by construction.”

Green structure

The automated structure accomplishes multiple goals, including creation of the public courtyard area and building a green structure.

“What we’re trying to do is create a facility that could be as green as a parking structure can be in the U.S.,” said Delgado. “There will be solar panels on the roof. The goal is to be off the grid, to be self-sufficient.”

Additionally, the structure will have minimal impact on the neighborhood since it will be set back from the street and an adjacent apartment building to the south, he said.

“We’ve got these gorgeous setbacks; 27 feet from Sweetzer, 20 feet to the south,” said Delgado, adding that although it will be able to house five levels of cars, the entire structure will be the same height as the three-story City Hall building.

The next meeting of the Automated Parking Structure Design Steering Committee was originally slated for Oct. 27, but has been rescheduled for Nov. 29 at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall.

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