Ride-On Funding and Lot 31 Garage

July 23, 2010

As the council is well aware, predictions are that the county's financial stress will continue for at least another year. In this situation, it is essential to avoid taking actions that will unnecessarily increase the deficit in future years' budgets.

The responses to the questionnaire that ACT recently circulated among council candidates show that the great majority of both incumbent and non-incumbent candidates believe that preservation of Ride-On service is a higher priority for county spending than the planned underground garage on Parking Lot31 in Bethesda. Our view has long been that the public garage should be scaled back to a single level, simply replacing the existing lots.

Building of the garage at the full planned capacity would saddle the Bethesda parking district with additional debt service of several million dollars per year, far in excess of the new revenue that the garage will generate. It is not clear whether the new debt could be paid off with higher parking fees in the existing garages, even if the council wanted to do that. Some private garages in Bethesda are already price-competitive with the public garages, and the parking district will also need funding to invest in new meter technology. If we do not plan wisely, the Bethesda parking tax may have to be increased. This would directly impact the county budget under the tax cap.

If redevelopment of the parking lot moves forward on schedule, it will be too late for the council to make these trade-offs when it considers next year's budget. In the current economy, of course, development schedules are uncertain, so clearly the first step for the council is to determine what the current schedule is. If the decision on the garage cannot be put off until next year's budget, we ask the council to take this matter up immediately after the August recess.

I want to emphasize that we write as strong supporters of downtown Bethesda in general, and of the Lot 31 mixed-use redevelopment in particular. We also support investment in new parking meter technology, which could reduce the "hassle" of peak-hour parking in Bethesda and potentially make possible a more efficient use of existing parking resources. Our concern is purely with the cost and traffic impacts of the public parking garage.

Transit advocates greatly appreciate the high priority the council has given to preserving Ride-On service in the last two difficult budget years. Most thankful of all are the numerous bus riders who were in danger of finding themselves unable to get to their jobs. We hope you will take care now to avoid a situation next year that forces you to make cuts that no one wants.