Local
High expectations, slow start for College Park garage
By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
November 3, 2009
A multimillion-dollar parking lot that is supposed to help rejuvenate downtown College Park has gathered about $9,000 in its first two months, officials said.
The garage, across the street from City Hall, cost $9.3 million and has space for nearly 300 cars. City officials say, though, that the garage has been mostly empty since it opened in August.
Authorities say they're not panicking.
"It's going to take awhile," City Councilman Bob Catlin said. "It'll be fine."
The city hasn't lost money on the project because local restaurants and stores are paying for the garage, instead of building their own private lots.
"The parking garage was actually intended to be paid for without anybody parking in it," Catlin said.
Like many in the region, College Park's leaders have been hoping to build up a high-density downtown to avoid, or recover from, the slumping economy that has hit low-density communities so hard. The parking garage was designed to undercut the nearby University of Maryland's lots and build up a critical mass of pedestrians in College Park.
Catlin said city officials hadn't done a good enough job of letting the public know about the 75 cents-an-hour garage.
"The city didn't do anything to market it," he said. "They just kind of sat back."
The low garage use was first reported by the U.Md. newspaper, The Diamondback.
