A new three-story parking garage in downtown Morgan Hill, along Depot Street, could hold up to 381 parking spaces for future Caltrain and VTA commuters, as well as visitors to area dining and entertainment establishments.
The city plans to spend about $7.8 million on the structure, using some of the $19.3 million remaining from redevelopment bond proceeds acquired in 2008.
A consulting team that includes an architect, designer, VTA staff and traffic circulation engineers presented a “feasibility” report to the city council last week.
The construction of rectangular the parking garage – now planned on the west side of Depot Street, between Second and Fourth streets – would eventually replace the six-acre VTA park-and-ride lot on the east side of the railroad tracks.
That lot is jointly owned by the VTA and the city of Morgan Hill. The transportation agency has a 59-percent ownership share, and the city has 41 percent ownership. In recent years the two owners have talked about redeveloping the site into a “transit-oriented” residential site, according to a city staff report.
Building the parking structure across the street, and relocating the Caltrain platform and bus stops that now use the existing lot to the west side of the tracks would free up the six-acre property for future redevelopment, according to consultants and staff.
The parking structure would cost about $25,000 per parking space, or a total of about $7.8 million, according to city staff.
The feasibility study also considered the development capacity for the jointly owned six-acre lot now being used by commuters, combined with the adjacent 1.78-acre site directly southeast, which is owned by the city’s Economic Development Corporation.
That study found that once the current uses are relocated, the two properties together, which has also been discussed as a future site for a new fire station, could sell for up to $8 million as a “townhome development site.”
City staff and consultants will spend the next few weeks looking for a buyer for those properties, and conducting a more detailed analysis of the construction of the 381-space parking garage.
Council members have described the need to spend the $19.3 million of RDA proceeds dedicated for downtown redevelopment with haste, as the state-created oversight board managing the RDA’s dissolution might redirect the money to county and city services, and education.
