Council acts on Town Center parking plans

Two interesting actions regarding Yorba Linda's long-awaited Town Center merit attention.

Both involve the project's parking plans that most stakeholders agree will have a significant impact on the success or failure of the area's proposed business ventures.

First, two parcels from the 27 city-owned downtown properties scheduled to be sold to the City Council-selected developer, Zelman Retail Partners, have been dropped from the sale list that, with pricing, is still under negotiation.

Instead, they'll be retained by the city for a four-story parking structure located partially on parcels owned by the city and partially on lots owned by the Successor Agency to the city's disbanded Redevelopment Agency. The council is the “successor agency.”

The successor agency properties, at 4862 School St. and 4861 and 4863 Valencia Ave., are near the center of the area targeted for new development, facilitating a key “park once, walk to multiple destinations” strategy.

The state-mandated dissolution of redevelopment agencies in 2012 required cities to address future use or disposition of agency-owned properties by adopting a Long Range Property Management Plan.

This city's plan originally identified the land now proposed for the parking structure as part of the 27-parcel package to be sold to the Zelman group. Now, an amended document has been sent to the state noting the total 11,905 square feet properties will be used for parking.

Eliminating the parcels from the Town Center land sale will result in a gross loss of $128,000, according to a report from Pam Stoker, the city's economic development manager. Eight per cent of that would have gone to the city and 92 percent to other taxing entities.

Second, the council established a “parking in-lieu fee” to help pay for the city-owned and maintained parking structure. The fee is voluntary, since it will only be paid by owners and developers who choose not to provide the required parking spaces for their projects.

“As proposed, the Town Center public parking structure may include approximately 429 spaces. Should every space be accounted for through the in-lieu program, at a one-time fee of $5,000 per space, then the program could potentially generate $2.1 million,” Stoker noted in a separate report to council members.

A city-hired consultant concluded that parking in-lieu programs provide flexibility, operate as an economic development tool and facilitate otherwise infeasible projects, Stoker explained.

The programs also allow better urban design and can be used to partially offset the costs for providing the parking, Stoker added. At present, planning and design for the structure “is in progress.”

An earlier study concluded Town Center needs 1,122 spaces weekdays and 1,039 spaces weekends, leaving a deficit of 316 spaces weekdays and 245 spaces weekends at build-out, based on existing and planned parking, not including the structure.