Purpose

Staff requests an appropriation of $25,000 from the General Liability Fund to augment the Parking Authority�s budgeted funding for a structural assessment of City-owned parking structures in the downtown area.  Due to fiscal constraints, the parking fund does not have sufficient resources within its budget or reserves to pay for this critically needed assessment.

BACKGROUND

In May 2006, Council directed staff to complete a detailed analysis of the Parking Authority Fund, including all costs and income associated with operating the downtown parking system.  Council further directed that the analysis include an itemized evaluation of expenditures for each parking structure.  The desired specific cost information includes four main cost categories:

1.  Short-term Maintenance

2.  Utilities

3.  Management

4.  Long-term Maintenance

Short-term maintenance encompasses the routine daily or weekly cleaning and repairs performed in each structure, such as, sweeping, power washing, trash removal, minor elevator maintenance, light-bulb replacement, landscaping, and graffiti removal.  These tasks are performed by Common Area Maintenance (CAM) under a three-year price agreement, which is in the final contract year.  Future costs for the short-term maintenance are expected to increase significantly because of increased material costs.

Utility costs (electricity and water) are relatively minor in terms of overall annual parking structure costs, and these expenditures are expected to remain fairly constant over the next several years.   Management costs include one full-time, dedicated position in the Public Works Department and costs associated with several agreements entered into by the City with privately owned parking facilities.  These three cost components are well documented with many years of records for each public parking structure.   

The fourth cost item, long-term maintenance of the structures and lots, is not well documented.  This item includes required long-term preventative and corrective maintenance of structural and architectural components to extend useful service life of the structure and to maximize safety to the patrons. Historically, the parking program has been under funded.  As a result, the City has not performed any significant preventative maintenance, and has instead completed corrective maintenance on an as-needed basis. 

As structural problems occur, emergency monies are used for repairs.  This reactive approach has served the needs of the structures to date; however, the parking facilities have aged sufficiently to necessitate a systematic and ongoing preventative maintenance program to avert further structural deterioration to many of the garages and limit potential City risk and liability.

ANALYSIS

Burbank owns three parking structures in the downtown area and leases public parking rights in four private facilities.  All parking structures service primarily businesses and development that were established as part of the Redevelopment Agency�s strategic and successful efforts to redevelop economically blighted areas of the City.   Since the outset, the parking structures have attempted to be self sufficient, without any support from either the City General Fund or the Agency.

As shown in Attachment 1, the City owns the AMC parking structure (Facility A), the Orange Grove structure (Facility G), and the Courthouse parking structure (Facility M). The private structures with lease agreements include the Cusamano garage on Orange Grove Avenue (Facility H), the Gangi structure on Palm Avenue (Facility N), the Village Walk parking facility on Angeleno Avenue (Facility R) and the DIC parking garage on Palm Avenue (Facility P).  The Collection garage (Facility C) will soon be added to the parking structure inventory.

In the last week of June 2006, two emergency repairs were required for the AMC structure (Facility A), located at 133 East Orange Grove Avenue.  The total combined cost for these repairs has not been fully determined, but may exceed $100,000.  An old, broken underground water line was repaired which required excavation of a concrete driveway to reach the corroded pipe at a repair cost of $12,400.  The same month, a portion of this structure�s south facing exterior fascia fell five stories to a pedestrian walkway.   Emergency removal of the remaining fascia from the south wall was required for public safety, which further necessitated the removal of the existing illuminated signage to complete the repair. Not all costs have been compiled, but the demolition and signage removal costs thus far total $69,361.  Payment for these repairs is being taken out of the Parking Authority�s private contractual services account and staff will return to Council during mid-year adjustments to replace these funds.

The request for maintenance information by Council and the significant emergency repairs to the AMC structure pointed to the need for a thorough evaluation of the public parking structures in the downtown area.  Walker Parking Consultants had previously been selected to evaluate structural issues with the AMC parking structure in conjunction with the construction of the Collection facility.  Staff requested that they develop a Capital Improvement Protection Program proposal for all downtown public parking structures.  Walker Parking Consultants are experts in parking structure evaluation, restoration, and repair.  They are a local company based in Burbank, and as a Burbank business are very familiar with the issues of the City�s public parking system.

Our aged parking structures need an all-inclusive annual monitoring and repair program to maintain and maximize the design life of these structures.  Walker Parking Consultant�s proposal provides a comprehensive evaluation of the current physical condition and structural elements of City owned parking facilities A, G, and M.  These structures vary in age and in use.  Structure A, built in 1989 is 17 years old; structure G, built in 1978 is 28 years old; and structure M, built in 1994 is 12 years old.

The assessment also includes a due-diligence survey of privately owned structures H and N to identify any immediate safety issues or durability issues that could impact the service life of these structures.  The City will use the findings to ensure maintenance standards are properly followed in these parking facilities.

Lastly, Walker Parking Consultants will develop a recommended long-term maintenance program for the parking structures.  They will prepare a schedule for implementation of the maintenance program, noting frequency and description of needed annual maintenance.

FISCAL IMPACT

The total cost of the Walker proposal is $120,000.  Staff budgeted $65,000 to hire Walker Parking Consultants this fiscal year for an assessment of the AMC structure in preparation of the Collection project construction.  Due to the recent need for emergency repairs and the primary concern for public safety, staff determined that a professional assessment of all City-owned parking structures is needed.  The increase in scope adds additional cost to the proposal.  Staff is requesting $25,000 to augment the budgeted amount of $65,000.  The remaining proposal balance of $30,000 can be postponed to next fiscal year when staff will include it in the annual budget and request Walker Consultants to complete the proposal�s final task: development of a ten-year maintenance program, to include projected costs for the downtown parking facilities.  Walker Parking Consultants suggested postponing this phase of the proposal as a means to reduce initial costs.

The continued practice of proceeding without a planned structural maintenance schedule and delaying capital improvements results in much larger scale corrective repairs as evidenced by the recent emergency construction for the AMC parking structure.  Walker Parking Consultant�s assessment gives staff a schedule to identify repairs before they escalate, saving money and ensuring public safety.

The fiscal impact could be significant should the City not address this concern immediately. This assessment is needed to identify critically needed corrective action so as to continue to ensure the safety of the community and anyone using the City�s parking structures. 

Staff requests an appropriation of $25,000 from account number 530.ND000.30004.0000 (General Liability Unappropriated Fund Balance) to account number 530.ND000.85101.0310 (General Liability Transfers to Other Funds Account).  In addition, staff requests a contribution from the General Liability Fund account number 530.ND000.85101.0310 to the Parking Authority Fund account number 310.PW22F.62170 for the structural assessment of City owned parking structures in the downtown area.

Further, staff wishes to point out that this is the first time that the parking program has needed City support.  The fund will likely not be able to continue to be self-supportive by the end of the current fiscal year.  Prior to that, staff will return to the City Council with options to continue to maintain parking structures and operations.

This matter has been reviewed by the Financial Services Director.

RECOMMENDATION

Staff recommends appropriating $25,000 from the Insurance-General Liability Fund to augment the existing $65,000 available to hire Walker Parking Consultants for a thorough parking structure evaluation.

Tables and Figures:

Attachment 1 � Downtown Burbank Public Parking

Attachment 2 � Walker Parking Consultants Proposal for Professional Services

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