What’s happening
City Council met July 22 to review the options, which according to local officials, came from recent discussions about an increasing need to accommodate crowds of community members attending city-sponsored events at city hall.
City officials said events such as the annual winter festival, Arbor Day and Independence Day celebrations tend to lure such big crowds that visitors produce overflow parking along DeZavala Road.
Chris Otto, geographic discipline leader for Colliers Engineering and Design, the city’s consulting engineering firm, broke down the two parking expansion options for council.
One option grows the total number of city hall parking spaces to 134, with 79 existing and new paved spaces, plus 55 existing unpaved spaces along DeZavala Road. Otto said that saves one cluster of trees but would force the removal of several other trees, and could prompt relocation of the surrounding public walking nature trail and a rain garden.
A second option would increase the total number of parking spaces to 173, including 118 new and existing paved spaces. This scenario, Otto said, would mean the elimination of the aforementioned cluster of trees and other trees.
"It may be a lot of trees, but in the grand design of things, I think it’s worth it and getting more parking spaces,” Otto said.
Also of note
City Manager Bill Hill said council does not need to choose an option yet, but it is ideal that council make a decision soon so that city officials could act to finalize cost estimates and secure the appropriate funding.
Hill said some of the federal funding that Shavano Park is receiving for a planned DeZavala Road drainage improvement project could be applied to such a city hall parking lot expansion project.
Otto said some of the newly developed parking spaces, regardless of number, should be made to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
