How much will the parking garage cost? Who is paying for it? Parking meters? Parking permits?

I agree with Paul. The last thing College Ave needs is more traffic. Will the extra 20 spots be in the lot for the BMR housing complex at College and Park near the Caltrain tracks?

Well, the people living in all of the under-parked stack-n-pack going up around California Ave are going to need someplace to park their cars.

@Resident,

"Who's paying for it?" YOU are.

In January is there expected to be a major shortage of parking in the vicinity once construction gets started? Thanks for your heads up on this -

I live down the street and this has all been a nightmare. I don't want more giant trucks coming in and loading and blocking traffic and putting my children and I in danger as I bike to and from school

We need this. Just vote out any CC member who agrees to underparked developments in the future.

when will the construction EVER stop around here?, its such an ugly mess for the last 4-5 years!!

While I understand the desire to have fewer cars on the road, we see so much parking frustration in this neighborhood. This should make a real difference.

Posted by Cal Ave employee, a resident of Evergreen Park

>> This should make a real difference.

"Should". But, by the time it is completed, all the other office projects will be completed and populated, and, we will be back where we were before, parking-wise, but, with more traffic.

"The TMA is working wonderfully downtown to such an extent that we probably won't need a garage there. ... This has to be part of an overall plan," Coale said.

TMA is not working out wonderfully, it is a disaster! If it is not subsidized, it will fail.

College avenue has both apartments and single house. Most of the residents are young families with small kids. Bringing more cars to park on this street will create major disasters for children’s play on the street! Please keep in mind, this is a residentiall neighborhood with young kids, college Avenue is not a parking lot!.

Photo caption indicates the garage will be ON Calif. Ave. Yet the plans indicate otherwise. This is confusing to some people.

Going round and round looking for a place to park is very tiresome.

More parking space very important.

This huge project is a great opportunity to put in writing in all the associated contracts that all trucks, cars and heavy equipment must be turned off when not moving. NO IDLING. We can begin to reduce air and noise pollution by making this expectation clear before the projects even get started. Also, put in writing in the contracts how said vehicles are to enter and leave the construction area. They shouldn't be allowed to drive on Grant Avenue, Sheridan Avenue and Ash Street where their presence on these narrow neighborhood streets would endanger the families, children, students and elderly that live here, walk here and bicycle here. Our Mayfield neighborhood streets are already dangerous due to speeding cut-through traffic. Let's make sure that if the garage and PBS building projects go forward, that we are protected.

The key for the parking issue and the TMA is to charge enough for parking to pay for the garage as well as discourage driving.

I rarely have trouble parking there when I drive. When I bike (as I usually do because it is smack dab in the center of town--it is about a 17 minute easy bike ride no matter where I am coming from.

Not everyone can, or wants, to bike around town. It is a mistake to even allow bicycles into traffic discussions. The one exception should be safety concerns around children biking to and from school.

There is no traffic problem. If you experience traffic you just need to take a different route.

There is no parking problem. If you experience a lack of parking you just need to park somewhere else.

Why don't the people that are complaining about traffic and parking listen to the wisdom of the mayor? She's the smartest person in Palo Alto.

Posted by Yolanda, a resident of South of Midtown

>> There is no traffic problem. If you experience traffic you just need to take a different route. (etc)

"Poe's law is an adage of Internet culture stating that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the parodied views." Web Link

Irony or not, I'm not amused.

The "different route" is directly in front of somebody else's front door and right around their kids riding their bikes to school.

I'm amused.

And I'm silently doing the wave since that's the only way we're allowed to express ourselves in response to mayoral and council comments.

I hope the new garage is as tall as the one behind the old the San Antonio Shopping Center. That one must be at least 15 stories high!

A skyscraper garage will alleviate many parking problems. There are 1-2 of this kind erected near the courthouse in San Jose and they are very efficient in compressing parked cars into centralized locations.

As a result, there are fewer cars roaming the streets looking for parking spaces.

A high-rise garage will also eliminate the need for the current street level city parking lots around California and Cambridge Avenues. Perhaps they can be sold off as parcels for future development projects (i.e. office space, hotels, mixed-use condos etc.).

I would like to see the California Avenue area modernized to some extent. Like Santana Row in San Jose. San Antonio Road was a step in the right direction and we need to continue this forward progress to meet the needs of newer residents.

Posted by Build Higher, a resident of Evergreen Park
2 hours ago

>> I hope the new garage is as tall as the one behind the old the San Antonio Shopping Center. That one must be at least 15 stories high!

If we need 15 stories of garage, dig down 15 stories. The cars don't need a view.

>> I would like to see the California Avenue area modernized to some extent.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"Modernized" in what sense? Corrugated metal seems to be the latest style. I've heard this referred to as "chicken coop" style. I would much rather see a Birge Clark Web Link imitation than another giant chicken coop like the new building on Park south of Page Mill.

> If we need 15 stories of garage, dig down 15 stories. The cars don't need a view.

Too much dirt to move + time consuming. Upright steel girders are the way to go.

>> I would much rather see a Birge Clark Web Link imitation

OK if we were living back in the 1920s. This is 2018.

Posted by Time to Modernize This Old Town, a resident of Charleston Meadows

>> >> I would much rather see a Birge Clark Web Link imitation

>> OK if we were living back in the 1920s. This is 2018.

Nothing looks so dated as a "post-modern" building.

A Birge Clark-inspired multi-story parking garage is hard to picture. If we're running with 12-15 stories, about the only way you'd ever see the Spanish tiles is with a helicopter.

A parking garage of this architectural style would probably look like the old President Hotel but with a lot of open spaces instead of windows.

A potentially hideous design.

Posted by A Design Major, a resident of Stanford

>> A Birge Clark-inspired multi-story parking garage is hard to picture. If we're running with 12-15 stories, [...] A potentially hideous design.

3 stories up, 12 stories down. Retail along the street on the first floor. A three-story Birge Clark building would look very nice. Especially compared with a boring concrete parking garage, or, even worse, a postmodern design. I'm not stuck on Birge Clark, though. I could go with a pure Art Deco design as well. The key to making it work is to put 12 stories of the parking underground.

>> The key to making it work is to put 12 stories of the parking underground.

Driving down to the bottom floor would create an unpleasant subterranean parking experience. 2-3 floors down might be OK but 12? Personal safety and vehicle security at 10+ below-ground parking levels creates additional concerns. At least there is some natural daylight when ascending a multi-level parking garage during the day which is considerably less depressing and mole-like in nature.

>>>Too much dirt to move + time consuming. Upright steel girders are the way to go.

^^^^ This. Digging 12 stories down is a major excavation project and might even require an EIR (environmental impact report) prior to proceeding.

And if any prehistoric remains/relics are found at these lower depths, you can pretty much be assured of delays in erecting a new garage. Sometimes it's better to avoid various discoveries by simply paving over them and looking the other way. Besides, there are no guarantees that they will be down there anyway.

Designated off-site parking + a shuttle service into California Avenue and adjascent court facilities would eliminate a need for such a parking monstrosity.

Has a 12-story (or anything close to that) underground garage ever been built, anywhere? Wouldn't the excavation wind up like a giant open-pit mine?

> Has a 12-story (or anything close to that) underground garage ever been built, anywhere? Wouldn't the excavation wind up like a giant open-pit mine?

There's one in China that can store roughly 100+ vehicles but it is fully automated. Maybe this is what Anon had in mind.

Web Link

Being completely underground, the structural design of the retaining walls which would support the entire garage is critical. As in parts of China, we happen to live in an active earthquake zone so strength and flexibility factors must be taken into full consideration.

The Chinese design is fully mechanized and the automobiles are automatically parked on individual platforms anywhere from 1-17 levels below ground. The driver simply leaves his/her car at the ground level entrance and an automated parking system takes over.

There are obvious pros and cons to this concept. It's ideal for long-term parking and maybe so-so for things like casual shopping and/or occasionally having to retrieve stuff from the car as needed. The Chinese design can park and retrieve an individual car within 2-3 minutes but to date, no one has reported what happens when a whole bunch of people need to get to their cars at the same time!

And yes, it would take an incredibly deep and extensive opening in the ground to build something like this.

@ Design Major,

Thanks for the China information.

A multi-level parking garage situated directly on California Avenue seems incredibly out of place.

Will the new parking garage offer valet parking?

@Design Major,

Maybe you should graduate and get a few years of experience under your belt before you start designing the world for the rest of us. We're already suffering from the bad decisions made by an urban designer with a rigid ideology and no practical experience on our City Council.

Maybe you should look around campus for examples of underground parking? Stanford seems to be able to build all below grade multi-story underground parking when they want to preserve a Frisbee play field.

> Maybe you should graduate and get a few years of experience under your belt before you start designing the world for the rest of us.

Just responding to a query regarding multi-level underground parking facilities.

Besides, when I get out of here I won't be expending my energies designing mundane municipal parking garages. Boring.

Posted by A Design Major, a resident of Stanford

>> Besides, when I get out of here I won't be expending my energies designing mundane municipal parking garages. Boring.

Design Major: I look forward to your future designs. Let Birge Clark be your -standard-, by which I mean that anything built today should look new, interesting, fresh and exciting compared to a Birge Clark.

As I said before, "Nothing looks so dated as a "post-modern" building."

Chinese deep garage best design. More parking for more shopping and dining.
Good for businesses. Making money is most important.