Today’s KC Star has a story about how the city of KCMO is going to spend $47 million of taxpayers’ money to build a 1,000-space parking garage for the new performing arts center under construction at 16th and Broadway. For comparison, the city spends $48 million a year on the bus system.

So the city is essentially spending an entire year’s worth of bus service to build a single parking garage. It’s a massive amount of money that works out to $47,000 for each parking space, more than twice the average for typical parking garages. For the cost of this one parking garage, we could double bus service for an entire year.

Building parking garages is OK when and where they are needed.  The interesting issue here is that the city is spending this money at the same that it is cutting other city services to balance the budget, as well as struggling to find enough money to keep the bus system running and pay for a promised light rail system.

To be fair, the contract to build this garage was signed by the last mayor and city council, so most of the current politicians are trying to deal with that legacy. However, the situation still a very bad message.

Despite all kinds of talk about climate protection, the environment, mass transit, green solutions, re-urbanizing the urban core – city leaders are not putting their money where their mouth is.  When push comes to shove the city is still putting the automobile first, even the most urban of environments.

• KC Star: City, Kaufman Center for Performing Arts near deal on parking garage.
• KCATA funding information.
• International Parking Institute: parking parking garage costs.

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The city has reached an agreement — almost — with backers of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts on fulfilling its pledge to provide $47 million for a parking garage.

The promise to assist the estimated $405 million project under construction at 16th and Central streets was made more than five years ago by a previous City Council, but discussions began in earnest only in September. That is when an ordinance was introduced requiring the city manager to come up with an implementation plan.

On Wednesday the council’s Finance and Audit Committee endorsed a cooperative agreement after weeks of delays and postponements, although Randy Landes, city treasurer, cautioned that City Manager Wayne Cauthen had not reviewed it. It is expected to be considered by the full council today.

Landes described the agreement as “98.7 percent” complete, which was enough for Finance Committee Chairwoman Deb Hermann.

“It’s been close for a long time,” she said. “I personally think it’s been at loggerheads.”

Attorney Jerry Riffel, who represents the Performing Arts Center, said the agreement backed by the committee was the 17th draft that had been prepared.

The agreement calls for the city to own and operate the 1,000-space garage to be built in three landscaped tiers along the hillside south of the center. The city will pay for the garage and will keep the parking revenue.

For its part, Performing Arts Center Holding Inc., the entity building the project, would cover any cost overruns for the garage and advance $6 million to cover expenses that will be later reimbursed by the city. The entity also is guaranteeing that the arts complex — a 1,600-seat symphony hall and a 1,800-seat opera and ballet hall — will be completed.

The construction timetable has slipped since the groundbreaking in October 2006. At the time, backers said the complex would open by late 2009. The project now is not expected to be ready until the 2010-11 performance season.

The cost, which includes a $40 million endowment, has increased from $326 million to $405 million.

An eight-member Community Improvement District board will make the decision on the design and construction of the garage. The board membership is divided equally between the city and the center.

Differences between the center and the city remain over how disputes would be resolved in the event of a scheduling conflict at the garage.

For the most part, the agreement calls for the center to have first rights to use the garage to accommodate patrons. At the beginning of each year, representatives of the arts center and the city are to meet and create a joint schedule based on events at the center.

The city will be able to use the garage at times it is not reserved for the Performing Arts Center to provide parking for events at the Convention Center or other purposes.

The calendar would be submitted to the city manager for review. Final approval is done by the improvement district board.

Performing Arts Center representatives also want the board to resolve any scheduling conflicts, something being balked at by the city.

“The city point of view is we don’t want to go through the democratic process for the use of public parking garages,” Landes said. “Do you want operations to go through a 4-4 process or the city have control of its asset?”

Riffel said there would not be a garage if it had not been for the arts center project.

“This is a dispute over the original intent of the agreement,” he said. “We’re putting hundreds of millions into this project. We made it happen. It’s very fair for us to have a 4-4 Community Improvement District partnership.”

With that issue yet to be resolved, the finance committee endorsed the proposal. Landes said the plan calls for final legislation to be adopted by the end of the month, leaving time to resolve differences.