LAMORINDA WEEKLY | More Public Parking Coming Downtown


New parking is coming to downtown directly across from Hamlin Cleaners on Golden Gate Way. Photo Cathy Tyson

With very little drama, the city was able to purchase the Oak Bridge Parking lot and an adjacent small parcel located at the corner of Golden Gate Way and First Street, with money that was already in the city's parking fund. Residents going to Plaza Way's new popular businesses Sideboard and A Runner's Mind, along with anyone else searching for a spot, can use one of the Oak Bridge 27 parking stalls in the very near future.

The papers are signed and escrow has been opened for the $1,562,000 purchase from Chuck and Virginia Stuart who own the main lot, and the Wiley Family Trust, which owns the small adjacent parcel where the namesake bridge is located. Because the city can only pay fair market value, the sales price was determined by an appraisal, and that works out to $57,851 per parking space. Both parcels combined are roughly half an acre, and the entrance is directly across from Hamlin cleaners. This lot will add to existing evening and weekend public parking next to to the Park Theater on Golden Gate Way.

Chalk it up to good parking karma for funding the new public lot. Meter revenue adds up over time, along with enforcement revenue, which can only be spent on parking. There's only one minor special request from the Stuarts: to lease eight parking spaces to adjacent businesses until their lease expires in 2018, at the rate of $60 per space per month with annual increases.

What hasn't been firmed up is whether meters will be installed, said planning and building director Niroop Srivatsa; installing meters is a way to encourage space turnover, not to mention discourage BART parkers. The city has not yet taken possession of the lot, but when it does, a number of items will need to be decided: the hours of operation, fencing, meters and more.