$52,380 per spot Wildwood City Hall Parking
 

Well it’s official, Wildwood taxes are being wasted on City Hall upgrades. The new 6.6 million dollar 126 space garage sounds really nice. When you look on google maps you see another wasted parking space where Ace hardware is and it’s a couple hundred feet away. But hey, this one will be newer and shiny. Who cares if the hundreds of spaces are wasted there? Those are all dirty and old.

What’s north of 50 k per spot anyway? Public Portal • CivicClerk

It looks like the property has about 30 spots now. The new garage will have the same number of spots per level and adds three levels. This seems like a good use for the space.

Using the Ace hardware lot may not be feasible. The owner may not be interested in seeing his private property use for public parking. There might be regulations for how many spaces need to be provided for each storefront which would be affected if the spaces were diverted to public spots.

Looking at several pages online it seems a high-end price for a parking structure (just the structure) is about $30,000/spot. At almost twice that price, this project seems to be very expensive, even if it includes the purchase of the property.

Suspect the real motivation could be parking for City Hall.

Previous thread:

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...anuary-345790/

Yes, you made that claim in the other thread as well. Do you have anything to back it up?

Incorrect assumption on my part on the garage location.

I agree, but that really isn’t the whole issue. 50 K for each parking space? That’s just nuts! We are talking about downtown Wildwood for crying out loud. The city has lost all focus.

I don’t think Finfrock from Apopka minds it one bit. What a shame. The people of Wildwood could use other things so much more.

For sure, and discussed in the other thread.

BTW - thanks for posting the link to the Wildwood Public Portal.

I think you have the garage on the wrong side of 301. It is on the west side, next to Nick's Trains and near Miz Kathi's Cotilion. City Hall is across the street.

If City Hall inhabitants do use the garage, rather than the 50 spots at City Hall, then they will be freeing up spots elsewhere for customers to use. One way or another there will be 90 additional parking places.

I have no idea how many parking places are needed but planning ahead is rarely a bad thing.

Argh, you're correct, dummy me :)

I haven’t seen the Wildwood city annual budget so a lot of speculation on this Thread. 50k per parking slot does seem costly. Some residents would like some sort of city subsidy for affordable housing but perhaps that is in the budget elsewhere.

There's a real good idea....have pedestrians crossing US 301 to get to shops on the other side!

Excessive
 

The amount is excessive, but it isn’t your money so why worry?

Downtown wildwood isn’t that attractive to investors. If the new parking garage makes the rest of the real estate attractive, ratables will increase and taxes will increase.

It government making an investment, so private $$$ follow.

If downtown WIldwood isn’t a different place in 3 to 5 years, then it’s a waste of money.

If you live in the incorporated section of the Villages, as many of the newer people do, then it actually was their money.

Look into Wildwood downtown renovation plans

If the place progresses like multi-storey car parks here in UK, it will soon after completion be taken over by the homeless, winos, and drug dealers.
The stair wells and elevators will stink of urine, and no one in their right mind will venture in after dark, or at all, if alternative is available.

Maybe City Hall will provide reserved parking for employees in the new parking garage, thus leaving the parking area next to City Hall available for people who have business there. Employees would have to walk a block and cross 301, but would get free covered parking. I think a lot of older people would find the hike from the car park difficult. As for the Ace Hardware parking lot, that’s a couple blocks away. It would be difficult to get City Hall customers to hike from there. They might walk that far to a restaurant or a free concert in a town square or a craft show, but not to City Hall.

I finally looked at the drawings on a large screen.

Very small footprint for a parking garage. Roughly 1/3 of the space is ramps to get to the upper level. Which is probably why the cost per space is so high.

I have not seen their plans for downtown but it makes sense to provide parking before it is needed. I just do not understand why they would put anything on the other side of a busy highway by the train tracks.

Instead of a parking garage they should be making a truck route around downtown...... I don't care how much they fluff up Wildwood, if people have to walk inches from huge trucks barreling down 301.

Haven’t been to area for couple of years, only drive by. Parking for thrift seems very busy, and Miz Cathy’s parking was hard to come by. But what other businesses, besides the train store is within walking distance for clients that doesn’t already have parking space? Would hav e thought a retail on lower level with parking on top would At least bring in more retail. But just an opinion

- It's an easy win to expand existing parking vertically.
- Provide parking for current commercial properties on that side of 301
- Provide parking for future commercial properties on that side of 301
- Provide parking near future pedestrian overpass for access to west side of railroad

Just one step of the long term plans for Wildwood. Need to see the entire picture before jumping to conclusions about one parking garage.

Long term plans of updating that stretch of 301 in Wildwood are in place. More to come.

Yes it is our money, I pay about $800 a year in taxes to Wildwood!

We don’t have those problems in the US.:wave:

Um, in some places, We do. Sorry to break the news.