I’m so pleased to see the recent posts opposing any ground level parking garage encroachment into the valuable street access areas. Thanks Lake, Doug, Ock, Jeffs, Simms etc. It’s almost like everybody is in agreement with what is an unwritten law saying that nobody can build another parking garage at ground floor with anything less than forty feet depth for future lease to retail or similar. This is a principle which nobody should be able to disregard while designing any parking facility to be located in the city core. Any attempt to disregard this unwritten law is probably evidence of pressure from motives not for the ultimate good of the city core..... selfish immediate profits? .... stupidity?
Just as with the Hemming Park problem, we should design and build for the future vibrancy, even if we don’t have it now, because not doing so will delay or prevent the actual achievement of the vibrancy in the end. In other words, we might not be able to fill the retail spaces provided at ground level on the perimeter of any parking built in the core, but we should certainly build the space for it.