Steve Thurston, file photo (2021)
The Elm Street lot has seen construction over the past year, including this on the backside of 220 Glen Street. Currently, a portion of parking lot is fenced for the work on the Glens Falls National Building at 250 Glen St.
The Glens Falls Common Council awarded a contract, up to $12,800, to CT Male Associates to study the feasibility of placing a parking structure on what is now the city’s Elm Street parking lot between South and Exchange streets. Paid for out of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative state grant funds, this project is part of the overall South Street redevelopment project.
That project includes redevelopment of at least four parcels of land and construction or renovation of a handful of buildings at or near the intersection of Elm and South streets. The contract was awarded at the council meeting Dec. 14.
The city is working with Bonacio Construction on the redevelopment project.
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The parking structure originally was planned for the other side of South Street, tucked behind what is now the South Street Pavilion and the Sandy’s Clam Bar building. However, the project is very fluid, and a residential building is being considered for that site, and parking is potentially moving to the Elm Street lot.
The city’s economic director, Jeff Flagg, said after the vote: “We have plans [for parking on the Elm Street lot], at least three sets of different plans, going back to 1986.”
The question is the size and shape.
“Garages don’t have to be square and ugly, but they often are,” he said.
Given how traffic is changing to more walkability in urban cores and to self-driving cars, which could potentially park anywhere and drive themselves to pick up an owner downtown, a question that CT Male will consider is just how big the parking structure needs to be.
Cost is also a factor, Flagg said, as the construction market is still dealing with supply chain issues and inflation.
The proposal from CT Male says the feasibility study will look at the property, at old plans, at upgrades and changes in the immediate area and create a “letter report.”
The report will provide an opinion “on the overall capacity and site layout of the proposed parking structure” and review where the building might be placed and the traffic patterns near it.
The study will not create full drawings or other more detailed analyses.