Board of Aldermen 02-23-2021 Page 22
have access to the same levels of information. Personally | would be more assured if we all the information
that is being referred to tonight on our plate but | do hear what Alderman Clemons is saying that we have
additional checks and balances. There are potential opportunities to make things change. So my question to
Alderman Dowd with his experience in developing School Projects, is if this is urgent because it has to be
started when the ground is soft enough, what is our turnback point. Like if they start digging into the ground, |
mean we are talking about a parking garage which is literally the first thing they have to build but it is also
subject to dimensions and that kind of stuff. If they dig a big hole in the ground and we say, ok look you are
not going to be able to do what we thought you could do, what kind of alternatives do we have?
Alderman Dowd
Alderman Wilshire?
President Wilshire
Alderman Dowd. Yeah just two things, just for one clarification up front, | did not talk to the developer or Mr.
Melville at all today. | talked to Director Cummings on several subjects not just this. And as | think people
might have missed, | just said it, that when the lease is developed it has to come back for approval to the
Board of Aldermen. The lease is going to be pretty much the wording that is in the agreement plus the mets
and bounds that defines the property specifically. That’s a legal requirement as | am sure Attorney Bolton
could attest to. If the construction is not started and | would refer, I’d get back to Mr. Melville to answer the
question, | know we were talking about having a final lease assignment and closing in May. You don't just call
a construction company and have them start in a couple days, it takes time to gear up, it takes time order
material. | mean we don’t know what the construction plans are yet but | also would go out on a limb and say if
we don’t enter into this agreement, they are not going to go spend the money to line all that construction up. So
until this agreement is signed, they’ve got their hands tied. They are not going to spend a whole lot of money
and all of a sudden we decide, you know what — we don’t want to do this. No we would have to have this
commitment. We don’t have this commitment, they don’t have our commitment that we want them to go
forward. So | would ask President Wilshire to let Mr. Melville answer.
Mayor Donchess
Well Madam President, | have more information on this.
President Wilshire
Ok, Mayor?
Mayor Donchess
We have been discussing what — something an hour based upon the idea that a parking plan has never been
submitted. As part of the record of the Budget Committee of August 12" of last year, the parking plan was
submitted to the Budget Committee. Now it was submitted so long ago that maybe people don’t remember
that, but it was submitted and it is part of the record. Not only has this been discussed before the Budget
Committee, but remember we did bond hearings and we presented a lot of information there as well. And
there was TIF Legislation, information was presented there. That’s why | am saying we have gone over, and
over, and over this. And there have been informational meetings, just updates to Infrastructure. So this has
been presented to more than the Budget Committee. But if the whole premise here is that there’s never been
a parking plan, that is not correct. August 12", it was submitted six months ago as part of the record.
Now where this 20 to 30 spaces comes from, that is the street parking. That is the street parking. Yes we
have said 20 to 30 spaces on the street; 49 or 50 spaces in the garage. That has been clear for a long, long,
long time and the plan was submitted to the Budget Committee six months ago.
