by Mark McDermott
One of the City of Manhattan Beach’s key downtown parking structures will require immediate demolition after engineers discovered failing steel columns within its concrete. Parking Lot 3, located on 12th and Morningside, contained 146 metered parking spaces, including many used by downtown businesses.
The City Council on Tuesday night authorized the demolition and directed staff to take several emergency steps, including the suspension of permit parking in nearby Hill Section neighborhoods and a search for ways to expand street parking throughout downtown.
The deterioration of the lot, originally constructed in 1971, had been on the City Council’s radar for a few years. Last year, its replacement was put on the list of needed Capital Improvement Projects. But in late June, an inspection revealed corrosion to the steel columns and the third level was closed. Further inspection on July 30 showed structural damage to steel pipe columns, likely caused by rain and proximity to the ocean. The entire structure was closed that day. The City has operated shuttle services to leased lots at Manhattan Village Mall, Pacific Elementary School, and U.S. Bank to make up for the sudden loss of parking.
But on Tuesday, the Council gave Acting City Manager Talyn Mirzakhanian authorization to declare an emergency, forgoing the City’s usual bidding process to begin demolition within the next month. A staff report indicated the project would take six to eight months, ending with construction of a temporary surface parking lot containing an estimated 70 spaces.
Councilperson Steve Napolitano said none of these measures were enough. “If this is an emergency, why aren’t we treating it like an emergency?” Napolitano asked.
Napolitano suggested Morningside, usually reserved as a loading zone, be used for parking, and the bike lane on 15th Street should temporarily give way to angled parking spaces. He said the Tuesday Farmers Market on 13th and Morningside may likewise need to be temporarily relocated and additional parking allowed along Valley Drive, possibly even on the grass along Veterans Parkway.
“If this is really an emergency, it has to be done as quickly as possible, and that means we might need to suspend a few things that we otherwise wouldn’t like to suspend,” he said. “….I am just reminded when we have an earthquake or other disasters, we are up and running as fast as is humanly possible.This is an emergency for us. We have to find other ways to find parking. I don’t think remote lots are going to work.”
Another possibility that was raised was use of the Live Oak Park playing field, which council did not rule out. That option would give the City about 100 parking spaces, but both take away recreational uses — including Little League baseball — and cost an estimated $500,000 to rebuild the field after its use as a parking lot was over.
Council members also urged a hastening of the six to eight month timeline.
Councilperson Richard Montgomery, Mayor Pro Tem Amy Howorth, and Mayor Joe Franklin questioned staff about why demolition would take so long.
“We all know downtown is hurting,” Montgomery said. “City taxes come second. But I want to know — we all want to understand, we hear it every day, why it takes us so long, six to eight months? I’ll tell you why, other private businesses out there…they get bulldozers, and in 30 days out they are knocking that building down.”
City Engineer Katherine Doherty said that the demolition itself would take four to five months, and the heavy impact necessitates a longer timeline.
“It needs to be done very carefully, because it’s in such an impacted area, with pedestrians and cars adjacent to the structure,” she said. “It’s made of concrete and steel, which are quite heavy, which will require quite a lot of truckloads to take that material away. And so after that it’s probably two to three months until we can get the new surface lot in place.”
Jeff Fijalka, a senior civil engineer, said actual demolition and site preparation for a new surface-level lot would take 60 working days. “Which comes out to about three months, after the structure is removed,” he said. The floor slab would then be removed, and then grading would occur, and the development of a drainage plan. “So that’s why we’re anticipating demolition, preparing the site and constructing the new improvements to be on the order of about eight months …Construction alone, to be honest — eight months is very expedited, to carry out that amount of work in that amount of time.”
Jill Lamkin, president of the Downtown Business and Professionals Association, said that the lot closure is already significantly impacting businesses. She said a survey showed that even with just the closure of the parking structure’s third level in July, 67 percent of businesses reported a 10 to 50 percent decrease in business.
“Foot traffic is the same. Cancellations for restaurants, hair salons are anywhere between 10 percent to 30 percent….It is an emergency,” she said. “We need to find a place to put people so that customers can come to shop.”
Steve Charelian, the former city finance director who is running for council in the upcoming election, said that by his calculation the City is losing $30,000 to $40,000 in parking citation revenue — which, unlike parking meter revenue, goes directly to the general fund. He suggested considering the use of Live Oak for parking.
“As I remember, when we were going through the building of the public safety facility, we utilized parking at Live Oak and it worked pretty well,” Charelian said. “I don’t remember it being too impactful….That wouldn’t really be a bad idea. That would open up over 100 parking spaces at the Civic Center. I agree with council member comments that I heard — we really need to look at everything and leave no stone unturned. It is an emergency situation. If this was a natural disaster, we would look for any means, and I’m not seeing that sense of urgency, that we’re looking under every rock.”
Downtown resident Jim Burton, a frequent opponent of increased activity downtown, suggested that construction work hours be extended beyond what is currently allowed in the municipal code, which allows work only between 7:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on weekdays, and between 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays.
“We need to think about it as an emergency. As a downtown resident, if we need to work later, believe it or not, I would be in support of that,” Burton said. “I think that if you’re going to do it, you need to get it done. The businesses need it. As residents, the least amount of time, the better.”
The council leaped on his suggestion. In addition to approving the emergency demolition, they directed staff to explore extending construction, including to Sundays, an hour earlier on weekdays, and, if not overly cost-prohibitive, to double shifts. And they repeatedly urged staff to find new parking solutions as quickly as possible.
“Get creative and look to squeeze every possible parking spot out of downtown and the surrounding areas that we can,” Napolitano said. “I’m not going to touch Live Oak at this time … .I want to see what other solutions we can do.”
“There has to be such a sense of urgency,” Howorth said. “We don’t want empty storefronts and restaurants.” ER
