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Fredericksburg Assistant City Manager Beverly Cameron (left) and Project Superintendent Scott Maulding of Donley's Inc. at the opening of the parking garage. |
By EMILY BATTLE
Its facade is hand-laid brick and cut stone, and its top floors have some of downtown's best views of the Rappahannock River.
Sounds fancy for a parking deck, but as Fredericksburg officials and residents celebrated the opening of the garage at Sophia and Wolfe streets yesterday, many said it sets an example for how new construction can fit into a town whose main selling point is its history.
"This shows how preservation and progress can be wedded together," said Donna Chasen, who was part of a group of residents and business owners who worked with the city to choose a design deemed appropriate for the Historic District.
The final product is made to look like an old warehouse, with a gabled roof and black shutters around its windows.
That kind of detail drove the price up, but preservation enthusiasts seem to think it was well worth it.
The final price on the garage was $6.1 million, plus $800,000 to acquire the land.
The building ended up costing $300,000 more than its original budget because of unforeseen expenses for moving electric and telephone wires, along with a decision to paint the ceiling of the garage, which cost around $100,000.
It's being paid for by local motor fuel taxes and parking fees.
Parking will be free for the first two hours. Three hours in the deck will cost $3, and each additional hour will cost $1. Customers can pay with cash or credit card.
Assistant City Manager Beverly Cameron said he'll be watching how people use the garage over the next several months to gauge how appropriate the fees are.
City officials want to encourage downtown shoppers and tourists to use the garage, but they want to make sure the structure does not become a commuter lot.
While the city intends to eventually sell monthly parking passes for $60, Cameron said officials will try to limit those to people who work downtown.
"We're not going to be selling monthly passes to commuters," he said.
In the future, city officials hope to have more solutions to downtown parking problems.
They had asked consultant DESMAN Associates to recommend strategies for on-street parking, fines for illegal parking and other parking rules.
That $40,000 report was supposed to be completed by the time the deck opened, but City Manager Phillip Rodenberg said DESMAN hasn't answered all of the city's questions yet.
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