Dear MP City Council,
I am writing on behalf of WellSpring, a company which has done business in the downtown area for 30 years. I am writing with our concern about the plan to convert the 3 public "Plaza Parking" lots into approximately 450 units of very low income affordable housing - not because of the ushering-in of new residents, but because it would negatively impact our existing business and employees in at least the two following ways:
* We regularly transfer supplies and equipment to and from our vehicles (for the off-site retreats we host), for which we park in Plaza Parking Lot #3, as close as possible to the back-door of our building at 845 Oak Grove Avenue. We transfer a variety of supplies, materials, and sound equipment via hand-truck, dolly, and wagons - which is challenging enough making our way to and from our office to our cars parked at ground-level. Adding the complication of having to navigate a multi-floor parking structure to get to ones car would create an added hardship in getting this regularly occurring job done.
* Another potential problem with creating a parking structure is that when our employees work late in the office (some have worked as late as midnight on multiple days over the year), they currently feel a sense of safety walking from our building out into the open-air ground-level parking lot - given its visibility and lack of places for people to hide (if anyone is up to no good). Our employees currently walk to their cars (during late hours, or any time) in peace, seeing that their route is clear and there arent places around their cars for sinister people to hide. Building parking structures in ANY lot would surely create many potential places for people-seeking-to-do-harm to hide - which would, in turn, erase that current sense of safety that exists with the open-air ground-level parking lots.
I know there are plenty of other concerns that other downtown businesses have concerning the negative impact to both their employees and customers - and, of course, to the downtown skyline and the quaint, inviting feel of the area we currently enjoy.
We thank you for your consideration, and urge you NOT to move forward with the proposed downtown parking plaza plans.
Sincerely,
WellSpring
