CARTA came under fire Thursday for letting a North Shore apartment building under construction use 75 parking spaces near Renaissance Park, as critics questioned the deal's legality and called it an unpublicized giveaway to a developer that will make it harder for ordinary people to enjoy the park.
But city and Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) officials insisted the agreement was negotiated in a legal manner and is part of a "shared parking" that makes good use of a lot that's often empty by giving apartment dwellers who would mainly park at night "hanging tags" that don't guarantee a space if the lot's full.
The debate centered on Vision Chattanooga Northshore, a five-story apartment and retail complex being built off Cherokee Boulevard on an empty lot where Christmas trees are sold seasonally. The building is a development by Mitch Patel, president of the Chattanooga-based hotel chain, Vision Hospitality Group.
CARTA, which manages the parking lot for the Chattanooga Downtown Redevelopment Corporation, entered into an agreement last November to make 75 parking spaces available to Patel's apartment building for a usage fee of $30 per space per month - or $1 a day.
"Many feel that this parking agreement will have a negative impact on the public," Helen Burns Sharp, president of the watchdog group Accountability for Taxpayer Money, told the board of the redevelopment corporation on Thursday. "To our knowledge, this item never, until today, appeared on the agenda of any public policy board where we could express our concerns."
She didn't fault Patel for seeking the agreement, but said city policy makers didn't deliberate about its impact or give the public a chance to comment.
Also criticizing the arrangement were Southside residents Franklin and Tresa McCallie and Brooke Bradley King, who lives in Bridgeview Condominiums at the corner of Market Street and Cherokee Boulevard.
Renaissance Park has 269 parking spaces and 120 of them belong to One North Shore Condominiums. With Patel's complex taking 75 spaces, that leaves 74 unclaimed spaces for the public, King said.
"When you take 75 parking spaces away from the general public, you're losing revenue," she said.
But Dave Dalton, board member of the redevelopment corporation, said the apartment's tenants will pay even if the lot, which has fees collected by Republic Parking, is full.
"They don't have a guaranteed parking spot," Dalton said. "If it's not available, then somebody else is paying it."
Franklin McCallie, who's weighed in on downtown parking policy before (here, here and here), said the public would have been better served if Patel had been required to build a parking structure.
"This is public parking, this is public space," McCallie said.
But CARTA Executive Director Lisa Maragnano said the lot was studied carefully at different hours of the day before CARTA decided shared parking made sense.
"That way, we're not building a parking garage when we don't need to," Maragnano said. "We're not taking parking away from the citizens of Chattanooga."
Redevelopment Corporation Board Member Julian Bell promised to look into the matter and answer several question Burns Sharp raised about the parking deal in her written statement.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or twitter.com/meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.