Downtown Janesville parking plaza reopens
Photo
City of Janesville employee Troy Egger cleans up sand from sandbags that held down signs blocking parking stalls on the parking plaza over the Rock River in downtown Janesville. Repairs on the plaza are just about complete. More than 50 spots were reopened Wednesday.
JANESVILLE — About 51 parking spots in Janesville's downtown parking plaza reopened Wednesday after repairs to the plaza were finished.
Workers still are working on two additional spots that affect about two stalls each, but those should be open by the end of the week, said Carl Weber, city director of public works.
A total of 230 stalls will then be available.
Parking capacity on the plaza was 275 before engineers in August discovered girders supporting the concrete parking deck were deteriorating.
About 185 parking spots were open during repairs, but dead ends created by barricades made travel through the plaza difficult.
Now, three out of the five aisles are open, and travel should be much easier, Weber said.
Fixing the parking plaza caused city council debate. Several council members wanted to repair all 100 spots for a cost of about $175,000.
Other council members were reluctant. They noted that only about 40 percent of downtown parking is used.
The state Department of Natural Resources has told Janesville officials it is unlikely the agency would issue a permit for major reconstruction of the parking plaza.
A compromise to fix about 50 of the closed 100 spots was approved.
The council hopes the fix will extend the plaza's life for about four years, giving the city time to apply for grants to remove it and to plan for riverfront redevelopment and alternative parking.
City Manager Eric Levitt doubts whether the city can afford to tear down the plaza in the next four years, anyway.
Susan Josheff, supervisor of the DNR's Waterways and Wetlands Protection program, said Monday the agency supports the city's repair work.
"This will give the city some time to continue with its planning," Josheff said. "That parking plaza has lived its useful life."
Some downtown business owners want the plaza to stay.
Josheff said it would be impossible to do major repairs that would significantly extend the plaza's life, primarily because its concrete and metal infrastructure has deteriorated.
She said communities are reversing a decades-old trend of turning their backs on their waterways.
The DNR now looks at individual projects based on their water dependency.
"A bridge is water dependent because you need to get from one side of the river to the other," she said. "A parking plaza is not because there are other places it can be located."
The department considers public interest in approving projects over waterways. That includes navigation, fish and wildlife habitat, water quality and aesthetics.
"In terms of navigation, we've had staff overturn a boat with all the obstructions under the plaza," she said. "The constant shadowing affects habitat. Water quality is a little bit harder to define, but it's relatively safe to say that anything that comes out of a car above gets washed into the river.
"Aesthetics is defined as natural scenic beauty, and that's not there."
The city has spent more than $550,000 on plaza repairs since 2004.
Nov 2, 2012 at 10:53 p.m.
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Once again this is an issue of the council listening to the business people and not the taxpayers.
Those same business people who refuse to invest in the downtown to an extent greater than what the taxpayer is mandated for.
Most downtown business owners appear to be anti-Obama....so....since "they built it" themselves....let them continue to build it without our money.
They should be happy to do so if they are not hypocrites.
Nov 2, 2012 at 12:10 p.m.
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My opion - if downtown business pepole want the parking plaza, they, not the taxpayers should pay for the up keep.
Nov 2, 2012 at 9:01 a.m.
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I've lived here 15 years. I do business downtown about once a week. I have parked on the plaza once in my life.
Nov 2, 2012 at 7:06 a.m.
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When the plaza was closed for repair I did not hear any distress about the lack of parking during the day. Were there any issues with availability? If not, that's a great start to the study.
Nov 1, 2012 at 10:16 p.m.
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"Here's your sign" If you have a river that wanders for several miles through your town and there is not even one river side restaurant to go to you just might need to pave it.
If passing over the river causes you to lose your appetite you might need to pave it.
If you have miles upon miles of parks on the river that are not being utilized you may need to pave it.
Seriously though the plaza is a huge opportunity to find parking that is surrounded by businesses. This is not a problem but an opportunity
Nov 1, 2012 at 5:22 p.m.
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Four years gives us time to develop our options and alternatives, such as a vision for a downtown that is less automobile-oriented. Two-way streets, bicycle lanes and facilities, and a transit-oriented development model will go a long way toward reducing the need to pave over the river -- which should be something that draws people downtown, to walk along, to eat beside.
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