A VIEW of the Disneyland parking structure in Anaheim (Flickr/John Watson).

By Jim Tortolano

The prospect of building a parking structure for the downtown and civic center area of Garden Grove was raised at Tuesday’s meeting of the city council.

On a 7-0 vote, the council approved the award of a contract worth up to $80,459 to Fehr and Peers to provide consultant services for a “downtown parking management strategic plan.” The contract for a parking plan would be to study current and future parking supply and demand, consider consolidating existing surface lots and develop a long-range parking plan for the city’s central business district.

In a follow-up questions after a staff report, Councilman Kris Beard asked if future parking solutions might include a structure, and he was told that it could.

The area to be studied would be bounded by Grove Avenue and Main Street on the west, Garden Grove Boulevard to the south, 9th Street to the east and Euclid Street and Stanford Avenue to the north. That generally encompasses the city’s historic core as well as the civic center area and the “Cottage Industries” project under development between Civic Center Drive and 9th Street.

In its proposal, Fehr and Peers states “the evaluation for additional parking supply through the use of a parking structure” will be studied. “This evaluation will be conducted based on the estimated future parking demand, distribution of the existing parking demand, and our experience with parking demand in downtown settings. Site and sizing recommendations will be provided if a parking structure is determined to be necessary to meet future parking demand estimates.”

The firm has done parking studies for Anaheim, Fullerton, Hermosa Beach and Westminster, the council was told.

Also on Tuesday night, the council approved the extension of an amended negotiating agreement for the development of another major hotel on Harbor Boulevard. It’s with the Kam Sang Company for property located at the northwest corner of Harbor and Twintree Avenue. An agreement was made between the city and the developer in May 2016 toward the development of a Nickelodeon-themed resort hotel on that 9.08-acre site, and additional land to be acquired.

The amended agreement calls for an updated timeline and other details, including financial arrangements, within one year.