By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Downtown needs more parking, the City Council voted in two close votes Monday night.

The City Council defeated a plan to scrap a $5 million bond to pay for a parking garage in Great Falls Plaza. Councilors Robert Hayes, Bethel Shields, Eric Samson and Kelly Matzen all voted to keep the bond in place, with Councilors Donna Lyons Rowell, Belinda Gerry and Bob Mennealy voting to deauthorize the debt.

“The need for parking downtown has been identified by studies, by ADAPT plan and by people that have spoken here tonight,” said Hayes.

Then councilors narrowly said yes to a land swap with Tom Platz’s TIM Corp. With Matzen abstaining, councilors tied on the swap 3-3. Mayor Normand Guay cast the deciding vote, pushing the swap forward.

That clears the way for Platz to begin designing a four-level garage with about 80 spaces per level. The city could expand the structure later on.

“We’re not necessarily even building just for future development, but for demand that exists today” Matzen said. “We have the need for parking there now, and we cannot expand it without a new garage.”

Platz plans to build at least one new office building in the plaza and possibly as many as four buildings.

That’s the development that several Auburn residents said they wanted. Former Mayor Lee Young said the garage is the final piece of Auburn’s downtown development plan. She pointed to the Hilton Garden Inn, the new city offices in Auburn Hall, the Mechanics Row parking garage and the new Auburn Library currently being built as good moves.

“The last step has yet to be realized,” Young said. “It’s time to capitalize on the public investment we’ve made so far by building this garage and opening the door to these four buildings.”

According to city estimates, the city looks to get about $2.6 million in parking fees from the garage over the next 25 years. A tax increment finance district that includes Great Falls Plaza would generate about $14.6 million in revenues. That money – $17.2 million over 25 years – would easily pay off the $5.4 million bond.

“Is there risk?” said Chip Morrison, Androscoggin Valley Chamber of Commerce president. “Yes there is. We don’t know that Tom Platz will build all four buildings. But we do know that if we don’t provide parking there will be no future development there.”

Councilor Mennealy said he was not against the garage, just doing it now.

“I think the cart is before the horse here,” Mennealy said. He wanted to commission a parking study to see if the garage was needed.

Councilor Gerry agreed.

“I want us to de-fund this now and really go back and see what we need,” Gerry said. “There are a lot of other things we need to pay for. We can put this back on the table and really see where our priorities are. And if we need a garage we build one. We might find out that a $5 million garage isn’t sufficient and we need to build a bigger one.”

But Councilor Matzen said no new studies were needed.

“We’re not just building for the future, but for demand that exists today,” Matzen said. He pointed to demand from the Hilton Garden Inn, as well as Platz’s other office buildings, Superior Court and the YMCA.

“We cannot sustain the growth we want on that parcel if we do not build new parking,” he said.