City has no agreement to use state parking decks for proposed Shockoe stadium patrons

Thursday, June 5, 2014
Subject: City has no agreement to use state parking decks for proposed Shockoe stadium patrons

Dear Honorable Members of the Richmond City Council,

An integral part of the Mayor’s withdrawn Shockoe stadium proposal was the use of the state-owned parking decks to accommodate a significant portion of the stadium parking. But according to the Freedom of Information Act responses that I received from the Virginia Department of General Services, the city has no agreement nor any memorandum of understanding for the use of the state parking decks for the patrons of the proposed Shockoe stadium. Moreover, from the restrictions in place in the Facilities Agreement between the Virginia Public Building Authority and the Commonwealth of Virginia, it is not clear if such rental of the state-owned parking decks would be possible.

The Facilities Agreement states that no action will be taken to adversely affect the tax-exempt status of the bonds. (Sections 8.4 and 8.5). The Facilities Agreement only authorizes the lease of space in the Authority Project “in excess of the requirements of its departments, agencies and employees,” but the decks are now fully leased with a waiting list of state employees needing parking spaces. (Section 9.1) An opinion of counsel is required before any lease of the parking decks to ensure that such a lease “will not cause the interest on any of the Bonds then outstanding to be included in gross income for purposes of federal income taxation.” (Section 9.2)

The vast majority of the residents of Richmond strongly wish that the Shockoe stadium not be re-introduced after the Mayor withdrew this debacle from the Council’s agenda. The parking situation provides yet another good reason.

Thank you for not supporting this failed plan.

Sincerely,

Charles Pool