Parking landuse decisions affect bicycling

On Nov 2nd the Daily Journal reported that the parking in-lieu fee of $9000/- collected for the past three years in San Mateo was insufficient for a parking lot. The city only has $1.5M. Business wants parking and pollution but is refusing to pay to make it happen. This is clearly not sustainable.
( http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=82765
City on quest for parking garage)

The price mentioned for a parking spot, of $30,000/- is low. A parking spot is 10 feet by 18 feet which equals 180 sq feet. At $100/- per sq foot for unimproved land in San Mateo the spot would cost 18,000/-

However a parking spot by itself is useless. You also need to be able
to access it. Access lanes and streets space dedicated to get to parking spots raise the size of the spot to 300-350 sq feet. This is the number used when building off street parking.

Thus $30,000/- price is already at the low end for unimproved land. And we haven't paved it or added in the percent of the annual $30M Publics Works and Planning budgets for street and sewer maintenance and other issues like stormwater runoff, system overload, sewer leakage, associated with un-permeable surfaces; or police and fire services for crashes downtown while trying to access parking; or the markup for built structures that typically come in after the land cost exceed $1M like the movie garage on Second and B street. My neighbor was hit at Third and B and had his bike crushed and his tailbone broken.

The real price is closer to $44,000/-

Clearly the public handout for drivers to take away the fare box recovery of Caltrain and Samtrans and make bike access to the downtown dangerous so drivers can roam around for parking is about $35,000/- per spot. Now consider that the city is willing to replace local recreation access like the tennis court with this giveaway. What price do you put on the necessity for an athletic club membership? What's the price of the quality of downtown
life that has been privatized away? What is the price of asthma downtown? These are called external costs. A EU study said that they are typically two more for every one real dollar.

Instead of looking at other funding options we request that the city put a
fair price on parking. Borrow a page from Redwood City and give residents real options and a better quality of life. An air quality grant from the CCAG can get a delivery program started for merchant downtown, taking away the need to drive. A parking assessment district can be used to get to zero traffic housing and pay for delivery.

We realize that San Mateo is not the only one giving away valuable land resources. San Carlos has an in-lieu parking fee of $7000/-. Belmont has an in-lieu fee of zero. But at $100/- a barrel of oil people don’t have a lot of options. Improving quality of life for downtown residents, reducing large capital costs, taking away traffic that causes pollution, crashes and road wear, having a cash positive land resource that was previously fallow, and providing an incentive for people to walk and shop has to be sustainable and profitable in the long run. The sustainable return on investment can be furthur improved by building unbundled parking housing and provide parking cashout for employees on what used to be parking lots.