Parking Garage Is on List of Improvements

The Los Angeles City Council approved a $92.5-million financing package Tuesday that includes $2 million to help build a parking structure that merchants have long requested.

The package provides financing for a slew of city projects, including another parking garage along Melrose Avenue in West Los Angeles, radios for sanitation trucks, police cars and improvements to the fire and paramedic dispatch system.

The $2 million would pay for land on Ventura Boulevard near Laurelgrove Avenue on which the city plans to build a 400-space parking structure. Another $1.1 million has already been set aside by city officials to design the garage.

Councilman Mike Feuer, who represents the neighborhood and adjacent communities, has pressed for the garage, saying it will help alleviate a parking crunch on the busy boulevard.

Under the finance package, the $2 million for the Studio City structure and $800,000 for the Melrose structure would be paid back from revenue generated by the parking meters in the area. But the cover the cost of the financing, the city will have to pay $329,000 per year for 15 years, for a total of nearly $5 million.