Bradenton, FL city officials got nailed when they assigned 20 spaces in their garage to local judges. Read about it here.
The city, county, and downtown development authority built the 600 space garage in a joint development project. One of the caveats was that 128 spaces had to be kept open for public parking. However when the spots were assigned to the judges, the number dropped to 108. Plus folks who bought permits were told that they could parking in any of 128 numbered spaces. When one of the permit holders went to park in a particular space they were told they couldn’t. That space had been assigned.
Well the permit holder had a permit in her hand that said she could park in any one of a certain group of spaces. Whoops! the City/County screwed up. It happens.
This is the problem with these joint development agreements. They have rules build into them as to the use of the garage that may be fine when the garage is built, but restrict flexibility later.
Many times the agreement restricts the amount a developer can charge for parking. This can be fatal to the project.
Be sure you read the fine print when you get involved in a joint development agreement with a governmental agency. You could find yourself holding the bag, or the space, in the future.
JVH
