Dean’s Letter: Parking Garage

*(See edit below for Sunday Parking)

Hello St. Paul’s,

This month we are entering into a contract with LAZ parking to manage our parking spaces in the garage under 525 Olive. As you may know, we now have about 70 spaces dedicated to the Cathedral on levels B1 and B2. Some of these spaces will be rented to individuals who have long term parking needs: this will bring us a steady monthly income to cover the cost of working with LAZ. We already have several tenants. There will also be some additional signs reserving spots for key ministry leaders and staff when it is applicable.

The rest of the spaces will be available for Cathedral parking opportunities, but other than Sundays, there will typically be a lot of empty spaces.  We see an opportunity to bring in some much-needed revenue by renting the open spaces on an hour-by-hour basis.

Here is some information about what to expect. (For a printable list of this information click here)

1. Parking will be free on Sundays between 7 am and 1 pm and between 4:00 and 6:30 pm for Evensong. UPDATE: Parking will be open and free all day on Sundays!
2. Outside of Sunday worship, certain ministry leaders and staff will have complimentary parking; some will have reserved spaces (eg. Altar Guild), and credentials to enter when the gate is closed for security during non-business hours.  Please do not park in spots with Reserved signs unless they are reserved for you!
3. There are two EV charging stations on the ramp between B1 and B2, and both levels have clean air vehicle and handicap spots.
4. The Olive St. vehicle gate open hours are still being worked out, but currently they will be 7 am to 6 pm, extended to 7:30 pm when we have evening events on campus. Once LAZ is in place, later operational hours will be implemented.  Regardless, if you are exiting when the gate is closed, just pull up close to the gate and it will always open to let you out.
5. The 5^th and 6^th Avenue pedestrian gates and the lobby doors to the Administration building will be open on the same schedule as the vehicle gate. We recommend using the Administration building elevator for accessing the garage. Note that the elevator at the south end of the courtyard is currently only usable with credentials and only goes down to B1.
6. There is no pedestrian access to the garage from Olive Street: you must come through our campus. Therefore, we do not recommend parking in the garage for dinner or evening events in the wider Bankers’ Hill neighborhood at this time, as the pedestrian gates will be closed at 7:30pm. Once the LAZ parking hours are in place, later closings will be available.
7. Generally, the parking fees will be about $5 for two hours and $8 for nine hours: payment will be via an app on your phone where you enter your license plate number. This is comparable to street parking, but in a cleaner and safer location.
8. Certain events such as weddings or rentals by outside organization will have “special event parking” with a fixed fee for use of the garage.
9. There will be a security presence.

10) The contract with LAZ is for a 90-day trial period, and we want to hear your feedback as we go, so that we can continue to adjust and improve our service to the community.

That’s a lot of information, but I hope it clarifies some of the questions you may have.  A COVID outbreak in the LAZ office is holding up implementation, but we should start to see the LAZ signs in the next few days. One more note: please don’t try to get your steps in by walking up and down the vehicle entrance ramp (not safe) or the fire stairs from the garage levels.  The fire stairwells are secured and you will need credentials to exit onto any floor of the building; we don’t want anyone to get stuck!

See you on Sunday.

Your sister in Christ,
Penny

(For a printable list of the above information click here)