It has often baffled me that the EC plan never included a parking ramp. Everybody knows that one will eventually have to be built, but it seemed before the EC vote, mums the word.
Well there may be a reason for that. It was crucial to keep the EC numbers low, including a parking ramp would have ballooned those numbers, substantially! I was often suspicious as to why this was never a part of the discussion. Heck, I even brought it up during public testimony at a council meeting. The mayor just smiled at me.
Well, if you smell a rat, there is probably one in close proximity to you.
If you have watched the EC public meetings and the recent West Sioux neighborhood meeting about parking at the EC, the same question has been asked over and over again with little to no answer as to where everyone will be parking at the new EC. Why has the city (mayor) been so reluctant to answer the question? Because they may already have an answer but they were not planning to tell us until after the facility opened.
A reliable city source told me that there may have been an internal meeting held about parking before the EC vote. The topic of discussion; A parking ramp at the EC location. Supposedly during the meeting, a city employee close to the mayor admitted that there is a plan to build a parking ramp at the cost of approximately $45 million next to the EC, but the plan would not be pursued until the doors open. Also discussed was how the city would pay for the ramp. The city employee’s response was ‘bonding’. Not sure if this all took place, but when you consider the blatant state of denial about a parking ramp by the city, one starts to speculate.
Now I know this may alleviate all the concerns people may have about parking at the EC site, but it certainly goes against what we were told (another lie to throw on the EC bomb fire).
If part of the plan is to build a parking ramp, we need to be told before we break ground.