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Civic Center Station Managed by Dunder First St.Partnership LP s AU'PLEIVMENTAL MATERIAL.. 4725 First Street .i '.0 the City Council Suite 245 Pleasanton, CA 94566 _ t;�stribution of Packet phone: (925) 464-4725 SIP OCT 0 6 20 1,3 • Date _ --- October 6, 2015 Hello Councilmembers, As an owner of a downtown office property which provides the parking mandated by code, I would like to add another voice to urge you to act, and act quickly, on the PDA recommendations for adding parking. We are at a point where demand overcomes our supply for two types of parking: 1. Unrestricted time frame parking on in the outskirts of Downtown would alleviate the need for employee parking 2. Customer parking within the core where recently opened businesses are exacerbating the demand for shorter term parking. I understand that some have put forward the idea that people are willing to walk miles in SF, and fair distances even at the mall, so why not make them walk that far here from lots at the outskirts. This is a hypothesis that has been shown not to work here—our customers have many choices from competing locations they have shown their willingness to put convenience ahead of coming here. Are we willing to lose that percentage of our customer base who are not willing take that long walk? If so we must prepare to also lose the businesses that they frequent. Although tonight's decision focuses on authorizing studies, the more difficult decisions will come in the funding and implementation of parking solutions. To that end, consider the loss in City revenues that may already be starting in the office sector as customers with nowhere to park encroach on private lots of office properties or their neighbors. Office businesses are rarely mentioned in this discussion,yet they are the larger portion of tax revenues here and they will be the first to leave because unlike restaurants and retail, offices locate here mostly for convenience. They like walking to cafes and restaurants, or just being close to home, but this is easily offset if their business suffers by difficulty of parking for themselves and their clients. When an attorney's trip to and from his office several times a day begins to take extra time because onsite parking is taken by others not even doing business in his building, or when a doctor can't easily fit in a visit with a patient at the hospital between normal office appointments in her office downtown, the lack of parking directly effects their business and they will be look to relocate as their leases expire. In addition to their impact on the tax base, their loss from downtown will also be felt by the businesses they patronize on a daily basis. Providing sufficient parking will be a good investment with ongoing returns if you can keep these business here. In closing, my hope is that you find a way to keep downtown the place that people want to come and businesses want to be. Sincerely, Vera Revelli