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parking lot across the street because sometimes I'm forced to park over there. So the <br />access that's going to be improved in all this is terrific. <br />Having said that, my question is, a lot of parking is being constructed here, and <br />improvements to the BART parking garage are part of the project, all of which are <br />improvements. I'm wondering where in the conversation was included the inadequacy of <br />the number of parking stalls that currently exist at this BART station? <br />Rennels: That's a good question and when we first embarked upon this public /private <br />partnership to bring the station out of the ground, my original development partners <br />understood the importance of parking and that, in fact, they paid for and allowed us to <br />put an additional half level on the parking garage beyond what was required by the EIR. <br />So at the front end, we extended the parking over what was required for the EIR and as <br />you probably know then, this parking garage is larger than the one that's on the Dublin <br />side. Again, that was based upon the EIR assessment as well. <br />We're doing some other things collaboratively in conjunction with the City and our <br />neighbors, Stoneridge Mall, to look at the possibility of some shared parking <br />arrangement there, as well. However, the bottom line is that in the Bay Area we have <br />close to about 60,000 parking spaces as you have probably read in the press. The <br />demand ridership keeps going through the roof and we are not adding more parking, so <br />the bottom line is the way of looking at alternative ways of access which Workday is <br />developing as a transit demand management program. That's something that needs to <br />be pervasive throughout the BART system, looking at bicycling, looking at pedestrian <br />opportunities, looking at shuttles, looking at bus and that's the reality. I wish I could say <br />my pockets are full of cash and we could expand, but that really is not the reality. <br />Commissioner Nagler: Well, let me just ask you this question. As a matter of policy and <br />strategic priorities for the BART system, which has admitted inadequacy of parking at <br />literally every station because you park at any BART station and you realize that BART <br />riders are taking up neighborhood streets, shopping center parking lots, and certainly <br />elsewhere and it's a real problem throughout the system, right? <br />Rennels: Yes. <br />Commissioner Nagler: So as a matter of priority, which is a higher priority to BART? To <br />properly serve or adequately serve, at least in this context, the existing and growing <br />BART ridership or is it to execute these public /private partnerships as is being <br />presented here this evening? Which is a higher priority to the system? <br />Rennels: Let's talk about the context of this. The reality is that we had one opportunity <br />to build this station and this one opportunity was predicated on value capture and <br />creating value to enable us to pay for the bonds that we issued to pay for this station. It <br />was a public /private partnership. The City of Pleasanton participated. The City of Dublin <br />participated. Alameda County Surplus Property Authority participated and my private <br />sector development partners participated. So the reality, sir, was that if in fact we did not <br />have the opportunity to do this public /private partnership, this station would never have <br />come out of the ground. <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, April 13, 2016 Page 27 of 33 <br />