A new downtown park-and-ride structure could rise across the street from the Vancouver Convention Center, according to an idea being considered by engineers planning a new Interstate 5 bridge.
The parking structure could be combined with a light rail station where the new multibillion-dollar Columbia River Crossing lands in downtown Vancouver. Planners said they are looking for ways to better incorporate the planned park-and-ride structure into the existing urban fabric of downtown by moving it out of the state-owned cloverleaf near state Highway 14.
Instead, the four- to five-story structure would be situated between Columbia and Washington streets.
It could offer ground-level retail opportunities or off-hour parking associated with the nearby convention center and other downtown amenities, planners said.
Likewise, commuters could benefit from combining the parking structure with the station on Washington Street.
“We believe you might even be able to make the station a part of the parking structure, so that you could literally park on the second floor and walk straight into the train station,” said Thayer Rorabaugh, the city’s transportation manager.
However, depending on the specific location, the combined structure’s blockwide footprint would displace some downtown property owners somewhere between Fourth and Sixth streets.
The idea came as a surprise to Jody Maxwell, who opened a gift shop on Washington near 5th Street only last month.
“We just invested a lot of money and heart into this place,” she said, adding: “That’d be pretty sad to see it turned into a parking garage.”
Next door, Briz Loan and Guitar owner Matt Brislawn said he wasn’t too worried. He said the vacant car lot south of Fifth Street would be a more likely location than his block, characterized by long-established businesses and a new Plaid Pantry that opened just last year.
“I’d be pretty shocked if they picked our block,” Brislawn said.
Planners said the structure could straddle a cross street, which would reduce the amount of private land they would need to acquire.
Crossing planners anticipate building three parking structures with the new light rail line: the one downtown accommodating 570 vehicles; one at Mill Plain Boulevard, with capacity for 520 cars; and a 1,910-space structure where the line terminates at Clark College.
Engineers are just now working through the details of how the downtown structure might fit.
“It’s kind of like a Chinese puzzle,” CRC transit manager Steve Witter said. “Once you fiddle with one part, it starts to affect the street geometry, the track geometry and where you can fit a building.”
Witter said the crossing project plans to ask the federal government for between $750 million and $800 million to build light rail.
He said federal transit funding will pay about 80 percent of the total cost of extending the line north, including road and sidewalk reconstruction in Vancouver, the three park-and-ride structures and 19 new light rail cars. The rest of the cost would be absorbed by the overall crossing project, which planners anticipate will be split between federal highway funds, Washington and Oregon state contributions and bridge tolls.
C-Tran is planning to ask voters to boost the sales tax to maintain and operate the line north of the river.
Erik Robinson: 360-735-4551, or erik.robinson@columbian.com.
