The recent partial collapse of a privately owned parking structure in Lexingtonis a reminder of the enormous amount of time and expense required to safely maintain a parking facility for public use. As such, we would like to take the opportunity to educate the citizens of Lexington and Fayette County on how the LFCPA utilizes monthlygarage and street parking revenues to maintain safe parking around our city.The Lexington & Fayette Parking Authority (LFCPA) owns and operates four (4) parking structures in Downtown Lexington. They are:
Victorian Square Garage 350 West Short Street
Transit Center Garage 150 East Vine Street
Helix on Main Garage 156East Main Street
Courthouse Garage 105 Barr Street
As many may recall, in 2013 after the LFCPA took ownership of the Helix Parking Garage on Main Street from the City of Lexington, LFCPA invested over$3,1000,000to restore the garage to a safe condition and to extend its useful life by 20 years. This work was part of structural condition assessment performed in 2012which called for the spending ofover $5,500,000on all four (4) parking facilities combined.
In 2017, LFCPA expanded the original assessment from 2012 by hiring engineers to create the 20-year Capital Asset Management Plan (CAMP). The purpose of the CAMP isto guide the LFCPA on priority repairs and set forth a plan for the next 20 years of maintaining our four parking facilities. Thereafter, theLFCPA spent theaverage of an additional $1,000,000per year for the past three (3) years to continue the CAMP work. These expendituresallow LFCPAto extendthe useful life of our facilities and maintain safety for our customers. LFCPA has already planned additional multi-figure expenditures for the next few years. Hopefully, the next time you spend a few dollars to park downtown, you better understand where that money goes and how it is used to maintain a safe place for you and for parking your vehicle.