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<br />Ms. Moran suggested mall lots such as West County and the Galleria have surface and structured <br />parking and checking crime data on both would be interesting, if statistics could be obtained to <br />compare. <br /> <br />Ms. Greening stated that business owners had stated they did not know the crime facts but the <br />perception of crime was mentioned and she felt there is a perception about safety of surface lots. <br /> <br />Mr. Lai stated he had discussed with a few people who attended recent meetings, younger <br />people, some females, and asked them informally if they would shy away from garages if given <br />answer, but we do not want to say it is absolute that we should not have parking garages. <br /> <br />Mr. Senturia stated that responses he heard were mixed. <br /> <br />Mr. Lai stated that staff could look at Clayton and the Central West End, who have added <br />structured parking in recent years, not due to lack of parking, but because they saw the need due <br />to increased business. <br /> <br />Mr. Greening stated to remember it is free parking and St. Louis people like free parking. <br /> <br />Mr. Lai stated that in mall situations that is the expectation, but for a local business district it <br />might be a different expectation and staff would look into the safety matter more. <br /> <br />5.Development of the parking lot is not the community vision; comments were made that it <br />should not be developed. <br />Mr. Lai stated that the planning process had a lot of public engagement and it was detailed in the <br />Plan report, nothing was hidden. He stated it is recognized that there is a minority with a <br />different opinion regarding this. He stated that the consultants would explain how different <br />comments came up and how they developed the vision. <br /> <br />6.Development of the parking lot was intentionally kept hidden from the LSBD. <br />Mr. Lai stated that if that was the intention, there would not have been the attempt of using so <br />many different avenues to reach out. He stated this was a federal grant and public engagement is <br />high on their list. He stated it was not that staff just wanted to get the process done and create <br />controversy later; we want to build buy-in. He stated it was an open process and some of the <br />LSBD members did not heed the invitation to public meetings. Although it was their choice, <br />staff does not want to blame them, but hoped that staff does not get blamed either. <br /> <br />7.Development of the parking lot would kill The Loop and structured parking would reduce the <br />number of visitors. <br />Mr. Lai stated this was not a substantiated point but perhaps a perception. He stated that if <br />looking at the other side of the argument, it could be looked at as a great opportunity for the <br />He stated there was a lack of land resources within this neighborhood and this property is a <br />resource and a different perspective might be to ask how we could maximize this resource for <br />years to come. He stated this could be a scarce land resource that generates economic <br />tm;  šE <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />