May 2, 2004

Downtown parking expands
San Jose, WGBPA and Bank of America offer increased parking

By Carol Rosen
Editor

A small crowd joined city officials, the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association and Bank of America to officially welcome 75 new parking spaces in the bank’s lot at 1245 Lincoln Avenue. The ribbon cutting ceremony was held on April 15 as a crowd of between 25 and 50 joined the celebration.

Welcomed by District 6 Councilmember Ken Yeager, the crowd heard statistics about increased parking in downtown Willow Glen, including 20 new street spaces as a result of re-striping the street and creating 20 additional spaces in the bank lot for a total of 115 parking spaces. The spaces include 40 for bank customers and 75 for shoppers with a two-hour limit from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. From 6 p.m. to midnight all 115 spaces are open to the public with no time restrictions.

The additional spaces are possible because of a partnership agreement between the city and the WGBPA to share costs of maintaining the lot. The city invested $25,000 to restrip and resign the lot and will pay the bank $750 per month for the next two years to ensure the lot is clean and attractive. The third year, the city will split maintenance costs with the WGBPA and the fourth year WGBPA will pay the full amount.

Yeager offered a special thanks the city’s Office of Economic Development employees Nanci Klein and Paul Krutko, to Department of Transportation’s Abi Maghamfar and Jim Helmer, to WGBPA’s Cathy Adkins, Cara Finn and Norma Ruiz, to the bank’s Marie Eads and Ken Morrison and to RDA’s Eryn Deeming.