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Published December 13th, 2017
New parking lot finally in sight for East Enders
By Pippa Fisher
The new parking lot will take the place of the old EBMUD pumping station, located just to the east of Ace Hardware. Photo Pippa Fisher

The east end of Lafayette will be getting a long-awaited new parking lot to be completed by August, helping to address what the city council recognized as a desperate need in that area. But it comes with a price tag.
The city council voted unanimously at the Nov. 27 meeting to allocate up to $180,000 from the city's parking fund to get the lot next to Ace Hardware finished including the cost of landscaping and irrigation.
The East Bay Municipal Utility District agreed to provide the city with a new 16-space parking lot at the 3305 Mt. Diablo Blvd. location as part of a 2013 land exchange agreement, which enabled EBMUD to build a new pumping station up the street at the intersection of Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Mt. Diablo Court.
The agreement included an allowance of $90,930 (the difference in land values) to be used for the development of the lot. However the EBMUD contractor's bid now comes in at more than four times the allowance amount, leaving the city to contribute $157,170 plus roughly $23,000 for landscaping and irrigation with EBMUD contributing an additional $100,000.
The council heard from two members of the group known as the East End Coalition, an informal group of residents and business owners on the east end of the city. Both speakers expressed the dire need for parking and pointed to the possibility of future discussion around reducing the median by Ace Hardware at some point, to allow access to the new parking lot.
The EEC said it is thrilled to be getting more parking.
"We would like to see more transparent and open dialogue with the city and EBMUD on this lot, since it is adjacent to our businesses and if change orders are implemented," said an EEC spokesperson. "We hope the construction will provide adequate signage so as not to adversely impact the businesses adjacent to the lot, as it did for Blodgett's, also on the East End."
The council discussed ways to keep cost down, looking at gravel versus asphalt but recognized that the ongoing cost of maintenance of gravel combined with the difficulty in striping ruled that out. City Manager Steve Falk advised against cutting costs on landscaping and irrigation, saying that the city has certain requirements in place and noting that it would be bad practice to ignore the city's own standards.
EBMUD plans for the new pumping station to be operational in March 2018. Following that a couple of months later EBMUD will demolish the old building and start the parking lot which should be ready by August 2018.

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