A few years ago, the city commissioned a downtown parking study that concluded the system should be updated technologically, but that there were enough spaces for the time being.

With businesses and apartments coming on line recently, resulting in all but 100 of the authority’s total 1,259 slots accounted for through monthly leasing — and with more development in the works — the second part of the recommendation no longer holds, according to officials at an authority meeting Tuesday.

It’s time to consider what it would take to build a second parking garage — or maybe a deck over a couple authority surface lots — to ensure there are enough spaces for the area to continue its growth, officials said, acknowledging that doing so will be costly.

A second parking garage isn’t a new idea: it had been a frequent topic of discussion for years, prior to the parking study.

Those earlier talks led to an engineering design 15 years ago that the authority had asked City Manager Christopher McGuire to dig up.

Those plans would have necessitated a multi-million dollar expenditure at the time — and would now necessitate spending “north of $30 million,” McGuire told the board.

“A big number,” said Cory Tubo, the new authority chairman, after the recent resignation of Sherri McGregor, who had stayed on longer than she’d originally planned to help with the transition to management under a private firm, Metropolis.

Even when the recent parking study was new, officials had their doubts about the sufficiency of the downtown spaces, according to board member and city mayor, Matt Pacifico.

“On paper, it was fine,” the mayor said.

But it seemed then that downtown was “on the verge of needing more,” he said.

“We’re definitely there now,” he stated. “It’s obviously a conversation (City) Council will need to have.”

Based on the discussion at the authority meeting, it seems uncertain whether it would be possible to add more levels to the current garage.

As an alternative, it might make sense to add a deck to one of the authority’s surface lots on each end of the downtown, Pacifico said.

Development has accelerated in recent years as the Curry building and the McCrory building have come on line, while the Kress building is in process.

Eventually, there will be development at the Penn Central building, too.

Parking is especially tight when the downtown is hosting events, Pacifico said.

There were two events last Friday evening — the Pride parade and a Mishler show — and there weren’t many extra spaces, according to a Metropolis official.

There are two events scheduled for Saturday, perhaps causing some attendees to search for spaces, although the events’ scheduled hours don’t overlap, according to officials.

Reportedly Penn State is planning to bring more students downtown for classes, which would further tighten the parking situation, an official said.

There is a parking garage attached to the privately owned Gables building, but it has been closed for years due to code issues.

Obtaining it and repairing it is not a potential solution for the city, because it would need to be razed and rebuilt, according to McGuire.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.