Manassas Welcomes Parking Deck
Old Town Garage Years in Making

By Jennifer Buske
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 31, 2008; PW03

Every day for the past few months, Old Town shop owner Joanne Wunderly held her breath while driving to work, hoping that when she arrived, the orange cones and construction equipment that have cluttered Prince William and Battle streets would be gone.

Finally, after work Friday, they were.

After years of discussion, nine months of construction and an unofficial ribbon-cutting ceremony June 26, a parking garage shared by Manassas and the Virginia Railway Express officially opened Friday night.

"We've all been waiting for this," said Wunderly, who owns The Things I Love and is president of the Old Town Business Association. "Business is starting to pick up, and I think the parking garage will be the icing on the cake for those of us who have suffered down here with the parking issue for so long."

The five-story, 532-space facility, next to the Old Town VRE station, has appeared to be complete for almost two months, but VRE and city officials said details lingered. Springs for the backup generator were missing, telephone lines for the emergency phones in the two elevators needed to be installed and the handrails had to be crafted to meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards.

The last step was for mechanical and electrical inspectors to clear the facility Friday.

"We've been saying the same thing -- what's taking so long?" VRE spokesman Mark Roeber said, noting that the opening is actually a month ahead of schedule. "The physical structure goes up, and you think you're almost there. But, as I've become more involved, I've learned there's almost like a nightmare of little things that need to be done."

The $12.7 million project was split 60-40 between VRE and the city, Roeber said. Roughly $7.8 million of the total came from federal funds, $1 million from the state and $3.9 million from the city, $2 million of which was used to buy the land.

Manassas City Manager Lawrence D. Hughes said the bottom three floors of the garage are for VRE commuters, and the top two floors offer free four-hour public parking. Parking in the garage is unrestricted after 6 p.m. and on weekends and holidays. The VRE floors are also open for general use weekdays after 10 a.m., and the former 57-space VRE commuter lot behind the train station will be converted to public parking.

"This garage is a culmination of a practice we have learned in Manassas -- that success is in a partnership," said former Manassas mayor Douglas S. Waldron, who spoke at the ribbon-cutting event in June. "This is important to Manassas, because we had been hearing from citizens and businesses in the community for years that we needed to do something about parking."

Although the blue-lot parking permits used by business employees and residents will not be honored in the garage, Lot B under the water tower will predominantly be for blue permit holders, Hughes said.

In the Manassas Journal Messenger, said City Council Member J. Steven Randolph (I), "an article in 1975 talked about the need for more parking -- and here we are today, 33 years later, finally getting it."

Hughes said a task force was formed five years ago to study the city's parking issues. The group's 2004 report said that although there were roughly 800 parking spaces in Old Town, there was a 100-space deficit for general, blue-permit parking for residents and commuters. That deficit was projected to grow to 400 spaces by next year.

Hughes said the task force evaluated various sites for the garage, including under the water tower and Lot D on Prince William Street. Hughes said that when VRE announced its plans to build a parking deck, the logical choice was to form a partnership and build on Prince William Street between Battle and Main streets.

Roeber said VRE has worked for three years on plans for a garage next to the Old Town station, which serves about 400 commuters a day. VRE has parking decks at the Woodbridge and Burke stations.

"Manassas has always been a very important station to us, both from a historical as well as an operational standpoint," said Dale Zehner, VRE's chief executive. "As one of the busier stations in the VRE system, these improvements can only increase our efforts to add capacity to our entire system."

Zehner said that because the Broad Run and Manassas Park VRE commuter lots are at capacity, the new garage will not only serve Manassas commuters but also alleviate crowding at other facilities.

"I think this is one of the nicest garages, because everyone worked very closely on this and spent a lot of time on the design," Zehner said. "My concern when putting up a garage in an old town is, will it fit in with the architecture of the city. I think we accomplished that."