Invest. Improve. Innovate.
About
Infrastructure Plan
In 2014, the City Council approved an Infrastructure Plan that initially included nine projects including a new public safety building, two parking garages, two fire stations and a bike and pedestrian plan, among other projects. Since then, the mix of projects has shifted slightly with the Council pressing the “pause” button on the downtown parking garage and a necessary redesign of future bike boulevards.
The cost of the plan has also significantly gone up with escalating construction costs and changes to the scope of projects. In addition, salaries and benefits of staff working on projects are now budgeted within individual capital projects to more accurately account for the total cost of each project. The current planned cost of the Infrastructure Plan is now $270 million.
PROJECT
COSTS
In June 2014, Palo Alto City Council adopted the Infrastructure Plan that prioritized unfunded projects and identified potential sources of revenue. Included in the plan are nine key projects with the majority of funding coming from an increase in the Transient Occupancy Tax (hotel tax) from 12 to 14 percent that was approved by more than 76 percent of Palo Alto voters in November 2014. Additional funding sources for these infrastructure projects come from the City’s Capital Fund, the Stanford Hospital development agreement, parking in-lieu fees, parks development impact fees, and state grants.
Projects
The City is in the process of designing and building the ten infrastructure projects identified by Council. Four are complete, a couple will be completed in the next year, and more are on their way. Read up on each project to learn more about the status and background of the project.
Downtown Parking Garage
Design Start
Jan. 2017
Design End
On hold
Construction Start
Construction End
On hold
On hold
Making Progress
To date, there has been a lot of progress on the Infrastructure Plan including:
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Construction of Fire Station No. 3 was completed in March 2020.
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Construction of the 627 space California Avenue parking garage was completed in December 2020.
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Council approved a construction contract for the new Public Safety Building in February 2021 and construction will be complete in Fall 2023.
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The Highway 101 Pedestrian/Bike Bridge project was completed in November 2021.
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The Charleston/Arastradero Corridor project has completed construction on Phases 1 & 2 and will complete construction on Phase 3 in Fall 2023.
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Council has pushed “pause” on the downtown parking garage for now and added the Downtown Parking Guidance project to the Infrastructure Plan projects as part of the Fiscal Year 2020 budget process and staff expects to start design and construction in summer 2023.