Parking is a big problem in Sandy

SANDY — In the first City Council meeting since a Major League Soccer stadium was approved for construction in their city, Sandy officials wasted no time Tuesday night in planning for the future soccer mecca.

As the city begins rounds of meetings with the governor's office and Real team officials to finalize details of an inter-local agreement, the south Salt Lake Valley city is also working on parking around the stadium.

At the council's planning meeting Tuesday night, staff and council members discussed what to do about parking in the ever-growing entertainment corridor around 9400 South and State Street. In addition, Sandy's Planning Commission is expected to approve a preliminary site plan for the stadium Thursday night.

A state-approved plan will give the team $35 million of Salt Lake County's hotel-tax revenue for 20 years. The team will be permitted to use those dollars to purchase land and parking on the northwest corner of 9400 South and State Street. An original plan with the county called for the county to build a parking garage with 1,000 stalls for use by the South Towne Expo Center and Real Salt Lake.

But state agreements dictate that Real is now in charge of building parking, be it a garage or surface parking. The inter-local agreement between the team, city and state will include a guarantee that Real builds the stadium near South Towne.

"The parking is a huge issue, and they have to solve it," said Randy Sant, Sandy's economic development director. "They're asking us to help, and we're willing to help."

A parking committee — requested by Mayor Tom Dolan and made up of City Council and Planning Commission members, Real officials and state leaders — will start meeting to research what Sandy can do about short-term and long-term parking in the area. Sant said the city does not just have parking problems with Real and South Towne. BD Medical needs additional parking and Jordan Commons often needs more spaces on popular weekend nights.

So the committee will look at what the surrounding businesses need and study whether it's in the city's best interest to help fund a parking structure for the area that could have as many as 3,000 stalls.

"The bottom line is, when Real opens, there's plenty of room for people that want to park their cars. But we want to encourage people to use mass transit," Sant said.

For game days, Sandy is planning on organizing a free bus route. In addition, the city will help arrange parking for soccer fans at surrounding entities, such as Jordan High School or businesses that are not open during matches. Parking in residential streets will be prohibited.