New year to bring work on garage

Erin Neff

Friday, Dec. 29, 2000 | 10:25 a.m.

Las Vegas City Hall will welcome the new year with fences, cranes and construction vehicles.

As a result, those heading downtown to attend a meeting, get a business license or pay a parking ticket will encounter some obstacles.

Immediately after Wednesday's council meeting, officials will fence off the metered parking lot on Stewart Avenue across the street from City Hall. A current city employee lot on Mesquite Avenue at Las Vegas Boulevard has been metered for public parking.

"We want to make it as easy on everyone, even the employees, as we can," Debbie Hauth, spokeswoman for the city's Public Works Department, said.

The city will paint white footprints on the sidewalks and plaza at City Hall to help visitors maneuver around the maze of construction barricades.

Since parking will be at a premium for the next 15 months, residents and city employees are being encouraged to ride a free trolley service the city will implement Jan. 2.

The trolley will make a 20-minute loop from City Hall to Development Services Center, stopping along the way at Fremont Street businesses, the federal courthouse and other city offices.

"If you're already parked here, you can just go downstairs and hop on this trolley," Hauth said.

Construction is set to begin in mid-January on a $15.2 million expansion to City Hall. The project features a seven-story, 640-space parking garage on Stewart Avenue across from City Hall.

South of the garage, a two-story office building will house the city's KCLV cable television offices and two studios.

A two-story addition will be placed on the current City Hall building facing Stewart Avenue and will link to the garage via an above-street pedestrian bridge.

Offices nearest the bridge will be the ones most commonly used by City Hall visitors for contracts and employment applications.

"I think it shows the city's commitment to what's going on with downtown redevelopment," Deputy City Manager Doug Selby said. "We're committing our own capital to improvements."

Although many residents complain about the current parking shortage downtown, Selby said, the addition, when completed in March 2002, will "make a big difference."