BIDDEFORD — A combination of longer than expected times for development projects to come to fruition and COVID-19’s impact has meant fewer people than initially expected are using Biddeford’s year-old parking garage.

That in turn has meant revenues are dipping below the threshold of 90 percent of expectations — the trigger at which the city is required, under the terms of a joint development agreement, to pay a stabilization fee.

Biddeford city officials have said from the outset that residential property tax dollars would not be tapped for the parking garage. The stabilization fee payments have come from Tax Increment Financing revenues.

This spring, the city paid development partner Treadwell Frankin Infrastructure Capital a stabilization fee of $130,024. Biddeford Chief Operating Officer Brian Phinney told city councilors attending a recent workshop that the latest tab is about $137,000. He said the TIF account generates about $1.7 million to $2 million annually.

One clause in the joint development agreement allows the city to establish a special assessment district and then decide whether to bill those within it to help make up any shortfall. So far, a district has not been established. City Manager James Bennett told the City Council he would explore the matter and come back to the council in September or October with a report.

The council could also choose to increase parking fees. One suggestion has been raising rates an extra $1 for transient parkers and $5 for those with subscriptions, which would bring fees more in line with other Northeast cities, according to a report prepared by parking garage owner and joint development partner Amber Infrastructure Group.

Or the city could continue to pay the stabilization fee from TIF revenues.

The Amber Infrastructure Group report shows that parking by business users now exceeds forecasts and is growing, after falling, perhaps, they said, due to COVID-19.

The vast majority of parking usage is a result of subscriptions with 293 parkers per month, plus there are on average 70 transient parkers per month, according to the report.

Councilor Marc Lessard asked how many of the 644 spaces are used daily.

“About 46 to 50 percent,” Phinney estimated.

Developers of projects like 3 Lincoln — who in February outlined a proposal for retail space and 191 dwelling units — and others have experienced a delay, city officials noted, while a parking study conducted in 2019, prior to the pandemic, assumed the properties would already be developed and occupied with tenants using the parking garage.

Tom O’Shaughnessy of Amber Infrastructure Group said the shortfall seemed to be an interim issue that would change, once the new developments come online.

Currently, developers are waiting on approvals for density bonuses from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, said Phinney. Once that happens, the city can implement the density changes, which will allow developers to move forward.

“There is probably nothing we could have done differently to generate the additonal parking  during COVID-19 and to accelerate the (development) projects faster,” Bennett told the council.

The $24.6 million parking garage went online in mid-July 2021. It is operated by Premium Parking.

Under the terms of the joint development agreement, the city can opt to buy the garage in year 10, for fair market value. If the city chooses not to do so, it automatically becomes the owner at the end of the 25-year agreement.

Shortfalls were anticipated in the first 10 years, Phinney told the council. The projected gain to the city overall is $23 million.

Ground was broken on the garage in August 2020.

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