Richard Johnson's parking lot concerns are on target

The proposal to put 35 slots in The Hole is under fire from the councilman. He is asking all the right questions, and not getting good answers.

By D. Reed Eckhardt

Councilman Richard Johnson is asking all the right questions about the proposal to spend $750,000 of the city of Cheyenne's money on a parking lot for The Hole along West Lincolnway downtown.

Johnson wants to know:

-- Will the city ever get its $750,000 back as promised by Hynds Building

The Hynds Building in downtown Cheyenne.

developer David Hatch and his cohorts among the city's economic development groups?

-- Why should the city set aside 10 prime parking spaces along the northwest corner at the intersection of Capitol Avenue and West Lincolnway for the Hynds when it won't do the same for other downtown businesses who have similar needs and desires?

-- Should the city spend one-eighth of its unencumbered reserves on this project when that same money could go to repair city streets? Cheyenne's new mayor, Marian Orr, supports this project, yet she was elected on a program of fixing streets. That seems to be a contradiction, Johnson rightly notes.

-- Is this proposal even legal? The Wyoming Constitution forbids the use of public funds to aid private businesses. How does that not apply here, Mr. Johnson wants to know. There are other technicalities related to the deal's legality as well.

The councilman is getting mixed responses. Chamber of Commerce head Dale Steenbergen admitted Tuesday to the council's Finance Committee that the money may never be returned. Uh oh.

And when Johnson helped pull the parking spaces from the proposal at Tuesday's meeting, he got the usual threat from Mr. Hatch: If these space aren't included, the potential clients for the Hynds might pull out. Where have we heard that one before?

On the streets vs. parking lot question, Orr has been silent. Perhaps she thinks that the money for streets in the sixth-penny proposal covers her campaign promises. It does -- if supporters want to wait years to get it. In the meantime, they can watch Cheyenne's roadways fall further into disrepair.

But the big elephant in the room is Johnson's question about the proposal's constitutionality. City attorney Sylvia Hackl says she is confident it can be done legally. That is not very reassuring. No doubt, Hackl can create an argument for the project out of whole cloth. That is what lawyers do. But it only will take one concerned resident -- or City Council member -- to challenge this iffy argument, and the Hynds project could be tied up in court for years.

The other question that Johnson is asking, though not as openly, is: Is this the best use of this property? The councilman supports helping to make Cheyenne more attractive for young singles and families, so he knows the answer to that question: It is not. This parking lot, indeed the whole Hynds development, will do little or nothing to help make downtown more viable. This space should be used for retail, or an eatery, or a facility like the Children's Museum, which Hatch and friends badgered out of The Hole last fall. A parking lot won't further the goal of reinvigorating downtown.

Here's hoping that Mr. Johnson's incisive questions will awaken those on the City Council who have fallen under the spell of Hatch and friends. Cheyenne can do better than another parking lot downtown, and one that won't even be public until after dark. Those who argue that this will a least put something in The Hole are wrong. City leaders should be holding out for the highest use of this property. Once it is gone, this chance to improve downtown -- and Cheyenne's future -- won't come again.

D. Reed Eckhardt is the former executive editor of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.