The city will be pursuing the construction of a parking structure within the Baguio Athletic Bowl to provide adequate parking spaces for vehicle owners wanting to do their routine exercises or simply visit Burnham Park and the city’s central business district area.
City Administrator Bonifacio dela Peña stated that the old wooden bleachers in the left side of the bowl’s entrance will be demolished to give way for the proposed construction of the aforesaid parking structure that will contribute in the efforts to provide adequate parking spaces for park goers to avoid unnecessary parking in the various parts of the city’s premier park and within the sports complex.
He added that the proposed multi-level parking structure can accommodate at least 80 vehicles at one time where the same will surely provide order in the way vehicles are parked in the area.
dela Peña claimed that the proposed put up of the additional parking structure within the Baguio Athletic Bowl is part of the local government’s efforts to work out the implementation of projects that will have a significant impact in effectively and efficiently addressing the parking problems of the city.
The city administrator stipulated that the funds that will be used to construct the parking structure will come from the funds of the local government that had been made available for the said purpose although the implementation was delayed because of the previous implementation of the various levels of community quarantine to contain the spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the city.
According to him, the multi-level parking structure that will be constructed will also contribute in the income-generating efforts of the local government from the parking fees in the park to allow the city to be able to generate resources that could be used to straggeredly implement development projects while awaiting for the funds that will be provided by concerned government agencies to introduce significant development in the city’s premier tourist destination.
He pointed out that the city will implement the prescribed regulatory fees on parking once the parking structure will be completed to help in effectively and efficiently addressing the parking problems being encountered in the area once visitors flock to the city when the prevailing community quarantine guidelines will be eased up by the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases.
Earlier, the national government through the State-owned Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) took back the P400 million it committed last year for the implementation of high impact development projects in Burnham Park as the same was used to sustain the overall response efforts to prevent the rapid spread of the deadly virus in the country and provide the necessary assistance to the members of the country’s vulnerable sectors.
The city administrator expressed optimism that the local government will be able to access more funding support from the national government in the future so that it will be able to pursue the implementation of its programmed high impact development projects that will improve the state of the city.
By Dexter A. See
Photo by Armando M. Bolislis
