LA TRINIDAD, Benguet—The local government is studying two proposals for the construction and operation of a pay parking facility at the heart of the provincial capital.
Mayor Romeo Salda said the two proposals have been submitted to the municipal council for study, assessment, evaluation and validation to determine the best offer.
The winner will be awarded the contract to covert the government land along Km. 5 into a parking and income-generating venture.
“We need to seriously study the two proposals because we want the best offer to be the one to be adopted by the local government. We need a little time to do so, that is why we referred the matter to the municipal council for further study and for them to come out with their recommendations the earliest time possible,” Salda stressed.
The mayor said one of the proposals came from JARCO Realty and Development Corp. which intends to put up a four-story structure in the government property.
Under JARCO’s proposal, the first two floors will be used for pay parking, while the other two will be used for commercial activities like business center and hotel, considering the municipality has limited hotels to accommodate the influx of visitors frequenting the famous strawberry fields here.
The competing proposal of Primemark is a four-story parking building, Salda added.
The goal of the parking building would be to help decongest the main roads of La Trinidad of illegally- parked motor vehicles, the mayor said.
There should be public hearings for the purpose to solicit the sentiments and recommendations of the concerned stakeholders, Saldua said. He noted that illegal parking is a growing problem in the town as visitors flock to unique tourist destinations outside Baguio City.
The parking building would be a public-private partnership with the winning bidder, which would get a lucrative venture considering La Trinidad “is a fast growing valley and a melting pot of people from various parts of the Cordillera and the lowlands,” Saldua said.
