State law prevents the city parking authority from building a surface parking lot for a new hotel downtown.

Mayor Tom Donaldson says that a 1947 state law dictates that parking authorities can only build lots and structures primarily for public use.

“It was the legal opinion of their solicitor that (the parking authority) can’t be involved as a public authority because the majority of spaces must be for public use,” Donaldson said. “This project would go beyond the scope of the law, so the parking authority will not be building a surface lot.”

Robert Stock is the solicitor of the parking authority, which at its meeting Sept. 24 approved an agreement to build a 75-space parking lot on South McKean Street for the proposed Marriott Springhill Suites hotel.

The two projects are part of the Centre City project, which also includes a Rite Aid pharmacy on Main Street,which is expected to open this fall.

City and parking authority treasurer Jeff Smith said this morning that Stock in the past week discovered the law.

Smith said that the law is not conclusive as to whether or not the authority could not do it, but he said it raised plenty of issues.

Original plans for the project called for a 225-space parking garage to accompany the hotel, with some spaces designated for public parking.

However, the authority opted for the surface lot, estimated at one-tenth the $4.5 million cost of a garage due to financial concerns.

The switch from a parking garage to a surface lot angered city business owners, who are petitioning for a garage to be built.

The parking authority is suggesting the city redevelopment authority help pay for the garage.

The parking authority says the redevelopment authority owes it 137 spaces stemming from a 2007 agreement in which the parking authority gave up the parking lot at the corner of East Jefferson and South McKean streets for the Centre City project.

The parking authority sent a letter to Donaldson asking him to intervene and request that the redevelopment authority pay for the 137 spaces.

Donaldson said the idea is to have the city redevelopment authority, which will be about a 40 percent owner of the hotel, finance at least part of the garage. However, Donaldson said he doubts that could happen because the redevelopment authority’s struggling finances with Kelly Automotive Park and the Penn Theater.

The mayor said there isn’t a good answer to fix the parking in the project’s zone due to the city’s inability to bring in new forms of revenue.

“We can’t pull rabbits out of hats,” he said.