May 20, 2013 -- Saint John's Health Center rejected Santa Monica City officials' claim that it doesn't provide enough parking to meet the requirements of its Development Agreement (DA).

The letter from Saint John's Vice President of Human Affairs Steven Sharrer dated April 29 comes after the health center leased an additional 210 parking spaces, the number the City said Saint John's needed to comply with its obligation.

“As documented in the Supplemental Parking Management Plan ('Supplemental PMP') we submitted to the City in February and in this letter, Saint John's has sufficient parking supply to meet our peak parking demand,” the letter reads.

The City claimed that an earlier iteration of the plan, drafted after Saint John's lost its lease on 450 parking spaces in the Colorado Center (formerly the Yahoo! Center) in March, fell short of its legal requirements.

Those spaces were leased as part of a revision to the medical center's 1998 DA, which called for Saint John's to build a 441-space parking structure that was never built. In 2001, a revision to the DA allowed the health center to forgo construction as long as it leases or owns a “functionally equivalent” number of parking spaces.

The letter said that Saint John's has managed to hold on to 85 spaces at the Colorado Center and leased 125 new spaces in an adjacent parking structure. The health center also extended its lease on 85 spaces owned by Saint Anne's Church and School to 10 years.

The letter also claims that the parking situation around the health center will get better once construction on its entry plaza finishes in July, since construction crews will no longer be taking up parking.

In addition, the letter says, valet operations will be underway after construction is complete.

Saint John's officials claim that their plan is adequate to handle peak parking demand, roughly 1,160 vehicles.

City officials rejected the health center's original plan because it aimed to provide 1,208 parking spaces. Officials maintain that Saint John's is responsible for 1,440 parking spaces.

The original parking plan claimed that of the 450 spaces leased at the Colorado Center, only about 190 were used regularly.

The health center's April 29 letter is the latest step in a long formal process. City officials will have 60 days to review the revised plan and then decide whether it address the parking deficit.

If the City determines that it doesn't, health center officials will get another shot at revising the plan before the City would require Saint John's to build the parking structure originally required in the DA.

Saint John's officials could appeal that decision to the City Council, if it gets that far.