Ferndale is moving forward with its first mixed-use parking garage, after about two years of planning and public input.

The city expects to break ground within six months to build a 400-space four-level parking deck, a ground-floor retail shell and shared street infrastructure downtown, said Joseph Gacioch, assistant city manager.

The shortage of parking in downtown Ferndale is a sore spot for city officials, businesses, residents and visitors. Hundreds to thousands of people and their cars visit the city's bars, restaurants and festivals every weekend. Weekdays are getting more crowded, too.

The city would pay $17 million-$20 million for the project through bonds, with payments made by the city's auto parking fund. A private developer would be brought on to build commercial space on top of the deck and an adjacent residential building.

Ferndale is evaluating developers' proposals and expects to decide in two to three months on its private partner. It doesn't yet have an estimated cost for the developer's portion, which would be completed in a later construction phase.

City Council in late June passed updated plans for the project, called the Development on Troy, or DOT, according to council minutes. It originally agreed to the development in October. The DOT would replace a 138-space city-owned surface lot at West Troy Street and Allen Road.

The update includes shrinking the amount of commercial space the developer must fill on top of the parking deck from 40,000 square feet to a flexible 20,000 square feet, according to Gacioch and Jordan Twardy, Ferndale's community and economic development director.

A 2015 retail market analysis by Gibbs Planning Group found the city could absorb those 40,000 square feet by 2020. But the city changed its "philosophy," Gacioch said. Instead of building "one tower to rule them all" and introducing office space all at once, it wanted to "build the maturity in" more slowly.

Prospective developers had also previously suggested eliminating the office space, according to planning commission minutes from June 6, because they would have more luck getting financing for residential units, but understood the city had needs for commercial space.

Visions early this year for the closed Como's restaurant space on the high-profile Nine Mile Road-Woodward Avenue corner in the city's downtown reflected an increasing desire for multifamily residential and office development. In the end, though, a Birmingham-based restaurant group bought Como's and plans to reopen it.