SAVANNAH, Ga. () – City leaders approved an additional $8 million for the completion of Enmarket Arena parking lot project on Thursday.

The controversary started when the city asked $14 million to finish the parking lot, split between the general fund and parking fund. That request is now at $11 million, $8 million of that would go to contractors to do the work to complete the lot.

That includes cleaning up contaminated soil and an additional 2,000 parking spaces.

It is a project City Manager Jay Melder said the city cannot walk away from.

“Leaving the property as it currently sits could result in exposing citizens to the contamination through the effects of wind and rainfall and direct exposure, if site security is not maintained,” Melder said.

Council was given three options, two of which were not recommended for financial, environmental or legal reasons. The recommended, approved plan includes removing the contaminated soil, paving the area and turn it into a paid parking to help earn some of the city’s money back through fees.

“I’ve asked for an additional $11 million to be budgeted from capital contingency and our parking fund balance not taking from any other projects for a total of $26.8 million, which we’re not projecting to spend,” Melder said. “And then the final column is the contract modifications needed and there’s one the API contract, which are construction contract at $8 million modification.”

Council members agree the contaminated soil needs to be dealt with, but not everyone is on board on the parking lot solution.

“It’s moments when I had a graduation and I spoke with a couple of families throughout the graduation process, and they had multiple questions of what was going on with the construction over there,” Alderman Detric Leggett said. “So, when we told them that it was a construction for more parking spaces, everybody was elated.”