The Urban County Government will raze the city-owned Phoenix parking garage, where a 28-foot-long concrete panel weighing 7 tons fell from the upper deck in May.

It was closed for a few days then put back in service until city officials closed it again last month after a safety consultation with structural engineers. At the time, Tom Wilson, administration officer for the city and manager of parking garages, emphasized that the closing was temporary and "more of a precaution than anything." Wilson said more tests would be conducted to help city officials decide on the next step.

At a news conference Wednesday, Mayor Jim Gray said reopening the garage would be dangerous for anyone who parks there or uses the sidewalks surrounding it.

It makes more sense, economically, to tear down the 28-year-old structure than make repairs, said Gray, who worked almost 40 years in the construction business. Demolition is estimated to cost $150,000 to $280,000. Repairs would cost $500,000, and the fixes would add only two to three years to the garage's lifespan.

Replacing the garage is estimated to cost $1 million. A new one would have a lifespan of 30 years.

The city will advertise for bids to demolish the second level of the structure, leaving a surface parking lot. Demolition is expected to begin in December and take three months.

On May 8, a badly deteriorated beam, hidden behind a drop ceiling in an electrical room, caused the concrete panel to break lose and fall. The garage was closed immediately. It reopened May 11 after a structural engineer found the problem confined to that one structural element.

However, in early October, new engineering reports revealed more potential problems. A growing consensus among the engineers was that the garage should be taken down, Gray said.

The Phoenix Garage, which has about 150 parking spaces, was built according to construction standards of its day, but standards have become more stringent, the mayor said.

The Phoenix Garage was inspected four years ago, Wilson said. In 2007, the second level was resurfaced.

The city owns six parking garages, which are inspected every four to five years.

Over the years, the safety of downtown parking garages has been called into question.

On May 16, 2006, Stephanie Hufnagel, 22, and her unborn daughter were killed by a slab of concrete that fell from the Chase Bank parking garage, which is privately owned. The panel was knocked loose after it was struck by a slow-moving pickup on the second floor of the garage. The 5,000-pound panel broke away from brackets that held it in place and fell on Hufnagel, a bank employee who was walking below. She was eight months pregnant with her second child.

City-owned garages are inspected routinely these days.

The deteriorating appearance of the Annex garage lead many to question its safety. The six-story parking structure is wedged between the Fayette County clerk's office and Lexington Division of Police headquarters in the 100 block of East Main Street.

The garage's crumbling concrete exposes rusted steel inside the slabs and columns on every floor. Rain water trickles from the upper floor through cracks.

Additionally, metal poles were installed in 2007 to stabilize the spiraling exit ramp.

The city paid Lithko Restoration Technologies of Hamilton, Ohio, $153,500 to install the poles and make other repairs, according to invoices. Wilson, the city official who oversees the municipal garage, told a reporter earlier this year he did not know whether the ramp was in danger of collapse before the poles were put in place.

The shoring up was recommended by Desman Associates, a national architecture and engineering firm that specializes in parking garages.

At Wednesday's news conference, the area under the Annex garage's exit ramp was littered with rusted scaffolding, gravel and debris. Knee-high weeds grew on the site.

That was brought to Gray's attention after the news conference, and he asked Jamshid Baradaran, director of facilities and fleet, to have the site cleaned up. Baradaran said it would be re-fenced, too.

The mayor has asked the Lexington Parking Authority to evaluate the condition of all six city-owned garages. The review began at the end of September and was expected to take 10 weeks.

The city is considering ways to improve management of its garages, Gray said, but the city first needs a clear picture of their conditions.