Two city authorities are at odds over who should be responsible for providing public parking as part of the Centre City project.

The parking authority on Sept. 24 decided to build a 75-space surface lot instead of a 225-space parking garage because of the cost of the garage. The decision has angered business owners in the neighborhood, who are now petitioning to have the garage built.

But the parking authority said it should be the responsibility of the city redevelopment authority to pay for at least a portion of the spaces.

Jim Chiprean, parking authority chairman, said the redevelopment authority owes his board 137 spaces, stemming from an agreement made in 2007.

The parking authority signed away its property on the lots to the redevelopment authority for development of the project. Chiprean said that was done on the assumption that the redevelopment authority would replace those spaces lost with the new garage.

“They still owe us those 137 spaces,” Chiprean said in an interview.

Art Cordwell, the executive director of the redevelopment authority, said the city waived his authority’s obligation to providing the parking years ago on the basis that the redevelopment authority could not afford the investment.

“The mayor and council at the time said this is a citywide project and that each of the authorities had to work together to make it work,” Cordwell said at the redevelopment authority’s meeting today.

Cordwell said the decision on whether to build a parking garage is entirely up to the parking authority, which manages most of the parking in the city.