Parking On Dickson Plagued By Problems

By Skip Descant

Posted: October 28, 2009 at 6 a.m.

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FAYETTEVILLE — It may have started off as a discussion about the Walton Arts Center s move to charge for parking, but Dickson Street merchants quickly moved the conversation toward addressing some of the more comprehensive parking problems.

One idea being bounced around is earmarking the city s Hotel-Motel-Restaurant taxes collected in the Dickson Street Entertainment District for district improvements like constructing a parking garage.

"I ll talk to Marilyn (Heifner) about that," said Neal Crawford, owner of Jose s Mexican Restaurant, making reference to the director of the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission.

It s not exactly clear if the monies can only be used for parking, said Heifner.

"The A&P Commission determines how the HMR tax is spent," Heifner said in an e-mail Wednesday. "Municipal bonds must be voted on by the public and it is possible to pledge HMR taxes to bonds for allowable A&P uses as we have done in the past."

"I m not sure if we can dedicate money for bonds for parking only," she added. "We built the (Fayetteville) Towncenter deck in association with the convention complex."

"Anything that we decide to do, has got to include a deck in some way," Mayor Lioneld Jordan told the merchants.

How much parking is actually needed for the dozens of bars, restaurants and other uses in the area is also a key piece of information, Crawford said.

"Before we add any square footage, (in new development) we have to know how far behind the eight ball we are," Crawford said.

Other business operators tossed around the idea of structuring some sort of paid parking for the entire district, and then offering validated parking to reduce the cost to individual patrons.

"If we say we want to validate, then you ve got manpower, and once you have manpower, you ve got problems," Crawford noted.

Missing from the dialogue Wednesday were officials from the University of Arkansas, which everyone seems to agree should be part of whatever solution gets drafted.

"It s the university s responsibility to make some of their parking part of our solution," remarked Brian Crowne of George s Majestic Lounge. He suggested that campus parking not needed at night by the university be made available for Dickson Street use.

A next step, Jordan told the group, is to meet with the operators of the private paid parking lots to work through merchant issues regarding towing and costs and determine how many parking spaces the district is truly needs.

"If we work together, we can find a solution to this problem," the mayor told the merchants. "But I ll need all of your help."

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