FAYETTEVILLE — Downtown Fayetteville and Dickson Street must be treated as two distinct districts and should not be painted with the same paid-parking brush, residents and business operators said.
“We want there to be a separation, because the two districts are totally different,” said Lee Ann Kendrick, who operates the downtown event-planning firm The Lighter Side. “The future of their businesses and other businesses moving into the downtown area is very much different than on Dickson Street.”
About half of the business operators like Kendrick and residents attending a public meeting Monday to mull over changes to Fayetteville’s downtown parking polices opposed any plan that would begin charging for parking on the downtown square.
The meeting was part ofthe city’s effort to gauge public opinion about changes to downtown parking regarding free versus paid areas, times of enforcement and hourly rates.
Independent of any downtown proposal, Mayor Lioneld Jordan’s administration will present a plan to the City Council in May to transition the Dickson Street Entertainment District to paid parking. Any changes to downtown parking will be taken up as a separate issue, said Terry Gulley, Fayetteville transportation director.
Since releasing proposal details like paid evening parking or doubling some parking rates in downtown, the administration has been on the defense, insisting that it only wants to hear the thoughts and opinions of residents and business owners, and that no actual proposal is being considered.
“Everything is on the table for evaluation, but not everything is going to change,”Gulley said to a packed room where voices sometimes reached well past the conversational level.
“You’re not encouraging businesses to come downtown,” Storm Carrson told city officials in his bid to have Fayetteville parking managed much like downtown Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville, which have free parking. “I’m afraid this administration will become known as the administration that killed downtown.”
If downtown dries up, not everyone thinks Jordan is the only one to blame. Dede Peters, owner of ddp gallery on Mountain Street, pointed fingers at downtown employees and their bosses for taking cheap metered spaces or the free ones lining the square.
“It is our fault - entrepreneurial people - taking away our parking,” Peters told the room. “We are taking away from our own business.”
“We see so many staffmembers and employees feeding meters. And it disgusts me,” she added.
Almost no one showed up Monday to condemn the parking rates - which have not been raised since 1996. In fact, most business owners said they would be willing to pony up the quarter-per-hour needed to pay their customers’ parking if it meant convenient spots and no more $5 overtime parking tickets.
“I think as business owners, we’ll have to pay for our customers to park,” said Carrson, who owns French Quarters Antiques on Block Avenue.
Finding a solution that makes everyone happy may be as tough as finding that elusive perfect parking spot.
“The problem is,” said Linda McBride, who lives in the Campbell Bell Building on the downtown square, “people want to park right in front of their businesses. They don’t want to walk.”
News, Pages 3 on 04/20/2010