Fayetteville Residents Discuss Parking Deck Concerns

FAYETTEVILLE — About 50 people listened or shared their thoughts on the city’s paid parking system and downtown parking deck plans Thursday at the Fayetteville Public Library.

The meeting was organized by Dan Coody, a former mayor who announced last month he’ll challenge Mayor Lioneld Jordan in the Nov. 6 general election.

Coody said the city has an opportunity to build a deck that will be an attractive part of downtown for years. His vision for the deck includes concealed “liner buildings” housing private businesses.

Coody said that kind of parking deck would be more attractive than a multistory structure with no commercial areas or with only one level of retail space — as unofficial renderings by Jordan’s staff have shown. The deck could be financed through public-private partnerships and built in conjunction with the Walton Arts Center renovation in a way that would increase property values and tax revenue, Coody added.

“All it takes is a little imagination,” he said. “We can design something so much more creatively that would add vitality to downtown than building a six-story parking garage.”

Jordan and members of his senior staff plan to finance the deck with up to $6.5 million in bonds, repaid using parking fees and fines.

Jordan said before Thursday, paid parking was needed to free spaces for Dickson Street businesses and people who live in the area, to provide money for a parking deck and create revenue for the arts center.

With designs for the deck expected to begin this summer, Jordan said, “We are on the verge of doing what we said we were going to do in 2009.”

“When I hear Mr. Coody criticize that, to me he’s saying my staff, the City Council and I are wanting to throw some slick, shoddy parking deck down there, and we’re not doing that. We want to build a deck down there that’s going to be a good addition for the city of Fayetteville.”

Jordan said, even though planned developments such as the Divinity Hotel and Condos and a 2,200-seat addition to the arts center have not come to fruition, there’s still a need for parking — now and in the future.

According to the city’s parking management division, the main lot west of the arts center fills more than 200 days each year. And with more developments planned, as well as a growing student population at the University of Arkansas, more parking is needed, Jordan said.

He noted growing hotel, motel and restaurant tax proceeds as evidence paid parking isn’t killing business as some have argued. According to Paul Becker, city finance director, monthly taxes have grown about 10 percent in the entertainment district between October 2010 and March 2012.

Jim Huson, who owns Doe’s Eat Place on Dickson Street, said Thursday he wasn’t convinced.

“Even though (HMR taxes) may be going up, it’s not anywhere near where it should be,” Huson said. “Paid parking is killing Dickson Street slowly but surely.”

Coody said residents who participated in a recent poll his supporters commissioned reported being 50 percent less likely to go to Dickson Street than before paid parking.

He and others criticized the system of kiosks implemented in August 2010 as confusing, too rigorously enforced and lacking signs for out-of-town guests.

David Franks, a resident, said it’s not the system people object to, but that they have to pay for parking.

“People are not going to want to grow up and pay for something that they’ve been having for free,” Franks said. “It doesn’t matter what we decide needs to be done or what gets to be done, it’s going to have to be paid for and people need to get over it.”

Jordan said Thursday, after talking with architects designing the arts center renovation, he was confident arts center construction could fit into the city’s deck plans.

He said the danger of prolonging deck construction is the possibility of rising interest rates and construction costs.