FAYETTEVILLE — Drivers will not be able to use Hotz Drive to enter or exit parking lots west of Razorback Road if the City Council follows a recommendation from the Transportation Committee.

Committee members on Tuesday asked University of Arkansas officials to revise plans for the parking lots after hearing from neighbors who don’t want to see increased traffic on residential streets.

“I would like to see us not come out onto Hotz,” said Rhonda Adams, Ward 4 alderwoman. “I think it would alleviate some of the neighborhood pressure.”

The parking lots are set to go in across Razorback Road from John McDonnell Field where a collection of rental houses and duplexes once stood. The university bought the homes and demolished them last year. Temporary gravel lots have gone in their place.

Initial plans called for roughly 900 parking spaces between Nettleship Street and Hotz Drive. Mike Johnson, university associate vice chancellor for facilities, said those plans will have to be scaled back by 15 to 20 parking spaces if Hotz access is blocked.

Johnson and Jay Young, a land surveyor with Development Consultants presented other options Tuesday, including right-turn-only access that would funnel traffic onto Razorback Road, instead of west into the University Heights neighborhood.

None of the options pleased David Boddington, however, who lives west of the planned parking lots. Boddington advocated for blocking access to Hotz altogether.

He noted narrow streets with deep ditches where people ride bicycles and the university cross-country team trains. Boddington also voiced concern about more traffic at a five-way stop one block west of the parking lots.

“I would respectfully request that the U of A not sacrifice another neighborhood for the U of A plan,” he said.

Boddington suggested taking all measures necessary to direct traffic onto what will soon be a widened Razorback Road.

Young said most drivers will use Razorback instead of zigzagging through neighborhood streets.

But some people who want to get to Wedington Drive and Interstate 540 will still look for shortcuts regardless of where the parking lot entrances go, he added. Removing Hotz access has potential to funnel more drivers to Palmer Avenue.

“All we have done is rerouted them,” Young said.

Johnson said university officials intend to add two bus stops and build sidewalks around the perimeter of the parking lots regardless of whether there’s a driveway onto Hotz.

The sidewalks will one day tie into a traffic signal at Meadow Street, Johnson said, giving pedestrians a safer route to campus or Razorbacks football games. Stoplights are also planned at Maple Street and Leroy Pond Drive as part of the Razorback Road improvements.

City Engineer Chris Brown said construction on Razorback Road between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Leroy Pond Drive is scheduled to start this spring. Funding is in place for improvements along Maple Street and Garland Avenue to the north, but no timeline has been set for construction between Leroy Pond and Maple.

Johnson said he expects the parking lot project to be finished by fall 2015.