FAYETTEVILLE -- Residents who attended a public meeting on the arts corridor downtown questioned the appropriateness of having tall buildings lining Dickson Street and expressed support for putting a parking deck on a lot the city owns on School Avenue.
About 60 people gathered Thursday at City Hall to have questions answered and provide feedback on aspects of the arts corridor. Poster boards showed slides of the Fay Jones woods, the civic gathering space and proposed street improvements, but the location of another parking deck gained the most attention.
The City Council on Tuesday will discuss for the third time where to put a deck to replace the 290 parking spaces at the southwest corner of Dickson Street and West Avenue. The lot next to the Walton Arts Center will become a civic green space after voters in April approved a more than $31 million bond issue to create a cultural arts corridor downtown.
The Fay Jones woods west of the library will become a nature attraction, and a number of street, trail and drainage improvements also are planned on and near West Avenue.
City staff recommends putting the deck at the depot lot at the northwest corner of Dickson Street and West Avenue. The city has negotiated a letter of intent with Greg House and the Bank of Fayetteville, owners of portions of the lot. Under the proposal, the five-level deck would sit east of the freight building, home to Arsaga's, with an alley separating the structures. The depot building would stay, and a five-story hotel would go where the train bank sits now.
House would also build a liner building south of Dickson Street with certain restrictions and guidelines from the city under a proposed land swap deal.
A second option would be to place the deck across from the existing Spring Street deck on North School Avenue. The city owns the parking lot that the structure would be built on.
Of about 30 notes stuck to the slide with the parking deck options, most either expressed support for building the deck on School Avenue or opposition to building it at the depot lot.
"This location is much preferable to Dickson/West," one note read. "We don't want a hotel 'wall' on Dickson."
"The beauty & uniqueness of Fayetteville's Dickson St, Arsaga's, etc is why performers always comment on their love of Fayetteville," read another. "This destroys it."
Elizabeth Mitchell, an artist and former school administrator, said although the city's proposal would preserve the depot and freight buildings, covering them from view with multistory buildings would effectively eliminate them. A hotel would not best serve residents, and would diminish the historic character of downtown, she said.
"It's kind of like, what do we get out of the deal?" Mitchell said. "We're not going to stay in the hotel."
The School Avenue option makes more sense, Mitchell said. Parking decks aren't attractive, so the city might as well put one where another already exists, she said.
"It's not like people would have to walk 5 miles," Mitchell said. "It's a small downtown."
Susan Norton, communications director for the city, said staff put on the meeting after residents requested one during the Jan. 7 council meeting.
"The people who were coming to the microphone indicated they didn't believe we had enough public feedback on the parking deck location," she said.
House and the Arsaga family this week agreed on how to proceed if the council selects the depot as the site for the parking deck. The business would receive compensation from House, and most likely close, during deck construction. It would be up to the Arsagas to decide whether to close, and the business would have the option of opening once the deck is complete.
Cindy Arsaga, co-owner, said employees could move to other locations or receive a severance package.
"It's daunting," she said. "All we've been doing right now is trying to figure out how to negotiate the best deal we can possibly have so we can help our employees through that process, and to help ourselves not go bankrupt."
NW News on 01/17/2020