Cars line the sides of East Center Street in downtown Fayetteville Tuesday afternoon. Wider sidewalks are on tap for several areas on the south side of the street.
Photo: Todd Gill, Flyer staff
When city crews complete a sidewalk improvement project on East Center Street in a few weeks, residents and business owners can take advantage of wider walkways which will allow for more foot traffic and cafe-style seating for restaurants.
The Fayetteville City Council’s Street Committee voted on Tuesday to approve construction of three “bumpouts” which will extend the width of the sidewalks to about 16 feet in some areas on the south side of the street.
The panel voted to adopt this design
without the bumpouts on the north
side of the street.
Original design
City officials had planned a basic sidewalk replacement project for the stretch of Center Street between College Avenue and an alleyway near the square, but several downtown business owners asked that an alternative concept be considered.
Instead of simply removing and replacing the existing nine-foot sidewalks, the group advocated for a new design that will provide wider sidewalk areas to allow for streetside cafes and other amenities.
As a result, city planners created an alternate design that included bumpouts on both sides of the street. The proposal would have reduced on-street parking from 24 to 17 spaces.
During a public meeting held last week, some owners supported the proposed changes while others said they preferred to stick with the original plan.
The majority of those opposed to the bumpouts were concerned about the loss of parking.
“We don’t have enough parking spaces there now, and I don’t see any use doing away with the ones we’ve got,” said Ron Woodruff, who owns a law office on the north side of Center Street.
Saleh Faur, who owns Petra Cafe on the south side of Center Street, was one of 21 downtown business owners who signed a petition advocating for the changes.
Faur said besides increasing foot traffic, wider sidewalks and cafe seating could help some restaurants more easily serve senior citizens and customers with disabilities.
“That’s one of our biggest dilemmas out there is the accessibility of these places,” said Faur, whose customers – as well as patrons of Taste of Thai – must first climb a set of seven stairs before entering the restaurant.
After compiling all the public comments submitted – verbal and written – city staff said the majority of business owners were in favor of an alternate design whereas the majority of property owners wanted to keep with the original plan.
Siding with the property owners, Ward 3 Alderman and Street Committee Chairman Bobby Ferrell said he would not support the removal of any parking spaces. Ferrell said the group should go with the original plan and revisit the idea of adding bumpouts at another time.
Ward 2 Alderman Matthew Petty disagreed.
“Business owners bring value to the city as do property owners,” said Petty. “There are differences of opinion here, but I think it’s our job to split the difference in a responsible way.”
Petty suggested only building bumpouts on the south side of the street, a plan that could add up to three more on-street parking spaces than the alternate design originally called for.
Brenda Boudreaux, a Ward 1 alderwoman, said she’d support the idea as long as there is a guarantee that no more than four parking spaces will be removed.
Petty agreed and the group voted 3-1 to adopt the amended alternate design. Ferrell cast the sole ‘no’ vote.
As with the original plan, the new design also includes new tree wells and streetlights to match recently rebuilt sidewalks on College Avenue and Mountain Street.
Work on the project could begin as early as one week from Monday and would likely take about two weeks to complete, according to Transportation Services Director Terry Gulley.
The alternate design was originally estimated to add about $20,000 to the $72,000 Center Street project, but with the removal of the northern bumpouts, added costs would likely be reduced unless significant drainage work is needed.
I can understand the concern over lack of parking. I have trouble finding a place to lock my bicycle when I visit Center Street businesses. My bicycle often shares a light pole with two or three other bicycles.
Bicycle parking can be conveniently located in under-used nooks and spaces outside main circulation paths with the addition of a simple “inverted-U” bike racks. Therefore, an elegant solution to increase parking to the Center Street businesses will be to include bicycle parking “staples” or “inverted-U” racks in every safe and convenient location, on both sides of Center Street.
Personally, I think it’s a good idea to convert a vehicular parking space into bicycle parking, as has been done in limited locations for motorcycles and scooters.
Doing that next to a bumpout would be nice. It’d be much nicer sitting next to bicycles as opposed to someone trying to parallel park.
Given the limited number and size of the bumpouts, and the effect of buffering between people and automobiles by doing so, it would make sense to provide street parking for bicycles rather than use valuable seating space for them. Bicycles are, after all, considered to be vehicles. This would concentrate bicycle parking in fewer locations, but two bike areas, each using half an automobile space, seems a good trade-off for four bike racks on the bumpouts.
I agree. I meant using a parking space next to the bumpout would be the ideal parking space to choose, not to use the bumpout itself for bikes.
I’m very happy to see this compromise! I’m also proud to have Matthew Petty as my alderman as he somehow almost always seems to represent my exact feelings.
The way these bumpouts are layed out on the map, does that mean that Damgoode and Petra Cafe will share a bumpout, and Thai Diner and Celi’s will share the other one? It looks like the 2 bumpouts are kind of spread across the restaurants like that. Are they expected to share like that without having it officially regulated? I’m not sure what the bumpout furthest west would be used for. I’m excited that there may be a little outdoor dining on Center St, but really I’m just glad to get extra sidewalk space, even if it’s just a tree or lamppost, or bicycle parking.
Now the lawyers aren’t only taking away my prime retail/restaurant locations, but also fighting for their parking spaces and against my extra sidewalk space and outdoor dining. Lawyers!!
So how much is it going to cost to rent a bump out from the city? Also, have fun trying to eat lunch when those big trucks are unloading right next to you. Hippies!!
touche!
Just a part of urban life. Noone should honestly expect downtown streetwise dining to be like a picnic in the country.
*streetside
What in the world do hippies have to do with bumpouts? Anyone from metro/urban areas is familiar with popular street side dining options. They are extremely common throughout the United States and Europe and have nothing to do with a small group from the 1960s. I do agree however that parking near the Square is problematic and like the less expensive compromise chosen.
Why should the city pay to have bumpouts for the restaurants to use? If they want outdoor dining they should put it on the roof or cantilever a deck out over the mountain inn pit/parking lot.
Why not turn one side of the street into angle parking and increase the parking for patrons?
How about take back the mountain inn pit and have the city put in paid parking to pay off the TIFF? After all we seem to be paying for other improvements there anyhow.
I think this is a faulty argument, because I like to think that the city is paying for the bumpouts for ME. I don’t care what the restaurant is or who owns it, I and other folks are going to get good use out of it. It doesn’t matter to me, Mr. Average Joe, if other restaurants or business owners are jealous, or if you’re a lawyer in disguise still angry about losing some parking spots, because sitting at a table and having a beer outside on Center St. on a fall day will be nice.
But, in all seriousness, I can understand that any nearby, competing restaurants would naturally feel angry/jealous about this, but it’s an improvement to city sidewalks on an important street in the heart of Fayetteville with a big perk for the general population.
I’m more concerned with how it will work. Are restaurants going to rent the space for a table? If so, what I want to know is which restaurant will do it and what kind of tables do they plan on using. I vote for giant, long wooden ones.
No beer on sidewalks! It’s against the law.
Why should the city pay to build build and maintain parking spaces for businesses to use?
Need to change the direction of traffic. One of the more iconic views in Fayetteville can’t be appreciated while driving down Center street.
That’s why it’s such a great idea to put seating, and good reasons to dally, along the sidewalk. It lets people enjoy the view while they’re not driving, when they have better things to do than enjoy the view.
I’m seated when I’m driving.
I love compromise, and am so impressed that this all happened within a matter of weeks. I just had dinner down there tonight. While I was there, I envisioned the upcoming improvements. They were lovely!
A better design would have been diagonal parking on the north side of Center and one long wide sidewalk on the south side. You’d get just as many spaces with the bump out plan, plus you wouldn’t have some jack-ass aiming his exhaust on your gyro.
It would have been a better design, you’re right.
Unfortunately it wasn’t possible because of an arbitrary requirement for 20′ of clear travel space for fire engines. I love and appreciate our Fire Department but we disagree on this point. This requirement prevented us from looking at anything that would alter the width of the 20′ lane of travel, which we would have to do to install angled parking on the street.
great move. ward 2: please keep petty in office. he is the only council member who is consistently proposing measures to make fayetteville a better place.