Council members hear a presentation on the possible locations for a downtown parking deck Tuesday night inside Fayetteville City Hall.
Photo by Todd Gill, Flyer staff
A planned downtown parking deck will be built on the southeast corner of the Walton Arts Center campus at Spring Street and School Avenue.
Fayetteville City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the site, which was recently recommended by Mayor Lioneld Jordan and a committee of hired consultants and city staff.
According to city staff, a 246-space deck would cost $6.37 million and would include liner buildings on the ground level of the structure.
The two other site choices were the south end of the main parking lot west of the Walton Arts Center, and an existing parking lot located by Kingfish bar on School Avenue.
[ Read more about each location in our previous story ]Council members said the minimal amount of parking spaces lost during construction were a major reason for approving the site.
A deck at Spring and School would remove 28 existing parking spaces currently used by the Walton Arts Center’s administration offices. A deck on the main Walton Arts Center lot would displace 97 patron spaces, while a deck by Kingfish would remove 60 spaces.
Besides displacing customers who’d need a place to park during construction, the temporary removal of spaces also means a loss of paid parking fees which could require city staff to completely restructure the financing plan for the deck since paid parking revenue is what will cover up to $6.5 million in bonds for the project.
Because the deck is to be built on the Walton Arts Center’s campus, council members also approved a set of assurances that the city intends to pay for, construct, or provide the following:
1. A replacement office building
2. Provide 35 free parking spaces in the deck
3. Excavation so that the Walton Arts Center can expand its backstage
4. Construct a shell to assist in the planned backstage expansion project
5. Reasonable rent and moving expenses for WAC administrative staff displaced by the construction to the deck and their replacement building
Mayor Jordan said now that a site has been selected, he plans to issue the bonds to finance the project as early as Wednesday.
Theater site
Abstract level sketch for massing and scale only. Not a representation of the final design, materials or textures
Location: Southeast corner of the Walton Arts Center campus at Spring Street and School Avenue
Size: Five levels, 246 spaces/218 net gain
Cost: $6.37 million
- The terrain makes the presence of the structure less dominant than East lot
- Least loss of revenue and parking spaces during construction
- Requires relocating Walton Arts Center administration building, but once rebuilt, it could buffer the view of the parking deck from the north
The Fayetteville City Council rocks! I look forward to having the new deck and additional places to park. This City Council is one of the best Fayetteville has ever had.
Unfettered cheerleading for something I like because of unspecified vested interest!
Hopefully it will be designed so that in the future more levels/capacity can be added to it instead of having to build another one.
Great something we don’t need.
Exactly! And with money our city doesn’t have!
Most large projects undertaken by a city are paid for with money that the city “doesn’t have”. In this case, however, bonds will be entirely paid off with revenue from parking, which the city will have as needed. The great thing about the parking deck is that it will be paid for by the people who use paid parking, and it will be a tangible improvement over the parking they are using and paying for now. Those who do not use paid parking will not be put upon to pay for the parking deck. What could be more fair?
We’ve needed a deck for several years now. I am happy I won’t have to drive around trying to find a spot anymore! Great job!
Aside from football game days and Bikes and Blues when have you had to drive around to find a spot? During the week or weekend I’ve always seen open spots along Dickson and more in the WAC lot no matter the time of day or night.
Yes, now more people than ever can park, drink themselves to oblivion, and then drive!
Or park, drink themselves to oblivion, and then find another way home.
“Question
What happens if I go down to Dickson Street and drink too much and take a cab home?
“Answer
Parking rates are only charged until 2:00 AM. Rates will not be charged until 2:00 PM the following day. So you will have until 2:00 PM to return to retrieve your vehicle before incurring anymore charges.”
http://www.accessfayetteville.org/government/parking_mgmt/faqs/Car_left_overnight.cfm
Wow. There’s already an unused parking deck on Dickson at the Underwood building. But that is a few steps away from the Walton Arts Center. God forbid that someone would have to walk a block or two after parking! I wish the citizens of Fayetteville had been allowed to vote for or against the parking deck, but we were not. Shame on the City Council for spending our money on this.
The Underwood/Dickson parking deck is privately owned, and probably charges more than people want to pay. And the terms under which the public may use that parking deck might not be as lenient as the city’s terms– those regarding overindulgent bar patrons leaving parked cars overnight, for example. Note the number of complaints about paid parking on Dickson Street that are due to the actions of private parking lots.
So the city is going to sell bonds to pay for the parking deck and use the revenue from paid parking to pay for the bonds… Sounds like a great idea, until you think about how the city could just collect the money into a fund while we wait for a new study to be completed. After that, wait some more. Then we could use all of that money that was sitting in a fund collecting interest to make a down payment (anyone tried to buy a house or some kind of property with less than 20% down?) on the building instead of paying the extra interest.
I just think we should only take on debt if needed. It was suggested that a parking deck would be useful around the last study. It never said “THE CITY WILL PARISH IF A PARKING DECK ISN”T BUILT RIGHT NOW.” Hell, we could just setup a bus route from Harmon to Dickson to the Square to Harmon and repeat…
Thank you for letting me vent about our government wasting even more of our money (I am talking about paying for interest payments and not so much about if a deck is a waste of money or not). I also like the idea of turning the WAC lot into green space. We even have a natural spring to help create an even better green space.
You can scream until you are blue in the face . This administration will not publicly recognize a need for green space/ trailhead/ gathering area/creek in that area. It is they’re afraid to say anything unless it is blessed by the University or Waltons.
That is not to say this administration doesn’t do alot of things very well!
So grubs bar and grill wont be torn down for the new parking deck???