March 12, 2009 Issue
BRAHM Revises Parking Deck Plans
Blowing Rock Council Could Vote on Plan in April
At a special meeting on Monday, the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum (BRAHM) presented plans for a 58-space, two-level parking deck adjacent to its planned museum facility to the Blowing Rock Town Council. The revised plan is a reduction from the original plan, which included 69 spaces.
BRAHM plans to build a three-story, 23,188-square-foot museum building at the corner of Chestnut and Wallingford streets in downtown Blowing Rock, but for months, the plan has been mired by opposition to the parking deck accompanying the project. The project has been planned as a joint public-private venture between the Town of Blowing Rock and BRAHM. The town and museum have agreed in principle to construct adjacent museum and parking facilities simultaneously to save on costs—the museum will pay for the museum facility, and the town will pay for the public parking facility. If the town decides not to build the parking facility, BRAHM can build its own parking lot.
In August 2008, the council voted to approve a conditional use permit (CUP) for the museum but to delay a final decision on the parking deck until BRAHM could present costs and final designs.
The original plan for a 69-space parking deck was eight spaces short of the town code’s requirement of 77 spaces, based on the square footage of the museum. At the council’s retreat earlier this year, council members and staff discussed a smaller footprint for the parking deck that would preserve green space. The new 58-space design would also bring costs down from about $1.7 million to approximately $1.3 million. The 58-space deck would require a CUP modification to the parking requirements for the museum to be approved by the council.
The town will seek the CUP modification at the April 14 town council meeting, Town Manager Scott Hildebran.
Council member Keith Tester said he would not feel comfortable voting to approve the parking deck unless he knew specific costs and bank financing information. But Hildebran said the town could not enter a financial agreement with a bank until after the new fiscal year. He said he has regularly checked with banks about interest rates for a 20-year term.
Board of Trustees President Welborn Alexander, Jr. said BRAHM would work to provide a cost not to exceed figure for the parking deck to the town council by April. Alexander said that BRAHM is eager to break ground on the project because they are worried about “donor fatigue.”
“We’ve been talking about this for five years,” Alexander said.
Tommy Klutz, who has repeatedly expressed opposition to parking decks in Blowing Rock, said he would like to see cost estimates and plans for a surface parking lot at the museum, but the council voted 4-1 in a straw vote not to pursue discussion on a surface lot.
If approved, the parking deck would be the second such facility in downtown Blowing Rock. A two-level parking deck at the American Legion Hall is scheduled to open in early April.
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