Boone Implements Parking Plan for ASU Football Saturdays

No Parking on King Street; Paid Parking in Other Lots

Story by Anna Oakes

In response to complaints from downtown retail owners about the lack of proximate parking for customers on Saturdays—especially on dates of ASU home football games—the Boone Town Council voted to execute a new special event parking plan beginning Saturday, September 12.

The plan was developed and will be administered by McLaurin Parking Company, which manages downtown parking for the Town of Boone.

“It absolutely is a pilot program,” said Steve McLaurin of McLaurin Parking. “This is a starting point.”

The goal of the plan is to preserve all King Street parking spaces and the Depot Street lot for patrons of downtown businesses. According to the approved plan, King Street parking spaces will be marked with cones and temporary signs indicating the spaces are for downtown customers only. Beginning six hours before the game kickoff time, four parking “ambassadors” will answer parking questions and direct special event motorists to designated lots with fee parking.

The designated lots for special event parking will be the Queen Street parking lot used for town employees on weekdays, the metered spaces on Queen Street, the Town Hall parking lot and the Horn in the West parking lot on Horn in the West Drive. Visitors will be charged $15 to park in one of these lots. Parking will only be allowed in the Horn in the West lot after 1:00 p.m. because the lot is reserved for the Watauga County Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings.

The Queen Street lot features 110 spaces available for special event parking. Sixty spaces are available in the Queen Street metered spaces—30 spaces are reserved for persons with Queen Street parking permits. The Town Hall lot has 40 spaces, and the Horn in the West lot has 279 spaces.

McLaurin’s original plan called for reserving 40 spaces on King Street for downtown business customers, but the council moved to extend the plan to all King Street parking spaces and the small parking lot on Depot Street. McLaurin’s plan also initially included two parking ambassadors, which the council increased to four.

“I would like to see all of King Street reserved for business,” Council Member Lynne Mason said. “We really have to find a way to protect the downtown area.”

Several council members expressed concerns about McLaurin’s ability to enforce the reserved parking on King Street without ticketing or towing. But McLaurin said he had reservations about issuing citations to out-of-town visitors because it might send the wrong message or leave a “bad taste” with them.

“That’s why we’re trying to get it on the front end,” he said.

The cost of the plan—with two ambassadors, about 10 other parking staff members, signage and supplies—was estimated to cost $2,100, which would be offset by an estimated $3,150 in parking fees from the Queen Street lot and metered spaces and the Town Hall lot. The council approved two additional ambassadors but also the use of the Horn in the West lot for additional paid parking revenue.

The parking plan will begin with ASU home football game Saturdays only but could expand to all Saturdays.

Downtown business owners say the parking problem on Saturdays lies not only with out-of-town visitors but also with local employees and students who park on King Street on weekends for hours or days at a time. The current one-hour parking limit downtown is only for Monday through Friday.

Bill Parish, owner of Highway Robbery, an apparel retail store on King Street, said his records show that business has dropped substantially on Saturdays over the past few years, which he attributes to the lack of available parking.

“It’s made a big difference,” he said.

As for the new parking plan, Parish said, “I can’t imagine anybody that would disagree with it that’s got a business.”

But Sam Parker, owner of King Street restaurant Our Daily Bread, said it is hard for him to complain about game attendees parking on King Street because many of them patronize his business. He said he’s more affected during the week by students parking downtown.

“As far as game days, I have never really had that much of a problem,” Parker said. He said he would like to see the construction of parking decks downtown to address parking needs.

Rich Jacobs, owner of ArtWalk on King Street, said his retail numbers on Saturdays have dropped more than 50 percent over the past few years. Jacobs is also president of the Downtown Boone Development Association board, which addressed the Saturday parking issue a few weeks ago.
“All the spots are taken, and there’s no one in the stores,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs said that Saturdays in October, November and December leading up to the Christmas holiday—which fall during the football season—are important retail days, with afternoons typically generating the highest volume of business.

“These are important, important days for us. I can’t emphasize that enough. Our bread and butter days that are being demolished,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs said he expects that violators will eventually be ticketed for improperly parking on King Street on Saturdays. If parking is protected, shoppers will easily be able to access downtown during game hours, he said.

“It’s going to have to take a bit of advertising and educating the retail client that it’s okay to come downtown,” he said. “We’ve got to re-train people that avoid game days that we have plenty of spots for you.”

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