SEPTEMBER 24, 2009 ISSUE
Downtown Business Owners Want Improved Parking Plan Saturday
Two parking staff members help direct traffic on King Street September 12 as part of Boone’s new Saturday parking plan for ASU game days. More signage will be posted for this Saturday’s downtown visitors. Photo by Ken Ketchie
Downtown Boone business owners are hoping that the second run of a new parking strategy for ASU football game days will be better than the first. Restaurant and retail owners said the new plan confused customers and hurt business when it debuted on September 12.
McLaurin Parking Company manages parking for the Town of Boone. McLaurin developed the plan—which aims to preserve King Street parking spaces for patrons of downtown businesses—and intends to make some changes to its execution this Saturday, September 26, for ASU’s second home game. Steve McLaurin said his company will increase signage on King Street and ensure that parking staff are in place before cones and other equipment are set out.
“Just like any plan invoked, some like it, and some want to leave it like it was,” said McLaurin.
According to the plan approved by the Boone Town Council in August, King Street parking spaces are 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” are stationed to answer parking questions and direct special event motorists to designated lots with fee parking.
The designated lots for special event parking are the Queen Street parking lot used for town employees on weekdays, the metered spaces on Queen Street, the Town Hall parking lot and, after 1:00 p.m., the Horn in the West parking lot. Visitors are charged $15 to park in one of these lots.
Melanie Patterson, co-owner of Melanie’s Food Fantasy on the corner of Depot and King streets downtown, said her business on September 12 was down 70 percent compared with a normal Saturday. By 7:15 a.m. that morning, every parking space on King Street was marked with an orange cone, but no parking staff showed up to direct traffic until about 8:45 a.m., she and co-owner Scott Patterson told the Town Council September 17.
“I interviewed my customers all day, and 90 percent of them said, ‘What in the world is going on?’” Melanie said.
Melanie and Scott said the cones gave a negative connotation to drivers and made customers coming to downtown businesses think they couldn’t park on King Street.
“It really wasn’t inviting,” Scott said. “It was an eyesore.”
Melanie said she wasn’t totally opposed to a parking plan, but that she also thought it was “trying to fix something that wasn’t really broken to begin with.”
Melanie said she knew of other downtown businesses that had suffered decreased business that Saturday, including M-Prints and Our Daily Bread.
Brandon Langdon, manager of The Shoppes at Farmers Hardware, said he thought that signs indicating King Street spaces were for downtown customers were either too small or too infrequent.
Under the new downtown Boone game-day parking strategy, game attendees are charged $15 to park in various parking lots in Boone. Downtown Boone business owners are concerned that the new strategy is hurting their bottom lines. Photo by Ken Ketchie
“People thought that they couldn’t park at all,” he said. “It was a slow day. I’m not sure how much that contributed, but it was slower.”
Langdon said downtown businesses are up against a tendency for people to avoid downtown during ASU football games.
“Since the team has gotten better, business has gotten worse,” he said. Langdon said he hopes the parking plan can work, but he wonders if parking meters might be a better solution.
“It’s a shame, and maybe we can change it. I think we can,” he added.
McLaurin said parking staff will also increase signage about parking at Horn in the West, as only 22 vehicles were parked in the 279-space lot after 1:00 p.m. September 12.
“I think the increased signage will greatly enhance the situation,” he said.
But the company plans to continue blocking King Street spaces with cones, McLaurin said on Tuesday.
“If we do not physically block them, there is no deterrent for the football visitor coming in and taking the space,” he said.
On Monday, however, Melanie spoke with members of the Town Council at the Downtown Boone Development Association’s annual membership meeting, and “they assured me that the cones would not be used this week,” she said.
Town Manager Greg Young was out of the office Tuesday and Wednesday, and a call to Mayor Loretta Clawson was not returned as of press time.
The parking plan is intended to be revenue-neutral by offsetting the costs of staff and equipment with parking fees. McLaurin said the costs of executing the plan for a day are about $4,000, and the company brought in about $2,600 in revenue on September 12. He said he believes better signage will increase revenue and noted that he had no complaints from football visitors about the system.
What Do You Think About Parking?
The Town of Boone plans to hold a public charette on ways to better manage parking in the downtown area. The North Carolina League of Municipalities will facilitate the charette, which is likely to begin the second week of November, Town Manager Greg Young said.
The town will pay the consultant $2,500 to lead the charette. Council Member Lynne Mason said she wants to hear input from all stakeholders, including businesses, merchants, property owners, citizens, downtown residents and students.
“Downtown should be a place that the people who live and work in our community want to go to as well,” Mason said.
Look for more information about the charette, including specific dates and times, in future issues of High Country Press.
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