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Downtown merchants voice concern over parking plans
Bruce Matlock
Store owners Andrea Faw of Sub Express and Rick Gregory of R. Gregory Jewelers aren't the only shopkeepers who are upset with a proposal to revamp Broad Street in Downtown Statesville. They've also had petitions signed by customers opposed to the plan.
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Published: November 20, 2009
With the first dollars having been allocated on the preliminary work of Statesville's major downtown renovation project, Broad Street merchants in the central business district hope city leaders will hit the brakes before they make a final decision about parallel parking there.
An informal poll of shop owners along the 100 block of West Broad Street reveals an almost unanimous aversion to the replacement of the current diagonal parking spaces with parallel spaces, a move that is called for in the Downtown & N.C. Highway 115 Streetscape/Land Use Master Plan.
Rick Gregory, owner of R. Gregory Jewelers, has become the de facto leader of a group of Broad Street merchants whose aim is to get city leaders to leave the parking alone.
"They told us they would talk to us before they did anything concrete," Gregory said. "And I hope they stick to that, because I think people are overwhelmingly against this."
City leaders, including most members of the city council, have defended the conversion to parallel parking for both aesthetic and safety reasons.
But Kim Eroh, the owner of Doodlebug's Children's Consignment, said she researched the safety argument and discovered that experts say there is no real advantage for one form of parking over the other.
The move to parallel parking would reduce the number of parking spaces on Broad Street by about one-fifth — from 162 to 131.
Parking, the merchants say, is already at a premium.
"I already can't park in my own building," said Mason Gilliam, owner of Essential Computer Care. "I have to worry about being with a customer and having my two-hour time run out, and I have to go out and move it."
Added Gilliam, "I can't see who would be for a plan to take away more parking so you can lose more of your customer base."
Alecia Cole agreed.
"We have people saying they had to go around the block three times to find a parking spot," said Cole, owner of Elysian Echo Pet Center. "And if they cut down the number of spaces, of course it will be even worse."
Cole said she is against the whole plan. She said that if it goes through as proposed, it will have a diminishing effect on the city's quaintness.
"They have plans for all these medians and fountains and all the rest of it," she said. "This is just a nice small town and I don't know why they want to make it into a big town."
Plyler's Clothing & Formal Wear owner Leroy Plyler said he has some issues with the proposed parking changes, but said it's not too great a price to pay for a larger revitalization plan.
"I'm not really thrilled with parallel parking," he said. "And I know we are going to end up losing some parking spaces, but overall I love the plan, and I really think the city is trying to do something good for us. And I think we have to trust the city fathers to do what's best."
Like Plyler, most other merchants who spoke about the plan also said that they were in favor of it, if only the parking was left alone.
Donna Karr, a Broad Street property owner, said she likes the plan as it is.
"I don't have any problems with the parking," she said. "I really think this plan will make downtown more pedestrian-friendly and make people want to come here and mingle."
Marin Tomlin, executive director of the Downtown Statesville Development Corporation, said that one thing to come out of the parking issue is that it has sparked a more profound interest in the plan.
"I'm glad it's being discussed and that people are getting involved," she said. "I think we can agree that something needs to happen downtown and I think we all want what is best for the future of downtown and Statesville as a whole. I think it's an exciting plan."
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