Expect to pay to park when dining at favorite Friday night eateries downtown with an exception for City of Blue Ridge residents only.
Some Blue Ridge City council and downtown developmental authority (DDA) members were present for two town hall meetings, Wednesday, February 5, to inform citizens of how they plan to alleviate parking issues.
DDA Chairman Cesar Martinez said, “I’ve not been a proponent of paid parking downtown until we actually had solutions to get people to be able to park for free outside of downtown. Now we have some of those options.”
While it is not a done deal yet, Martinez said public areas of parking will be $5 for five hours and downtown parking will be $1 for the first hour then $2 per hour. Folks will have to “text to park,” rather than posting parking meters, and all monies will be directed toward improvements for the city.
“The locals are the ones who really don’t like paid parking,” Martinez said, “Tourists who are coming here are used to having to pay for parking, and those are the ones we’re trying to capture for those dollars.”
It is possible that 15 minute to 30 minute parking spots will be placed sporadically throughout the city, Mayor Donna Whitener said.
City of Blue Ridge residents will not be required to pay to park, however, since they pay an extra city tax that county residents do not pay, said Councilwoman Rhonda Haight.
Martinez also said the city plans to incorporate separate parking for downtown employees and business owners on both the north and south sides of town.
The Blue Ridge Runners are under the new ownership of Matt and Gina Draper, and they plan to provide service for folks who park in the free lots on the outskirts of town by running downtown for a fee. The amount is undecided at this time.
City resident John Suave said, “If anyone doesn’t realize how bad it is, they should come down Main Street at about 10 ‘til 10, and look at probably 60% of the spots are already filled, and you look and it’s Fannin, Fannin, Fannin, Fannin, and they stay there all day.”
One woman asked how the city will prevent employees, who are also city residents, from parking downtown all day for free in paid spots. Councilman Nathan Fitts said the businesses will have to enforce the rule.
Whitener said she thinks city residents would benefit from a golf cart ordinance as an alternate to coming downtown.
Additionally, talk of Mike Galinski’s property on Ada Street, beside Blue Jean’s Pizza, is expected to be used as parking.
The farmers market near the Swan Drive-In and the lot behind TruFitness will also be available.
Martinez said there are also some other options for parking, but they “can’t really talk about those in detail yet.”
Employees from Blue Ridge Dentistry told of issues they face with parking, mainly their handicap spaces being occupied all day by non-patients and tourists.
Whitener said the handicap parking can be resolved by incorporating timed parking and with law enforcement’s help.
The employees added that they don’t want their patients to have to pay to park when visiting their office.
Whitener said, “I think we can find a solution for those people that have those kind of frustrations.”
DDA Parking Committee Chair Brandon Lofton said, “We need your advice, your input, because you may think of things that we haven’t thought about, and I think that’s very important to use the collective to achieve that goal.”
Fitts added, “All of us have been working tirelessly, and when people complain I’m like, ‘If you’ve spent the number of hours we’ve all spent doing it, and you can come up with a better solution, we’ll praise you.’ ”