Blue Ridge City Councilman Nathan Fitts challenged the public at a town hall meeting Wednesday, February 5, to “come up with a better solution and we’ll praise you.”
Fitts was referring to the ideas for paid parking put forth at the meeting. He was quick to say those in favor of paid parking had been “working tirelessly” on the project.
But the councilman made his comments with a host of questions left to be answered and without all the facts being revealed.
For example, why is the money that paid parking is said to generate needed and what will it be used for?
Downtown Development Authority (DDA) Chairman Cesar Martinez said money will be directed to improvements for the city.
What improvements? Fitts, who sits on the DDA, did not provide insight.
How will the initial costs of implementing paid parking be paid? There is no doubt the burden will land on city taxpayers.
Who will monitor/police the situation?
If the city’s secret plan for annexation is passed, the city police department will be stretched thin. If the department has to hire officers to concentrate on parking, will they be paid from the collections or will the burden be added to taxpayers?
If not the police, who will be responsible for monitoring and where will the funds come from?
When the challenge was raised of employees of local businesses parking downtown, Fitts’ solution was that business owners would have to enforce the rule against this. This is a pipe dream. Business owners have been asked to do this for years with no results. So what’s Fitts’ plan? To somehow penalize business owners?
Blue Ridge Dentistry employees raised a serious question over their patients having to pay to park.
The response from Mayor Donna Whitener was “I think we can find a solution.” That’s short sighted at best. If there is so much work already in a paid parking plan, this should already be solved.
This is just one of the professional services downtown that stands to lose patients or customers because of paid parking.
The city is counting on private individuals to create parking. This is poor planning. The city should not count on any such private/government arrangement working long term.
The comment was made that other options for parking are being considered, but those couldn’t be talked about yet.
Just like with the secrecy of the mayor and city council over annexation, way too many questions exist over paid parking plans.
Former city Councilwoman Angie Arp suggested paid parking years ago, and the idea hit a brick wall. There were reasons. This alone shows Fitts’ so-called countless hours haven’t come up with any answers, only more questions.