Neighborhood’s parking options due more input

FAYETTEVILLE — Parking woes for a neighborhood south of Wilson Park will go through more rounds of public comment before a solution is found.

The City Council on Tuesday voted 8-0 to table a proposal addressing the parking situation until Nov. 5. The item will go before the council’s ordinance review committee before the next regular meeting. Mayor Lioneld Jordan said he also wanted to hold a town hall with neighbors and add the proposal to the neighborhood interest forum, which will meet Oct. 17.

Parking Manager Justin Clay presented four scenarios for the council to consider. The first would keep a block of Ila Street as-is, with residential parking permits available.

A second scenario would extend that program another block east on Ila, and also to two blocks going north-south on Vandeventer Avenue.

A third option would make the entire neighborhood, bordered by Louise Street to the north, Park Avenue to the east, Maple Street to the south and Wilson Avenue to the west, residential only.

A fourth option would let people who live in the neighborhood boundary park for free, but visitors would have to pay. Each property would have a limit to the number of residential and guest permits they could receive. Clay presented a possible formula involving using the square footage of the lot.

Neighbors and some council members worried that might give sorority houses in the neighborhood far more permits than the houses, which would effectively maintain the status quo.

“None of these things are in any way set in stone,” Clay said. “They are just concepts.”

Melinda Jones, an Ila Street resident, said some homes in the neighborhood don’t have driveways. Having a shared program could take away the ability of those property owners to park in front of their homes, she said.

The neighborhood shouldn’t be asked to solve the parking issues of the sorority houses, Jones said.

“The expansion of the sorority houses made happen a situation where there was not a plan in place to accommodate their parking needs, therefore they had to spill out onto our area,” she said. “They had nowhere else to go.”

Nine other neighbors also spoke, many expressing concerns about the shared option between residents and visitors.

Teresa Turk and Sarah Bunch said they supported making the neighborhood residential only. Five others expressed support for some kind of a shared system, although most wanted something different from what Clay proposed.

Mark Kinion suggested making the neighborhood its own parking district, separate from the entertainment district program.