Parking adviser studies Spa City

HOT SPRINGS — Paid parking should be where spaces are at a premium, consultants Hot Springs hired to develop a downtown parking management system said Thursday.

An analysis Walker Consultants conducted the evening of Sept. 10 showed high occupation rates for on-street spaces along north Central Avenue and along the Bathhouse Row section. None are paid spaces.

“Central Avenue is not paid parking, but some of the arterial streets off of Central are,” Jim Corbett, Walker’s director of municipal services, said at a public input session at the Hot Springs Convention Center. “We find that a little backwards.”

The city awarded Walker an $85,000 contract in August to develop a parking management system for downtown.

The firm will help write a request for proposals for a parking services vendor and determine rates needed to maintain the parking system and service debt for improvements.