A group of downtown Little Rock property owners are thinking ahead about how to solve parking issues during peak business hours.
The Little Rock Board of Directors will vote tonight about whether to approve the creation of the Center Street Multi-Purpose Special Improvement District that aims to build a public parking garage downtown.
The details of the plan are still preliminary at best, including where the group would choose to build the garage, according to an attorney helping organize the district.
To form an improvement district, the majority of the property owners inside the proposed district must sign a petition agreeing to the terms and goals of the district.
The district commissioners then use appraisal records from the county appraiser’s office to levy an annual fee to all district members to pay for those goals.
Attorney Bob Hardin said Monday that the district for now would consist mainly of the property owners inside the Pyramid Building at Second and Center streets and the owners of the adjacent parking lot.
“This is really the first step in the process,” he said. “It’s really way too early to guess where the boundaries of the garage would be or any of those details or if a garage will be built. This is just a step in thinking about how to deal with the parking problem downtown.”
Little Rock city officials also have been looking into issues with parking downtown, specifically the River Market entertainment district, as have Central Arkansas Library officials, who have been having issues building a planned parking garage on Second and Rock streets because of utility concerns.
The two public entities partnered to consider building a 400-space parking garage between Cumberland Street and the First Security Amphitheatre in the River Market, on top of a piece of surface parking.
Several residents and business owners have rallied against the idea because of the nearby Riverfront Park, concerns about access to the bicycle trails and the impact the several-story garage would have on river views.
No formal proposal to build the River Market garage had been made as of Monday to the Board of Directors or to the Parks and Recreation Commission.
There are some advocates for public transportation and green development who argue that the city has plenty of parking spaces downtown.
Metroplan, a long-range regional transportation planning authority for Central Arkansas, has done several studies of parking in downtown Little Rock.
One recent study showed 226 surface parking spaces between Louisiana Street and Scott Street from Markham Street to Sixth Street.
Still, there are others who argue that making people walk several blocks in a developing area won’t attract the business patrons to make redevelopment successful because of perceived safety issues, weather and issues of convenience.
Meanwhile, the proposed Center Street improvement district garage doesn’t have a definite home, according to the petition to form the district, which was signed by the majority of property owners.
“The proposed district shall be organized for the purposes of constructing, operating, maintaining, purchasing, accepting as a gift, constructing, reconstructing, widening, extending, and operating off-street parking facilities either within the boundaries of the proposed district, or beyond the boundaries of the property in the proposed district to be benefited thereby,” according to the petition.
Hardin said the district would reach out to nearby property owners interested in being annexed into the improvement district to help with the garage.
If approved by the board tonight, the district’s commissioners will focus for now on creating a plan of development to file with the city, a step that has to be completed before fee assessments and collections can begin, Hardin said.
City Attorney Tom Carpenter said that plan will have to come back before the Board of Directors to show that the fee has been fairly levied, but approval tonight would allow that fee to be decided and collected.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 09/17/2013